Starting out with Africans

[Jutney]

I have bought a second-hand Juwel Vision 260 (4ft) and I really want to set up an African cichlid tank. So far I have coarse-ish white beachsand which has been rinsed multiple times, a selection of rocks, heaters and filter (the stock Juwel filter) running and a couple of danios (borrowed from my community tank) in there cycling the tank for the last couple of months.

Should I start with buying fry and growing them out? I'm presuming that will be cheaper. Should I start with say yellows and dems? In which order? And how many of each? I'm completely new to Africans but want to start this slowly and do it right! Any advice gladly received !

[Scarletmonuka]

the dem yellow mix is really popular it seems. If I were you id be getting them young as I think its more rewarding watching them grow. got to have a big mob of Dems (10 as a minimum) as they are aggressive towards each other. I don't know how much filtration the standard stock filter will have but I would think you'd want to get an external canister filter as well as the more filtration the betting and the more fish you can keep.

[kinnadian]

I would put some crushed coral and coral rock in there as well, it helps raise the pH slightly that africans prefer.

Growing out fry will be cheaper, but don't go overkill in that tank.

10 labs & 10 demasoni will be a good starting point, you can add another 10 average-sized africans from there (typically 2x5 groups).

As fry you can add both at the same time. Labs will always be placid, demasoni will get aggressive within their own species so if you have enough (ie 10) the aggression is shared around.

I've always gotten juvenile fish because fry are more prone to dying and honestly not that much more than fry.

In my opinion you will need an external filter, as Scarletmonuka said, built in filters aren't great.