I somewhat agree with Blair. I would avoid Rams or Apistos for your first non-African cichlid more for the reason that they're harder to breed. They need lower PH water and more diligent/close attention to raise the fry successfully...which I was never very good at...and I didn't have as many tanks at the time as you do...also ram/apisto parents like to eat the eggs more often than Africans (mouthbrooding Africans, that is), so you end up having to raise the fry with bubblers and meth blue and all that fun process. If you go for rams, get german blue not golds or electric blue because it is much easier to sex german blue rams/wild type.
You tried pink convicts successfully, right? I still have the pair I swapped to you and you swapped back to me.
My wife won't let me get rid of them. Anyway, Thoricthhys meeki (firemouths) and ellioti or maculipinnis are both really easy to breed, like the convicts. That is, once you get a pair, which can be a little tricky sexing them until full grown. Honduran Red Points - closer to wild, not some of the crossbred ones with convict blood - are good choices and really pretty as well - bright blue with red tings on the fins/tail. IIRC Mike Zebrowski has some nice ones.
If you want small + egg layer + pretty, kribensis could be a really good choice. That's a West African fish. They were my first cichlid, though not the first one I bred. They successfully bred in my oddball tank with hungry fry predators like synos and bichirs/knives/leaf fish. A pair could easily go in a 20g for a year or even life. Their only quirk is that PH affects sex ratio of the fry, but if you're doing this more for fun it won't matter if you get all males or all females (PH above 7 = more males, below 7 = more females, I think).
Give us some more specific criteria and we can make better suggestions.
