Sad to hear you changed out the inhabitants. Those were some gorgeous Fronts and the Synodontis was flat out AWSOME. I have a theory as to why your fish ignored the plants in the tank, but demolished new ones when added. When I had my cichlid tank up, I had a mix of Malawi and Tanginikan cichlids. Mine pretty much did the same thing, except I didnt have plants. Whenever there are pre existing objects in the tank, the fish seem to view EVERYTHING as teritorial markers and dont touch them. Also, they (almost) never bothered "old tenants". Thats one of the reasons I used each spieces approximate aggresion lvl to stock the tank. More peacefull fish went in first, then as I added fish, the species added were considered a bit more aggressive. worked well most of the time, but, unfortunately, I got a fluke coward compresscicep who was constantly forced into a small corner of the tank. Most of the time Comp's are pretty bold (there egg stealers designed to sneak in, eat eggs, all the while turning there sides, pretty much armored, to the adults for protection). Was actually thinking of trying a planted cichlid tank before I decided to go planted community tank, but I REALLY didnt want to try to explain why the big fish were eating the little fish.... (feeders, NOT goldfish, but gutloaded, tank raised live bearers...feeder fish= BAD)
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