Nice! The bottom will get busy when the new guys gets added! 

Hope so! The tank looks surprisingly full with all those fish hanging out around the front, I should try take another pic today to show how empty it can look too.

The loaches are in!! I think some of them are a little confused, when I opened the curtains this morning there was a group of about a dozen of the smaller ones swimming around mid-level in the water column schooling with the Lemon Tetras (who are a similar size)! The tank is certainly a lot busier now, the loaches are pretty active already, I was a bit worried they'd vanish into the wood pile and never be seen again but that hasn't happened.

Can't wait til they're huge! 

Looking good David!

Two weeks in the big tank and they've already had a bit of a growth spurt!

 

Nice! Do the angels spawn in the tank often?

Like the festivums; how old are they?

Thomas the first time I've seen the angels spawn was about four days ago! Since adding the clowns I've been doing ~200L water changes every other day (just opening the valve on the sump drain and putting the hose into the tank to run for 112-15 minutes) and I think maybe that's kicked them into action.

 

I've had the festivums a few years, around the time I switched from big fish to small fish. TBH their colours are really drab and they've been pretty uninteresting to keep. Not good quality stock I think, there are some beautiful examples of the genus out there.

This little guy [the shark] is possibly my favourite fish at the moment! He's had a good growth spurt since being added to the big tank, and filled out and coloured up really nicely. So far he's just cruising around completely ignoring every other fish, long may the relaxed attitude last.

 

I like the redtail black sharks, especially once they reach 15cm or so and they get that thick body shape.

He's a neat fish, always out and about, kinda wishing I'd bought half a dozen of them.

Hmmm.... little bit jealous of your red tail shark now...

I see what you mean by the festivum, doesn't have that refined shape like some others I have seen.

Do you follow the Aquarium Co-op Youtube channel? There's a guy on there with an 800 gallon filled with about 100 clown loaches and 200 tiger barbs. It is quite the display. You could attempt something similar with your tank.

I've seen some of the videos, it's a neat set up alright! Could maybe chuck in another 20 red tailed sharks too...

Re festivums: I always liked the “plain” silver ones over the colored variants, not sure why. They were relatively common during the time I kept them, in my teens, circa early nineties (not in NZ).  As for body shape, I think they’re just normal for four-year old, well-fed fish.
I currently have 2 young ones, which could be M.mirificus, basing on coloration only.