Help new cichild tank with pecock eel

[Kayfer]

I just started a African cichild tank . I cycled it first.. I have a 47 gallon tall tank with 9 cichlids an algae eater and a peacock eel. The lady at petsmart said this was okay as long as I get a bigger tank in a couple months .Also at petsmart she told me the peacock eel ate tropical fish flakes, and i look it up later and find that's not true... So now im kind of questioning everything she told me... are these fish all allowed together in this size tank? But My main question Is can feed the eel and cichild live bloodworms? If they make a conallany will the cichilds overfeed ?

 

[SherLar]

It isn't very imaginative, but we call Petsmart "PetSTUPID." I've never heard an employee of any Petsmart give good advice.
While peacock eels can indeed be kept in a community tank, provided it has the right companions, I don't see it doing well in a cichlid tank. They prefer densely planted setups, either live or artificial, to begin with, and cichlid tanks typically are low on vegetation.
Peacock eels are carnivorous, so flakes caren't going to cut it. It will do much better with bloodworms, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, even insects. Unfortunately, your cichlids (I'm going to assume you have Malawi African cichlids) need much less protein and much higher vegetation in their diet, or you run a strong chance of your cichlids developing bloat, which will kill them.
IMO, rehome either the eel, and go with only cichlids; or rehome the cichlids, and get better community fish to house with your eel.