Centerpiece Fish For Active Communities?

[Shifty1303]

Heya all!
 
I am looking for ideas for centerpiece fish for a rather active tank after ruling things like gouramis and rams out due to the energetic nature of my community. am struggling atm!
 
the tank:
 
volume 200l/52Gal
temp 25C
pH 7.0-7.5
ammonia and nitrite always 0
nitrate always <30 rarely above 15ppm
 
moderate current, well planted, natural wood decor and sand substrate (can post pics if needed)
 
inhabitants:
 
11 black ruby barbs
5 panda cory
1 peppered cory
1 bronze cory
 
will be adding around 10 praecox rainbows soon along with more corys of each type until i have around 12-15 total
 
 
lastly i would like a centrepiece fish or a pair of fish so has anyone got good suggestions as to what would work with these lively tank mates? 
 
thanks!
Shifty

 

[the_lock_man]

I would say that your proposed stocking, to include the dwarf neon rainbowfish, would be pretty much your maximum.
 
If you were to restrict yourself to increasing the panda population to 11 or 12, you could just about have 2 or 3 male swordtails, but you would have to keep well on top of water changes, as I would say that nitrate would build up pretty quickly with that level of stocking.

 

[Byron]

I agree that there is no room after the additions planned now.  In my view, the barbs and rainbows are it for the upper levels, with the corys for the lower.
 
"Centrepiece fish" is something regularly asked about, but the fact is that most tanks are not spacious enough to manage these when there are shoaling fish present.  The latter have traits that do not always suit "centrepiece" fish; these tend to be more sedate by nature, while the former (the shoalish species) tend to be more active, and this is where the space issue factors in to the equation.
 
Byron.