More exciting news on the fish front. I'd almost given up on finding some of the species I wanted to stock after trying numerous stores, and then Wildwoods Enfield came up mega-trumps!
Keith the fish room manager came back to me and confirmed that they had Borneo Kuhli loaches (Pangio alternans) in stock (rarer than hens teeth) - they only had 10x left, but he said they also had about 10x Pangio cuneovirgata in the same tank with them! So I've taken the lot!
He also has 30x of the Reed Tetra (Hyphessobrycon elachys) in stock too, so it made sense to have those as well, even though I was planning to wait until the first round of shrimp births. They're all arriving Friday along with 25x Chilli Rasbora (Boraras brigittae) from Abyss (using up my credit note with them)!
Over the weekend I'll also move over my existing stock from the year long holding tank and close it down - about 6 mature Chilli's, 8-10x Habrosus Cory's (with babies that have appeared in the last week), 6x Pygmy Cory's and a couple of remaining Ember Tetras (both species of which we've had for over three and a half years now), and one lone male Endler that's now getting on for 3 years with us too!
Keith also advised that his supplier in Germany has stock of the Six ray Cory's (Corydoras (Aspidoras) pauciradiatus), so those will be here in 4-5 weeks along with the Threadfin Rainbows (Iriatherina werneri) which they are receiving this week, and will QT for me until the Cory's are ready to ship!
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Final ones to move over will be 8x of the Chocolate Gourami juveniles that bred in my tank 18months or so ago - they're proper baby shrimp hunters, so I'll move them only when I'm happy that the shrimp are breeding well to sustain the predation.
Once they've all settled, I'll see what the stocking levels look like, and if things aren't too busy, then I might consider adding a small shoal of one of the following:
Tucano Tetra (Tucanoichthys tucano)
Ruby Tetra (Axelrodia riesei)
Hummingbird Tetra (Trochilocharax ornatus)
Dwarf Pencilfish (Nannostomus Marginatus)
Haven't decided which, so any thoughts welcome!