I have a dream to recreate the community I had when I was young, although it contained a lot of mismatched fish...
So my compromise will be to do livebearers (guppies and swords), a school of neons, a pleco, a gourami, and a few ghost shrimp. It may be overstocked to begin with but as it will be a planted tank that is located right next to the kitchen sink for lots of water changes if necessary, I think it will work.
That's my dream!! I also want a red-tailed shark like the one I had but I've red 10 gallons is just too small for them, so I'm just going to have to wait on that one. It sounds like you are just starting a tank too? Maybe you could get one instead.