Its almost spring time, so go down to your local pond/lake and catch a nice colorful pumpkinseed sunfish. Super hardy and can save you even more money by not requiring a heater. Also will become very personable
Green terror, firemouth, convict, electric blue jack dempsey with a few dithers would do great. EBJD do so much better on there own anyway. I had cherry barbs with mine looked fantastic.
if you want a fish that will like a 36"tank and have personality ,you might try a convict male, they are the correct size, are better looking in general than given credit for & are very personable...add a group of giant danios or ba tetras and a small cat & you will have a" full "tank..
If I do this project I may do the GT. Ive googled them all day they seem like really cool fish. I can probably find one local too thats my main concern.