Same species different color varieties?

[HMarcks]

I currently have a 50gal community tank with one Synodontis petricola or Petricola synodontis (Donte) among other fish (for some reason I have drawn a blank on which is the species). I am in love with this fish and have tried to keep more of them in the tank but the others always die. I think it is becasue they cant deal with fighting over food with my zebra loaches, siamese algea eaters, and my fat dalmation molly. So they just seem to get weak and die. So I decided that Donte needed his own home with mainly his own kind. He is a lake Tanganyika cat fish and I have read he can be kept with no problems with cichlids. So I have a small 20gal tank I plan on turning into his new home. I have been doing alot of research and decided that Lamprologus ocellatus would be a good tank mate for my future Dontes.
To get to the point I have found reference and pictures of a few different color varieties of this cichlid but I haven't read or seen anything about different varieties being housed together. I thought it would be more interesting if I had two color varieties. Is this a no no?

 

[Orion]

This may work. I've not kept the petricola, but they are a great catfish. I would watch for the syno tring to run the occies out of their shells or bullying them around much especially since they both will be on the bottom of the tank and not venture very far from it.

A larger tank would work out better in the long run, and it would also allow you to add more fish from Tanganyika for a more diverse community setup. Not sure if this is right for you at the moment, but something to keep in mind for the future maybe.

As far as the different color's of the occies that's really the only difference as far as I know. It's the same species, just more than likely a different collection point. You can house them togeather.

 

[HMarcks]

Yeah I was a little concerned about them both being bottom dwellers, I'll keep an eye on them and make sure they play nice. I can't wait till I get it going now Thanks for the help