CA stocking ideas for a 4ftX2ftX2ft tank

[Jai'galaar]

Hi guys, new guy here.
I have a 4ftX2ftX2ft tank as mentioned in the title and I was wondering about some stocking ideas. I mainly look for CA cichlids since my tapwater is pretty hard and alkaline.
The tank is currently housing a 6" male Nicaraguan cichlid. Unfortunately I'm not a big fan of keeping single fish of a species so first and foremost I'm hoping to get a mate for him, but the question is that can I put anything else in there with them?
I was thinking about something medium sized but it seems that most of the 8"-ish species are pretty crazy, although I don't have too much experience with them. In the past I kept a young pair of salvinis in the tank with other cichlids, including aforementioned veteran nicaraguense. It was surprisingly manageable tho but eventually they got rehomed before becoming full grown so I dunno about this. The other 8"-10" species have an intimidating reputation too so I'm kinda curious about your opinions.

 

[jonclark96]

I am a big fan of centrarchus. They don't get quite as big as other CAs and i have not experienced a lot of aggression in the groups that i have kept over the years. That said, multiple pairs of fish in a 4 foot tank is always a crap shoot.

 

[Acara19]

If you'd like multiple pairs, you could do a colony of amatitlania, cryptoheros, or thorichthys. Tangled up in cichlids has a good variety of amatitlania right now, Ken Davis (fishfarmusa@comcast.net) has a good variety as well. If you would like to be biotope accurate with the hypsophrys, I'd buy a group of Lago nicaragua convicts from Ken Davis. I would offer pairs of nicoya convicts but unfortunately I only have males right now (in case you want those)