I've had fresh water fish tanks of varying sizes for the past 30 years now, so have had numerous types of fish at various times.
One of the most beautiful and gentle faced fish I've had only a few of, over the years, is the Blue Faced Discus. Sort of has a human quality to the look in its eyes and the lighting in the fish tank reflects beautifully on their body. The down side was that they never seemed to live real long for me. They need to be in a tank that is kept a bit warmer than the normal range and you can not have any other fish that are even slightly aggressive.
One year I got a Siamese Fighting Fish for a gift that was in a bowl of his own (where they do best) and on the top part of it was a live plant. I had this for three years and both the fish and the plant thrived. I called the fish "Crimmy" and would move my finger various ways to get him to respond to me and interact. It was very cool.