choose my fish for me

I suggest looking around these forums look at pictures ask questions and take a look at this site http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profile.html#profile

You have a month to decide so do some research and choose the fish you will like most. So then you don't get what someone else likes.

Tanganyika is a lake in Africa that it home rift cichlid species. A Lake Tanganyika setup would mimic the natural habitat in Lake Tanganyika.

hex tanks are actually quite bad for most cichlids. because of the territory issue.

cichlids are bottom dwellers and so they all try and make a home on the bottom of the tank and hex tanks have very little area on the bottom that can lead to more conflict than in a regular tank.

having said that

I would suggest looking into getting some Rams or some apistogrammas and then filling the top of the tank with tetras of somekind.

Angels also do ok in Hex tanks because of the hit so a couple of them might be a good idea.

i advice against putting a larger cichlid in a hex tank for the reasons ive already stated, they just would not be happy unable to get a decent sized territory.

HTH

That site should tell you if you can keep more than one firemouth cilchids. With the sword tail and platys i would advise against it. I would stick to an all cilchid tank mate. I would suggest against the betta and go with a bottom feeder or two.

What about some kribensis?

This Page details the kribensis and german blue ram, both of which would be good choices for cichlids for a community tank.

You can get a pair of one or the other.... and have a top-dwelling schooling fish (tetras/barbs/rasboras/danios, etc), some bottom schooling fish (such a cories), and maybe a couple others.

Have it well planted and it will be a wonderful tank.

What sort of fish are you getting rid of? You might be able to put an add in the paper to find them a good home. Rams are a type of cichlid that are reasonably popular and are generally peaceful if you keep a pair of them (male / female pair). Demon surfer mentioned maybe keeping an angel and that might be a good idea. They are fairly nice fish if you have the room, but I think a single angelfish in the tank would suffice rather than a pair. Corys generally make good bottom feeder type fish, but I don't think they'd really enjoy the depth of your tank since they periodically make trips to the top. Also you want to make sure whatever schooling type fish you get they won't be food for your other fish. I've heard of a 5 striped barb that looks similar to tigers, but without the fin nipping attitude that might be worth looking into if a LFS carries them in your area. None do in mine or I would have checked into them better.