Two weeks ago I finally was able to order 4 Schwartzi's to give my existing 2 Schwartzis some friends. The first 3 days after they arrived I thought for certain I was going to lose at least one of them but the little guy pulled through. Last week I introduced them to my 2 older ones and it was such a cute sight to see, the 2 original ones were so excited and the new ones just swarmed all over them. They are now happily playing together in a 20 gallon tank with some swordtail fry.
I had just about given up on ever finding any of the Soldaris and came across some real Julli's so I gave in to the temptation and ended up getting 5 of them. They are very active and seem to be thinking about spawning! The only problem there is that it appears I have 4 females and 1 male and the poor little guy can't seem to stay focused on one female long enough to get anywhere. Hopefully he'll figure it out soon!
The Soldaris have been making me feel quite quilty lately, they have become so withdrawn that the only time I see them is at w/c time. They just huddle together in a corner and hardly ever venture out in public. I came across some old notes and realized that I've had the 2 of them for 2 years now, longer than I had thought. Well, today I was out shopping and stopped in a Petsmart that I haven't been in for a while to get a couple plants. I wasn't really expecting to find anything but checked out their tanks anyways, they had one lableled "Spotted Corys" and at first glance all I saw was a lone leucomelas (trying real hard to get me to buy him) but just as I was about to wander off I spotted a nose peaking out from behind a rock and I thought it looked vaguely familiar. After 15 minutes of waiting patiently it finally emerged and to my utter surprise, it was a Soldaris!!! When the guy came over to net it for me we discovered 2 more!!! All 3 came home with me and are now hanging out in a 10 gallon tank with a group of week old swordies. In a few days I'll introduce them to the old guys and hopefully they'll perk up and be the happy corys they used to be!
So at long last my quest is completed, all my corys have friends of their own species and now I can allow myself to actually get another species or two or three! I can see I'm going to be spending a lot of time on Aquabid!
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I've gone from 5 to 45. 
