When it comes to African cichlids and other types of aquarium fish it is not a good idea to put them together in the same tank. Even though cichlids look beautiful and harmless, they are very aggressive fish and they will harass and kill foreign fish and even fish of their own species. So to save you time and money I recommend that you never put other tropical fish in with African cichlids, because even aggressive tropical fish will not have a chance against them. They are just plain mean when it comes to other fish especially if they are breeding cichlids.
You can keep in your tank any type of cichlid species found in Lake Malawi but you don't want to ever mix South American cichlids and African cichlids together! You must only choose one or the other, you cannot mix different regions together because it will prove to be disastrous!
But you may be wondering, how do I keep my tank free of algae, can I put in a bottom feeder fish or an algae cleaner with my cichlids? My recommendation on this subject is
from what I have done with experience. I have had good success with an apple snail and a rather large Plecostomus. My cichlids are curious with the apple snail but they never harm him. My Pleco is big, has thick skin and spines so he doesn't get picked on very often. But there are times when they like to try and mess with him, but he gets sick of them and darts at them and they take off and they then leave him alone for awhile. But their curiosity gets the best of them at times and they will go through the same process again but each time my Pleco lets them know they better back off. My snail and Pleco do a great job of keeping my tank clean.
If you want to keep a peaceful community of cichlids it is best that you also do some research about the temperament of each kinds of cichlids. You can keep Lake Malawi cichlids from Africa together in an aquarium, but there are certain species that are more aggressive than others and there are some that are more peaceful cichlids. You may want to add only passive, or non-aggressive, cichlids together. For example, Rusty Cichlids are peaceful and non-territorial and so are Electric Yellow Labs. Pseudotropheus demasoni and Dinghani are also very mild-mannered. They are all diverse in color and similar in size and can make for a very good mix of beautiful fish.
Follow the links on my site that points to African Mbuna Cichlids and I list them by size and temperament. You can use this as a guide to help you pick cichlids for your tank. Just remember that when it comes to cichlids and other fish, you don't want to mix them with other tropical fish. Read more about African cichlids...