well, what's your local water stats like? there are a lot of cool fish that have picky tastes like that... as for swordtails, i always dig the neon ones.
i personally am starting to hold the opinion that tanks look best with a dominant bottom dweller (like a small cichlid pair/trio), about two plecs or a large shoal of cories, then large groups of no more than 3 species of mid-/top-dwellers. i think a few key groups adds a bolder "flavor" to a tank--you really notice the fish that way.
alternatively, you could go with a dominant top-dwelling pair (angels or large gourami), large groups of about two species mid-/top-dwellers, then a group of cories, a group of smaller loaches, and a fancy plec.
the key is to balance your stocking so that you have space for your most dominant/aggressive species. cichlids with loaches, cories and plecos leads to beat up cories & loaches. gouramis with mollies, platies and tetras leads to beat up platies & tetras.
before i make any further suggestions, go read this EXCELLENT topic on selecting fish.
so, some basic suggestions:
beyond the common Rift Lake Cichlids, thre many other biotopes to consider such as Amazon, African River, S.East Asian, Australian. you wouldn't have to do a strict biotope, but could limit yourself to just fish from a single continent or country. one very interesting biotope would be to do an 'Indian' River. if i remember correctly, many loaches are from India/Pakistan--so are the danios and many species of barbs. Japanese species are great for coldwater tanks, as are many Chinese species (an LFS employee i know purchased some "Blue Bitterlings" that are just to die for! but i have tropical tanks, not coldwater...)
an example of a psuedo biotope i'd be interested in creating for myself would be based around the African River. i'd put in a pair of kribs, a pair of African butterflies, a large group of Congo Tetras and then a Synodontis catfish or two.
would you be interested in a tank full of tiny fish? dwarf platies, green fire tetras, blue rams, then maybe a fancy plec or two. oh and some croaking/sparkling gouramis if you can get them!
