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im going to put 2 pairs of cons in the 55g im gettting this weekend. sound ok

that should be fine. to be honest, even if they breed, in a tank that size you could get away with a few extra fish, like a decent sized plec for clean-up and a school of tough dither fish.
otherwise it might all look a bit bare unless you plan to raise a colony of fry.

I agree with poisson. That tank is pretty big for two pairs. Even if they like to nuke each other's territory, I doubt that much damage could be done. It'll be nice to add a nice school of dithers, probably silver dollars as they are small. Large congos are pretty good also, as they are pretty quick and about the same size as the cons.

I think silver dollars in a school would take up too much room. Danios might be a better choice.

Two pairs of cons in a 55 with a pl*co and some dither fish would be nice. But be warned to get really fast fish to act as dithers, breeding cons are relentless in protecting their brood. They will kill anything that seems to be a threat. I made the mistake of putting an oscar in with a pair of cons. The oscar was beaten to bits by two 4 inch fish. This was a 12" oscar not a little one. I saw the same thing happen at a lfs in a 250 gallon display tank. These fish are among the smaller central american cichlids but when breeding can easily decide that an entire 55 gal or for that matter even a 250 gal is their territory.

Are cons convicts or something else?

Thanks, Mike

Cons are short for convict cichlids.

Just make sure it's not a common pleco, probably go for a bristlenose.