thanks guys. think i may go with cherry barbs or red dwarf gourami's. guess i will have to get rid of the pleco soon though, may replace him with oto's, which i understand are better at removing algae anyways.
Are the blue gourami's dwarfs? If so you could get some flame dwarf gourami's. there not red but a pretty bright orange with blue dorsal fin. There's a pic of mine in my sig.