They are lovely fish, although a tad pricey, and not easy to get hold of. The ones I found were at a store that delivered, but were only a 2 hour drive away, which I thought would be safer. Then I realised how much I'd be paying for a larger number to fill the mid-water region, and had to think again.
So far the list is as follows:
Sewellia lineolata x 10
Hong kong plec x 5
Bulldog plec x 2
Panda garra - currently have the 5 re-homed ones in the quarantine tank, but may consider more
I would like some stiphodon/gobies as well
Rainbow shiners - possibly around 30 if I go for one species of mid-water fish, or 15-20 if I go for some larger danios as well.
Any comments and/or suggestions?
I can't get all the fish from one supplier, so would probably get the hong kong plecs and bulldog plecs from MA.
Kesgrave Tropicals have all the others and is only around a one hour drive each way.
Any suggestions on the order in which I buy/introduce the fish? A lot of them like algae, so I have 2 tanks of rocks on the windowsill growing algae. As soon as the rocks go in the river tanks I'll restock the windowsill tanks to keep up supply. The river tank itself is cycled, and I'm keeping it ticking over until I decide what to do. It's having long periods of bright light to encourage the plants & algae. I'm planning on starting to get the fish towards the end of the month. Should I get all the fish from Kesgrave in the main tank, and have the MA stock in quarantine tanks for a month or so? Should I introduce perhaps the mid-water fish first? If I get all the shiners from Kesgrave, can I add all the Kesgrave fish at the same time? While the MA fish are in quarantine?
Help! I'm getting myself into a bit of a tizzy. This will be the largest number of fish added to one tank that I have dealt with, and after waiting for so long to do a river tank I'd be furious with myself if I get something wrong.