While I wait another week or so to confirm my tank's bacteria are behaving themselves again, a trip to the LFS this morning has given me a list of fish to consider for my tank.
It's got a 60x30 footprint, with 54l capacity. I'm declaring 50l on the community creator, as I've got sand, some bogwood, some plants and some decorations in there that will cut that down a bit, along with an oversized internal filter.
My current tank has the following:
2 Honey Gouramis
6 Panda Corydoras
4 Amano Shrimp
1 male Betta
And whilst I can't add the male Betta to the CC, I've subbed in a female Betta just for sizing. It tells me I'm about 52% stocked for now.
My water is "moderately soft", measuring 3.02 dH, and the pH is about 7.5 now.
So far, my shopping list is just more amano shrimp. I think they're great and I love to see them hopping around, so I'll add another 4 to flesh out their numbers.
I previously had an extra Honey Gourami and 6 Neon Tetras, which is what I'm looking to replace. From reading the profiles here and on Seriously Fish, I see no reason to replace the gourami, which means I'm looking for a small shoal to add to the tank. The neons, despite having a great appearance, lacked personality and did almost nothing, they just floated around slowly, so I'd like to add something with a bit of personality. I would also prefer something that'll gather in the middle-to-top of the tank, as the corys and shrimp keep the bottom quite busy, but the rest of the tank looks a little empty in comparison.
I've seen a lot of nice fish at the LFS that look the right size, but most of the list I made appear to be unsuitable for one reason or another. I'd taken a shine to Serpae Tetras, but these fin nip, so I can't keep them with Princeton (and as I fear MTS to be a slippery slope, I'm strongly resisting putting the betta in a tank of his own), and I've also seen Odessa Barbs and Golden Barbs, but these both require a larger tank than mine once fully grown.
All that's left on my list are Cherry Barbs and Harlequin Rasboras. In the shop, they didn't seem to be all that interesting in terms of personality, but they were the right size and the CC here thinks 6 of either would be alright in my tank.
Does anyone have any recommendations? Are Cherry Barbs and Harlequins more interesting than I give them credit for, or will I find them a touch boring, like the neons I had previously?
Are there some slightly larger fish I could keep in a pair or trio, instead of a small shoal? Would I be better off adding to my Gouramis in this case?