I recently setup an african tank, mostly malawi but i got 3 Tanganyika Frontosa and so far they mix together very nicely...

You should over crowd the fish, im on about 15 right now and i need about 3-5 more to really prevent any crazy aggression.... my list of fish is

4 Yellow labs
1 red zebra
1 albino zebra
1 livingstoni
1 venestus
3 frontosas
2 femestratus
1 compressiceps
1 blue peacock

i know im missing a few, but these guys are good so far, my red zebra is def the king of the tank.


as far as substrate, i went with a crushed coral, i went white with a dark blue backround, i was thinking about using pool filter sand because of the look by the crushed coral keeps my PH up as well as its easy to clean... Pool filter sand looks really natural and the fish will love it but as they get bigger the crushed coral will not hurt them as they dig... as far as the white goes the fish are really bright in my tank, their colors really show, as soon as i put them in i noticed a huge difference from the LFS to my tank...i cleand the hell out of it because when they start digging they will kick up particles and clog the filter, which is the problem with sand not so much crushed coral...