Which fish?

[missourigrl]

A few years ago I had a 37 gallon freshwater tank set up with some Gouramis and it did quite well. I haven't had it set up since we moved 3 years ago and I'm thinking about setting it back up again. I would like a small variety of fish that are easy to take care of. What would you recommend?

Thanks.

[kimmers318]

First considerations I would look at is your tap water chemistry. You may have had a ph/hardness level in your previous water that worked well for your gourami's, but if you are living somewhere with much harder water now, you may not have as much luck. There are ways to lower your hardness and ph, but that is not as easy as using tap water....trust me, been there done that!
Having said that, my personal experiences have been good with corydora, the smaller tetras (neons, golds, glolites), platies, dwarfpuffers, sparkling and dwarf gourami's. Oto's don't like me at all...my clown loaches have an early demise, although I still have 2 around (keeping fingers crossed), didn't enjoy my kribs as much as I thought I would. One of my favorites in my community tank is my bolivian ram, Sissy, who is an oddball in there....but gets along great with everyone. He was planned for the krib tank, that also had german blue rams, but got the snot kicked out of him so he ended up relocating! As tank space opens up, I may transfer him somewhere else and get him a few buddies of his own species. He is a very placid always in the front fish who appears to always be thanking me for taking him away from the meanies :)
Once you decide what direction you might want to take ask around, you will find people with experiences from many different fish and can go from there!

[William]

kimmers gives good advice but I always think one should mention livebearers such as guppy, platy and swordtails as good beginner fish.