Thanks bud!
Here's the update, last night was one of the most stressful experiences of my life! Oh, and I'm a numpty.
I decided I would get my new fish and remove the fish I was rehoming all in one day because my week is crazy and if I didn't do it last night it would have been next week before I could get more fish. So I went and got my 7 sterbai and 18 espei (£66....that was after I paid freakin' £3.40 or something EACH for those blinkin' endlers!) Put them in to acclimatise and tried to start catching the fish (13 cardinals, 7 bronze corys and 6 hengeli rasbora), nope it wasn't happening. All I could think of was to finish acclimatising the new fish, put them in the tank then try to catch the other guys, a bad idea but I didn't see any other option. Still couldn't catch them. So I dropped the water level (oh and I've been having a nitrite spike for some reason. I think dying algae, to add to the stress...) and I still couldn't catch them. By this point I've got Luke over helping me and I am on the verge of nuclear meltdown. I've got new fish in the tank, who are probably going to die from this stress, I've got too much nitrite in the water, I've got the 1 cardinal and the 1 bronze that I've managed to catch sitting in rapidly deteriorating water, OH and the filter was off in the main tank as well! I couldn't back out because I've now go WAY too many fish in the tank! Time passes and we're getting nowhere. I am in full meltdown by this point convinced all of my fish are going to die lol - tears and all.
So I start removing the hardscape which induces further hysterics from yours truly. This still isn't really working so in the end everything is removed from the tank except the crypts and the e. quadricostatus (major freakout for having to remove the plants as well). I started this whole thing just before 7pm, by 9:30 Luke had managed to catch all of the corys and cardinals, the hengeli will have to wait another day. Luke went and delivered the fish to their new home and I started putting the tank back together. As far as I'm aware all of my fish are still alive lol
So now I ask, why have none of you told me about this DIY fish trap you make with a bottle?! I'll be testing that out to catch the hengelis at some point. It'll be slow but low stress for the fish and won't destroy my tank!
That's a lot of words guys, sorry!