One method of making such choices is to choose a habitat, like Amazon,African Rift Lake, Southeast Asian River, or many others. The simplest way to begin would be to check exactly what type of water parameters you can most easily provide. Then choose a habitat that will work with this sort of water.
Soft water with low hardness would lend itself best to Amazonian or other jungle streams. Hard water with a high pH would be good for Rift Lake systems or perhaps even a brackish system. Choosing a habitat with a type of water that you can easily provide takes a lot of work out of the drudgery of weekly maintenance.
Once you've decided on the water everything else will sort of fall in line Lots of research is a very good idea, planning will save labor,wasted money, and a happier end result Good luck,and have fun with your fish.
Get lima shovelcats, tiger shovelnose cats, any type of shovelnose,stingray,cichlid, larger knifefish, red tailed catfish, datnoids,bichirs,big plecos,arowanas,gars,eels, mostly exotics but make it super natural with like sand driftwood and huge live plants, it would look sick.
I honestly recommend /against/ tank busting fish such as tiger shovelnose, red tail catfish, pacu, and the like. If you think about your tank next to pond proportions or public aquarium proportions, while it IS large compared to conventional home aquariums, it is still not large enough to house more than one or two of these beasts for their entire lifetime. It seems like a shame to waste a large tank on only one or two fish (especially those as common as these tank busting species who need to be removed from the hobby IMO).
I'd also say to stay away from pond fish like comets and such, these are really prettier when viewed from above (as they were bred to be). I'd recommend doing a large number of "smaller" species, and perhaps going with fish that are all found in one geographic location (such as, an African species inspired tank or an Asian species tank). But it's /your/ tank.
Go nuts. Larger schooling fish like silver dollars or clown loaches would make a nice addition.
WTF do you think, is it small, medium or large... As a side note, if I somehow had a tank like that, I'd sell the f'n thing. I don't have the room for it. And with even just HALF of what a tank like costs, I could make some much needed and more important purchases.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.