Cichlids and Mollies- Need help. READ ALL. Pictures included.?

Question

I have a 55 gallon tank. It contains 3 Pleco's, 4 Cory panda's, 4 Mollies, 4 Golden apple snails and I just added 6 cichlids.

Someone told me that there should not be Cichlids in the tank because they're not compatible because of the water hardness.

They're not agressinve towards each other, I probably "saved" them. (They were 10 Cichlids kept in a 10 gallon with 5 half-grown Angelfish and three Mollies, at WAL-MART).

So my questions are:

#1 What type of Cichlids are they, I know I have two different ones:

First the Yellow one: http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t17/kKreuz/My%20fish/snails215.jpg

Second the more Red one: http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t17/kKreuz/My%20fish/snails220.jpg

#2 I heard that the water hardness will make them incompatible. What is the correct water hardness?

#3 Is there ANY way I could keep them or is it a lost cause?

#4 Could I use Ciment pieces as rocks? (I already have rocks, but ciment pieces would be great because they're flatter and bigger).

Here's the link to the "fish" photo album if you need more pictures:

http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t17/kKreuz/My%20fish/

There is 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, PH is at 7.6, Hardness is 80, Alkalinity is 70.

Answer 1

Fish in first photo  Yellow Lab, Fish in second photo cherry zebra. Lake Malawi cichlid Hard water. Their compatible with each other but not with molly or corys.

Lost cause

Cement pieces will leach lime into water changeing PH

I forgot they love snails.

Don't forget those cichlids will get about 5 inches long when growen., allot larger than mollys

http://www.timstropicals.com/Compatibili...

Answer 2

i dont know about water hardness but i learned when setting up our 55 gallon tank that cichlids are not community fish. they are aggresive and shouldnt be in a community tank.  

Answer 3

you cannot keep them together , the 2  kinds of cichlids you have are mbuna malawi cichlids the yellow ones are labidochromis a.k.a. yellow labs and the others arepseudotropheus a.k.a.  red zebras, they like alkaline water, and temp 76 to 79 degrees. ph should be a tor above 8.2

also they may not be agressive yeyt but they will become so and kill the mollys and eat the snail they love snails, but their also wonderful fish i love cichlids i would keep them and get rid of the others.

if you do decide to keep them then you need to crowd the tank to keep down agression. you can have 10 - 15 cichlids in a 55 gallon aquarium

the 1 inch per gallon rule does not apply to these kind of cichlids

.

also you can keep the plecs but a synodontis catfish would be better

there are also several diffrent kinds of malawi mbuna cichlids you can have a great variety in colore and their not schooling fish so you don't have to have 6 of the same exact species i have 2- 55 gallon aquariums

with cichlids they are beautiful..