Community tank and 1 guppy - what fish to add?

[sonicboom]

Hi, I've a 35 gallon tank, and about 1 or 2 years ago I lost a lot of fish to disease (I think bacterial / columnaris), but everything seems good now. My tank has these fish:

1 x bistlenose pleco
5 x harlequin rasbora (1 female to 4 male)
8 x corydoras matae (3 adults, 5 young)
3 x khuli loaches
1 x otocinclus
1 x male guppy

The tank contains sand, bogwood, caves and is pretty heavily planted, and has sponge filters only. pH around 7.0. I plan to up the numbers of the rasbora, khuli loaches and otos. My corys have been breeding and have increased in numbers over the last 6 months. I was also hoping for centrepiece fish, and am thinking about 4 honey gourami, 2 apistogramma, or maybe not bother if it'll complicate things.

The male guppy is new to my tank - he was by himself in someone's tank which wasn't kept properly. I am not sure if I should add in more male guppies only, or add in 3 female guppies. I don't want to be overrun by guppies if they breed and fry survive, and I'm not sure how much I should be worried about that? When I add the fish I plan, without the centrepiece fish, it's pretty much fully stocked.

Thanks

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Don't add any females if you don't want to be overwhelmed with fry. If you don't want to keep guppies long term, then don't get more males either. Your singleton has the company of other fish now at least, but if you keep buying more for the sake of company, then you're stuck with guppies you don't really want, forever. At some point, one has to be the last one.
I inherited a tank with unsuitable fish for our water, plus just the few scattered remains from much larger schools of tetra, which is why I have one cardinal, one black neon, three glowlight tetra, and two guppies left. These fish have hung on for years now! But it makes no sense to get a school of a fish I don't want to keep, to put it in the wrong water as well. These fish are too elderly to join a school of youngsters easily either, and anyone around here is almost certainly using the same water anyway. Better to let them stay together where they've lived out their lives until they pass, rather than keep the cycle going for the sake of it.

 

[Morganna]

For centerpiece, if they matched your water params, I've heard good things about pearl gouramis and bolivian rams.
For schooling fish, I'm going to agree with @AdoraBelle Dearheart.
I guess if you wanted you could always stock up on more kuhli loaches, I hear they are more active and comfortable when there are more of them.