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