Potential Additions To The Tank

In connection with my intense fish broodiness last weekend, many thanks for the responses to the poll. The decision I ultimately settled on was ember tetras. For various reasons, I wouldn't be acting upon this until the new year.

I wasn't convinced I had enough algae to support otocinclus / a BN plec and I was also a bit concerned about how it work with them in the QT for several weeks eg I could move some of the plants into that tank for them to graze upon/clean up but I'd then feel uneasy about moving the plants back into the main tank before being sure that the newbies were disease-free. So that really left me with the microdevario kubotai .v. ember tetras, and the microdevario in the shop were quite large already (definitely 3cm as some others on the internet seem to mention is often the case) and very fast-moving, so I felt embers were a better option stocking-wise - and would complement the colours of the existing fish, a contrast to the green plants.

Now that the intense broodiness has subsided (wouldn't take much to re-fuel it, so avoiding going near the LFS!) and I'm back to my usual self, I'm wondering how wise this idea is. I'd absolutely love to have them but I'm unsure how my middle-aged (3 and 2.5 year-old shoals) fish would adapt to a shoal of newcomers in such a confined space, and whether increasing the stocking capacity at this stage is wise given how health is likely to decline in the latter half of their lives. The 3 male tetras are 4cm each, the 2 female tetras are 5cm and quite a lot larger all round; 4 of the harlequins are 4cm each and 2 of them are 3cm each, so that puts some of them larger than the CC's estimates of 4cm and 3cm respectively. I'm also a little concerned at whether the newbies would find some of the larger fish quite intimidating - and therefore whether I ought to wait until nature takes its course, after which I opt for embers and similar-sized fish. Am I being overly cautious or sensible in my concerns? Views welcome; thanks.

Your experience is interesting. My tank's certainly in a quiet area of the living-room and, generally, I'm the only one who ever approaches it, so that particular issue ought not to be a problem.

You're completely correct in that I have some quirky aquatic residents, namely the two female tetras who used to stalk the pygmy cories in order to eat whatever they foraged up (and which is why I would never trust them with shrimp - but they might be fine with the embers, provided their voracious appetites didn't lead onto consuming the embers) and the territorial harlequin (who would be my main concern - would he send the 10 other fish plus the 8 ember tetras into a corner or might the additions actually distract him and calm him down a bit?). It's these 3 residents who concern me most - if it weren't for them, I'd probably feel much more comfortable in taking the plunge.

Given this, I would probably do embers as replacements for existing as numbers start to dwindle. This is a reasonable plan to my eyes and helps bring some excitement back to the hobby when less positive thigs are things happening to your existing stock.