Yes, it will be 6 cardinals & 5 espeis. I'm gutted to be missing out on the long-desired embers, had decided long ago against any more cardinals and their inherent challenges, but wanted to help out my neighbours and couldn't bear the thought of their fish struggling to find new homes.
It brings some potential challenges that I hadn't anticipated as I hadn't actually seen them before.
3 out of 4 of these guys are huge in comparison with my own cardinals or any fish ever in my tank* (4x the body mass at least), likely due to having come from a larger and much taller tank with a lot more water volume and general activity levels. They were swimming around very actively with silvertip and rummynose tetras, while the base of the tank had yo-yo loaches and bristlenose plecs and an ageing cory. My own past and present fish have always been quite sedate, interspersed with pottering around, occasional spats or (in the case of the x-rays of old and the current espeis) bouts of frenzied mating behaviour.
Time will tell how they'll adapt to being in a sole-species and smaller tank during quarantine, and in turn in the main tank which is smaller than what they've been used to.
Hoping their size won't frighten the existing cardinals or create pecking-order issues, but their activity levels might be on a closer par to the espeis'.
Everyone has spotted one another. The only available location for the QT was on the dining table immediately opposite the main tank, so everyone has (re)located position in the tanks to eye one another up, which seems to be providing a source of mutual fascination.
Unfortunately, with the massive increase in fish mass, a feature fish won't be an option. With my elderly male nerite preferring to lie upside down on the bottom to rest, anything that might disturb or poke at him would have been off the agenda anyway. Perhaps in a few years' time, and after any aforementioned household renovations, I'll have a tank with those on my "wanted" list - sparkling gourami and ember tetras, but will have to remain patient for the foreseeable future.
[* Have noticed XXL x-ray and cardinals in shops that bore no resemblance to the size mine ever reached, likely due to having lived in larger environments. Does make one wonder whether the 60x30cm minimum recommended tank size recommended by 'bona fide' sources should in fact be larger.]