These fish are herbivores and will eat just about any live plant. If you insist on having live plants you might try thick leafed plants such as amazon swords. A person could write a whole article on how to obtain a breeding pair of synspilums. If you check back issues of this magazine in Masi's library, you can catch up on the series of articles that gives many hints on ways to obtain a breeding pair and how to induce or encourage the spawning of most new world cichlids. Now assuming you have a male and a female, they may start breeding once they have reached an adult stage.
Males are bigger than females and often have nuchal humps.
The female seemed to initiate the locking of their mouths and the male would often back away after a few minutes of pushing and pulling. You must provide some type of surface for your fish to lay eggs on. They may dig through the gravel and lay their eggs on the bottom of the tank. Some people provide large flat pieces of slate for the fish to lay eggs on, but I prefer to provide large clay flower pots. This not only provides a surface for eggs, but also allows a hiding place for the female if the male gets too aggressive.