Tank Update - It's Been A While!

Hi everyone it's been quite some time since I last posted so thought I'd let you know how the tank is progressing. It's been 20 months, yeah can't quite believe it, since I set up my tank. There has been good and bad along the way but overall I'm really pleased with the way things have gone.

All my original 15 Harlequins are still going strong, funny how you don't realise how big they've got till you see the size of the ones in the shops.
I lost 2 rummies fairly early on but remaining 11 are fine, lost a couple of 5 banded bards but have a health shoal of 18 I think, but really difficult to count.

You might remember the trauma with the pearl gourami's when I lost 3 in quick succession and I was worried one of the remaining two was going to bully the other too much, but they get on quite well now.

The real problem has been with the skunk corys, even cleaning the tank weekly and cleaning the sand twice a week, I've not been able to keep the wee guys alive, they all seem to go the same way with some sort of infection in their barbs and they go a kind of blackish colour and eventually die. I've tried isolating them and some meds, but apart from the first one who did return from the brink of death I'm down to only 4. I know this isn't enough but I don't really want to get any more as I've definitely got something going wrong where the're concerned  Would another type of cory be more resilient, or do I call it quits

Anyway, I've also got another small tank (but bigger than the hospital tank) which is currently housing another 5 rummies and 1 male and (I hope) 2 female gourami. They've been in there for 6 weeks and doing well, I've started mixing their water with the main tank water, as planning on moving them over to the main tank in a few days. They'll be the first new guys for about 8 months, so hoping all goes OK, although not looking forward to trying to get them out, any tips on doing this without getting into a panic more than welcome 

Not to forget the plants, I'm pretty much overloaded with them and spend quite a bit of time cutting them back and scooping out handfuls of the floating plants, before they cover the whole surface! I don't really do anything more with them other than some flourish and root tabs. Probably my only complaint is it's a bit of a green jungle, and so many picture I see on this site are so much more thought through than my attempts.

Here's a couple of blurry iphone photo's, one day I'll maybe take a clear picture   

Cheers Matt, like the idea of a glass never quite mastered getting them with nets yet. Also think I've probably got the beginning of a V with the bits of wood I've got in there already, suppose I could start tweaking bit by bit without disturbing the tank too much.
 
Thanks again

Also think I've probably got the beginning of a V with the bits of wood I've got in there already, suppose I could start tweaking bit by bit without disturbing the tank too much.

Agreed, I would suggest starting with trying to move taller plants away from the centre and over to the sides .

You clearly have green fingers as your plants growth is lush and healthy

You might remember the trauma with the pearl gourami's when I lost 3 in quick succession and I was worried one of the remaining two was going to bully the other too much, but they get on quite well now.

Hi @Lynne W

I used to keep a male + female pair of Pearl Gouramis. The male was often aggressive towards other fish in the tank but particularly aggressive to the female. And things got worse at feeding time. In the end, the stress proved to be too much for the female and she got very unwell. One of the few times that I had to resort to euthanasia. The male died from natural aging about six months ago. No more Pearl Gouramis for me!

JPC

Thanks for all the great comments. I bought a wide vase in Dobbie's today, so I'm going to have a go at using that when it's time to move the new comers.

Re the Pearls (I don't know how to refer to a quote) I am a bit nervous about putting them all together, the two in the main tank have been doing fine on their own but hopefully, as I'll end up with 4 females and 1 male, they'll be OK. Suppose that the one good thing with the plants being a bit of a jungle just now, there's they can, if they want, hide from each other.

As to the corys I would like to try another type, I assume I should wait till the others are gone (hopefully by natural causes rather than infection) than introducing more while they're poorly. I quite like the whiteish spotty ones, but I'll need to do a bit of research.

I'll have a go at plant moving once all the new guys have settled in.

Thanks again, I'll let you know how is goes.