about to give up on cichlids

Question
So here's the background:

I first got a tank a little over a month ago, it had a jewel cichlid in it. The tank itself is a 20 gallon tall, I've put two large pieces of driftwood along with several large fake plants. My first attempt at a community failed. I put a benga, a ngara and a sailfin in there with the jewel, he killed both ciclids and started attacking the pleco.

I came to the conclusion that the jewel would not tolerate any tank mates so I traded him in for some other fish this last weekend. I brought home two bengas (one male, one female), a red peacock and a blue ahli.

Now there seems to be a lot of aggression towards the two bengas and i'm concerned that i will find them dead eventually too... Am I cursed or am I doing something wrong?

Answer
20 gallons isn't big enough for the cichlids you are trying to keep.

With that small a tank there will always be agression, they will always being fighting each other, and they will always be killing each other.


There are more peaceful cichlids you could keep in that tank though.

Bolivian rams, German blue rams, and kribensis to name a few.

Google "Dwarf Cichlid". All the joys of cichlids, except they don't dig up plants and they rarely hurt each other.