Cichlids can live for 10+ years!!! I personally wouldnt consider JDs aggressive either, they are IMO med. aggressivness, no where near the heavyweights like red devils, dovii etc!!!!
One JD would be fine as a specimen fish, have quiet a few customers who have some LARGE cichlids in 3ft+ tanks, more like a pet!!!
All "aggressive" fish are only like this because they need a large territoty, if your tank is big enough they should be OK.....
Corys. should be fine if you get the cichlids 2" they should ignore them, might be a prob. if the cichlids decide to spawn then there could be trouble!!!! maybe go for brochius cats get 3"+ and are similar to corys.

Never heard of a yellow firemouth!!!! Prob, a relative or else a hybrid, i hope not though!!!!

tank floor is about 4ft by almost two I think. lots of places to hide at moment, but think when they get bigger I'll have to make the hide outs bigger. mayb I'll think ahead when I re-plant.

How many can I fit in at moment with out having chaos? How many then when they get bigger? If some are kept as specimen fish do they colour aswell as those who get the change to breed, or will it come as they age??

They in two foot by one foot at moment. one blue acara has established an area it likes to have for its self. the rest seem o.k. the cichlosoma spil. seem more shy, but don't hide away too much either. Blue acara definately have figured out who feeds them. If I put my face up they swim right infront of me, only other fish I have that do it to same extent are paradise.Big fan of my blue acara at the moment!! noticed one has little bit of white stuff around it's 'vent'. any idea what this is? looks goey, rather than hard.

10 years is a great return for your money!

not fond of hybrids, might stay away from yellow firemouths. Is the yellow convict a trade made hybrid, or does it exist in wild?? is there any other vivid yellow cichlids I could include??still discovering

Bristlenose are fine in a high PH with Cichlids, been keeping them together for years along with other S.American plec's. They won't breed in hard water tough and certainly never in a PH of 8.0. But they will live happily. The Syno is fine too, I find they make great tank mates with Cichlids. I would recomend for medium size fish Sajica (T bar Cichlids), Rainbow Cichlids, firemouths etc. Medium sized great looking fish. If you want to go with smaller fish you can try Apistogramma, Geophagus etc. Be careful if you choose to mess around with PH and Hardness, I wouldnt bother unless you plan on breeding.

staying clear of apistos and geophagus. apistos seem to like ph lower than 7, as mine is over 8, it would be alot of work. have seen few types and I'm not as impressed, as other people seem to be. I do like the look of them, just not for my tank. geophagus, seem to be known as earth eaters, so what ever chance my plants would have with acara etc. don't think they'd have much with a geo.

Do you have rainbows? I have read the aquarium breed ones have lost the colours of the wild ones? is this right??

have one bristle on her own, but seems to hang out with mystery syno alot. other mystery syno is a bit of a loner. but the three of them are some of the first fish I got and are doing well, although very shy and hardly ever seen.

will add CO2 in near future but only for few hours a day, will be careful to do build it up slowly. may get my RO up and running too, but will only be using alittle of it to make water a little softer. have looked at the hardness levels for fish i have at moment and it seems too high, even for the cichlids. my tap water is at a hardness of 24 and they seem to do a max of 20. So as much as I don't want to be messing with water, I don't want to have flicking fish that turn in stressed fish and then sick fish.

What SA plecos do you keep??

I keep at the moment 2 "Leopard cactus pleco" or "Orange trimmed Pleco) L114/LDA07 Pseudacanthicus leopardus. I also have 4 ancistrus cuiabae, 2 LDA01 - Panaque sp. (L169), and 1 ancistrus temmincki. I'm trying to get my hands on Pseudacanthicus sp. (L025)the "Scarlet Pleco", stunning fish. I'd be very suprised if your tap water was too hard for African Cichlids, Remember Tangyanikans like it harder then Malawi. My African cichlid tank is full of absurdly hard water with a PH of 8.2 and they are fine, breed like crazy and show great colours.