You'll want to get a male and female sparkling gourami, they are just like bettas. I do hope you've got plenty of hiding spaces for a lone female. Forget the otto, I discourage anybody from getting only one of a schooling species. They really are pitiful in a tank all by themselves, especially if you've seen the way they act in groups.
If the filter was kept wet the whole time between your houses, and it wasn't changed, there is a chance some of the bacteria survived. But it won't have had any "food" in the days that the tank was empty, unless you fed the empty tank. Lots of people feed empty tanks to keep the bacteria alive.