Aquarium fish suggestions needed

Gosh, it's been so long since I've had a freshwater aquarium! When I did have one, it was planted and I had tons of Cardinal Tetras in it. I think I also had some scissortails, hatchets and 2 tinfoil barbs. Pencil fish are cool too!

Personally, I'd go with a light stocking (I'm not a big fan of the frenzy tank).
 
How's this:
 
5 Oto catfish
5 Smaller Cory species (bronze, panda, etc)
10-12 small tetras (I really like glow-lights, pencile fish, or cardinals)
2 Kuhli Loaches
maybe a m/f air of peaceful cichlids? Apistogramma and Mikrogeophagus are usually a good way to go, though make sure the tank has no trace of nitrite or ammonia or they'll get sickly. Possibly angelfish, but they might eat smaller tetras as adults and can be semi-aggressive.  If not on the cichlids, perhaps 1-2 dwarf gourami, 2-3 female bettas, or one male betta? Or even a couple male mollies (no females unless you like baby mollies [])
Then, possibly some inverts:
Malaysian trumpets are a fav. of mine and hide in the substrate during the day
4-6Amano Shrimp (excellent green hair algae eaters!)
 
I would avoid some that you used to have due to size, activity, social nature or combination:
Bala Sharks -12'' and a shoaling fish
Clown loachs (same as balas)
Tinfoils (same as balas)
Leporinus- 12''
Rainbow and Red-tails can get nasty tempered (although certainly not all)
 

A good addition to go along with some fish mentioned above... keyhole cichlids. I have 6 that I bought from NY over a year ago. I've been trying to get a breeding pair, and ended up getting two breeding pairs. Now it's time to trade some to the store. But they have gotten along with everything so far. A somewhat non-aggressive species of cichild.
 
I loved my tiger barbs. I've heard horror stories about them terrorizing other fish, but I kept 4, and they never bothered the others. My pakastani loaches were more aggressive than them. Oh yeah, that's a good addition too. I have three pakastani loaches in my 30 gallon show, and they are neat to watch. They chase each other around, and play most of the time. Rarely do they sit and do nothing.
 
These are the only good pictures I have at work of the loaches. And they aren't too good... But you can see their pretty markings. And the one bigger fish is my male Keyhole.
 

ORIGINAL: pumaward

I would avoid some that you used to have due to size, activity, social nature or combination:
Bala Sharks -12'' and a shoaling fish
Clown loachs (same as balas)
Tinfoils (same as balas)
Leporinus- 12''
Rainbow and Red-tails can get nasty tempered (although certainly not all)

 
Yes, the Leporinus got WAY too big, but my across-the-street neighbor (and good pet owner) had several larger tanks, so I rehomed him with her, and he did great there.
 
I had my rainbow shark for a very long time, and he was pretty even tempered. I guess I got lucky.
 
How about Blue Rams? Could they fit into the crew you suggested?
 
Brett had Blue Rams in his tank years ago, but that tank died when I was painting the ceiling at his house. He kept the tank on a large desk, and because we couldn't move the tank, we moved the desk to the middle of the room. I tried to work around it, but at one point, I *had* to stand on the desk. The next thing I knew, the desk was flipping over, the ladder was falling, and I had to jump off and over the desk to avoid falling through the window. After all that, I landed in just enough time to say, "Oh *@&!" and watch the tank crash to the ground. We were able to save the Blue Rams, though. They had to live in a large pickle jar with a bubble wand until we got a new tank the next day.

ORIGINAL: hlb118

I've heard horror stories about them terrorizing other fish, but I kept 4, and they never bothered the others. My pakastani loaches were more aggressive than them. Oh yeah, that's a good addition too. I have three pakastani loaches in my 30 gallon show, and they are neat to watch.
 

 
 
Brett also had Tiger Barbs, and they terrorized everyone in the tank.
 
I had a Pakastani loach before. I loved that little guy. He was always on the go!

How about Blue Rams? Could they fit into the crew you suggested?

 
Most certainly... Bolivian rams as well if you want something slightly more hardy (although not as pretty) FYI, that's where the Mikrogeophagus came from (genus name for both rams[]). IME, they do better in slightly warmer water... 80-84F.

Well, I added some fish. The water properties are still good, although it's cloudy today. Here's what I added recently:
 
Flame Dwarf Gourami
Blue Gourami
Opaline Gourami
Neon Dwarf Gourami
Golden Gourami (can you tell I like Gouramis lol)
3 Spotted Cory Cats
5 Zebra Danio
5 Glo-LIte Tetras
5 Black Neon Tetras
6 Neon Tetras
3 Silver Mollies
3 Dalmation Mollies
5 Ghost shrimp
2 Pictus Catfish
Dojo Loach
Male Betta
 
I couldn't find any Cardinal tetras, which I prefer to Neons. I'm sure one of the two small local et stores that specialize in fish have them, but since Petsmart and Petco moved into the areas, they loss some of their business and started selling puppies, and I really don't lsupport that (yet I shop at Petsmart and Petco, who both sell small animals, so I guess that makes me a hypocrit). Anyway...45 fish total, but the tank actually looks empty. I think I need some orange/red colors in there. Thus far, I haven't lost anyone so *knock on wood.*

I think your tank is fully stocked at this point []... possibly overstocked.
 
Personally, I'd return the opaline, blue(unless its a dwarf gourami) and golden gourami gourami (collectively known as 3-spots), they get bigger than the other gouramis/betta and will likely beat up on them as they are all labyrinth fish, which are territorial by nature, (I learned the hard was with 3-spots in a 75g).
 
Also, IMHO, if you like cardinals more than neons, be patient. Wait for something you like [].

For some fishy talk...take a look at our other forum
[linkhttp://forum.fish.com]http://forum.fish.com[/link]
 
It was a little rough with younger posters in the beginning but has become a decent area with some good content and a few experienced helpers.
 
If you check it out let me know what you think

BETTAS RULE! They are THE fish as far as I'm concerned [].
 
I've never successfully kept them with other fish (rank amateur me btw) and I won't try again lol...not a male anyhow...I've seen them get shattered fins simply from swimming too fast due to current from the filter...poor things.
 
Every other fish...even the danios recommended to me via the web nipped fins on the male bettas. I keep my boys alone...right now we don't have one but we do have a 10gal tank which I want to put one into. The last one we had succumbed to dropsy. Prior I've had them live 3-7 years, alone.
 
They have such neat little fishy personalities, Bettas. []

I started out with neons, black mollies, various types of tetras, platys.  I would stay away from the barb family since they tend to be nasty.  If you have any further questions we have a fish forum at fish.com.
 
Thanks.

ORIGINAL: marlania

Anyway...45 fish total, but the tank actually looks empty. I think I need some orange/red colors in there. Thus far, I haven't lost anyone so *knock on wood.*

 
Marlania, thats alot of fish to dump into a tank all at once. You will need to keep a very close eye on your levels in the tank. I would be checking every day for about 2 weeks. The tank won't have the bacteria levels to be able to handle all that waste at once. If its all still good in 2 weeks then you shoudl be safe. I wouldn't add anymore until then though, then only a few at a time.
 
Good luck with it, I have two tanks to set back up from scratch at Christmas when I'm on holidays, its the only time I will have to set up a marine tank.