Mark Henry wrote:
Hello everyone!

Well, my 55 gallon has finished cycling and the plants have all settled
in for the long haul. So, there I was at my LFS looking at their
selection of cichlids. Funny thing was, other than a few very obvious
ones (Oscars, Convicts, Jack Dempseys, Parrots, Fire Mouth - these all
had their own tanks) most were housed in a large 20gal tank and labelled
"Misc Sm-Med Cichlids".

Well, I looked through the Lexicon and can't find a listing for
Cichlidicus Miscilaneous, so I'm trying to figure out if these little 1"
- 1 1/2" sized guys are going to be compatible when they "grow up".
Other than walking in with a picture book and IDing each and every one
(which may not be possible given their current age and size) are there
any suggestions on how to do this?

Likely these are African rift lake cichlids, most like from Lake Malawi.
As a generalized whole, they tend to be nasty in attitude when grown,
although it's certainly doable to have them in a 55 gallon provided you do
the background research. This means identifying the fish. Several books on
rift lake cichlids (and websites too) will show both the juvenial and
adult colorations, to help in the identification.

Personally, I'd look around at other LFS and see if any of them have a
better selection of cichlids. There's several LFS with good cichlid
sections within 30 miles of my current location and I live in a small
college town. Look for ones have mostly labeled tanks of cichlids and not
the "mixed" tanks (or only a couple of these tanks with many more labeled
tanks). If that doesn't pan out, there's always the option of ordering
fish online or finding a local aquarium society which can put you in touch
with a breeder.