best plants for african cichlids

Which africans? You will have better luck with carnivores than herbivores or omnivores. And probably the #1 roadblock is the fish eating the plants (yes even the carnivores).

Depending on the light and substrate you are willing to provide, anubias and java fern might be #1. And crypts and swords might be #2.

any specific type of anubias or java fern? or will any kind do?

Pretty much any kind of java fern. The anubias, go with the less expensive types to start, like barteri coffeefolia or barteri nana.

ok. thanks for the help

I am finding trouble with giant val and my cichlids. In a tank of small yellow labs and small hongi, with rainbow cichlids mixed in, they are all eating the val. When snails eat the leaves and damage them, the cichlids grab parts and strip them off to eat.

I have had great luck with java fern. Decent luck with vals-When I deployed my wife didn't do the upkeep and most of them died but when i was here had good luck with them. Java moss works ok-started with two clumps that slowly disintegrated and spread throughout my tank...now I have random thin patches of java moss on the rockwork which is fine by me.

My best so far has been the java ferns. They grow well, send off runners like crazy...seems like every week I am pullling one or two "babies" off my koralia.

I have had best luck leaving the roots fully exposed, and tying them to rocks. My (haps, aulonocara, pundamillia and astatotilapia) leave them alone for the most part. They are more interested in some of the detritus around the roots