This tank has 7 Hemichromis lilafi (I think there are 3 females and 4 males), who are all about 3" long. They're supposed to be fairly aggressive. We kept the males and females separated until they were almost 3" long because they were beating each other up. We had them in two different tanks, but then we moved them to the same 20 gallon tank, using a divider to keep them apart. A few months later, we noticed that there were the wrong number of fish on each side... they had snuck across and all was well, so we removed the divider. We gave them lots of hiding places and plants (some fake, some living). That seemed to do the trick. They are moody like cichlids often are and hide much of the time, but they don't seem to fight with each other anymore.

We added a light to the tank when we moved the goldfish into their pond. I think it's important that fish have a somewhat natural day and night cycle. They are still mostly brownish, although they look like a smoldering brown - there is a hard-to-describe reddish overtone to their bodies. I look forward to seeing them as adults.

Note: Here is a small blurry photo of an adult Hemichromis lilafi, in case you're wondering what they look like. The Baench Atlases have some AWESOME photos of this species, with young.