After what seems to be a very long time, we've finally reached our desired stock level
.
We now have :- 5 x Yellow Honey Gourami
5 x Cherry Barbs
8 x Male Guppies
4 x False Julii Corydoras
Along the way we unfortunately lost Jimmy the Snail
(Grandson like things to have names, don't ask!). He only lasted 10 days. After clearing up the main patch of algae, he went walkabout up the side of the tank and back then sat on the substrate doing nothing. Checked him out after a couple of days. No bad stench like others had describe to indicate he was dead. MA said they sometimes "go to sleep" and don't move around for days on end. Propped him up near the glass to try and observe any movement. Then his trap door fell out and left just a tiny blob inside. I tipped out the remains, gave the shell a good boil and put it back. I still move the shell around a bit so the grandson doesn't notice he's not moving. I've no idea as to why he died so we're not about to rush out and buy another.
Only overnight this last Wednesday, one of our 6 Gourami decided to sneak into the internal filter/heater chamber and get himself trapped between the filter and the box
. So we're down to 5 of the original 6. Although not killed by any illness, for now we're not going to replace him either. It now leaves us with 1 male and 4 females. I've, hopefully, Gourami proofed the box to stop up the only gap he could have got through, with a piece of sponge.
Today we completed our purchases with 4 False Julii Corydoras
. The very helpful people at Scotsdale's MA overcame my reluctance to go ahead with any sort of bottom feeders. They've given me a few JBL NovaTabs to try. However, I'd already realised that I could feed them without necessarily overfeed the top feeders. I have been trying some Tetra Bloodworm and Brine Shrimps in a gel sachet for the fish we already have (from P@H). No matter how carefully I add it, the blobs of gel very quickly sink to the bottom and get, eventually, cleaned up by grazing Gourami so it's occurred to me that this is an easy way of getting food down to the bottom quickly. What with that, and the sinking pellets, I think we shall be alright.
Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this and associated topics.