[fishbguy]

I'm not sure if the lighting s strong enough for the hair grass...With what you have, there;s only about 2 watts per gallon, which is about medium lighting. from what Kristin has told me, hair grass needs really high lighting, so you might want to knock that off your list. Instead, you could have dwarf saggataria, not quite hairgrass, but it'll fill up nicely and have a nice carpet looking effect once it grows.

For larger p[lants, I suggest various species of crypts. I have some wendtiis, the red and bronze variety, and there still kinda small, but the ones at my lfs are really large and bushy. I also keep some lutea, another crypt. the mix of the lutea's bright green, and the wendtii's dark redish bronze make a very good looking aquascape. You might also want to consider various species of val, sag, and ferns.

Java moss will also create a nice looking carpet.

I would deffaintly go with the ottos, I have some in my plante 10 gallon, and love them. Are there any other fish that you were looking at other than the loaches? I've never kept them before so I don't have much info on them.

When you say blue pearl,. are they shrimp, or danios?