cherry barbs

I have three new fish:

Still unable to use my QT tank- Nitrite levels skyrocketing- this time I simply put the new fish straight into the home tank. With preventative dose of melafix, supposed to suppress disease outbreak and the reduced stress of moving straight into home environment helps with that too. So far they are doing fine, although I was upset at loosing Sparky.

The new fish are very attractive. The male is a bright pinkish hue

and the females golden orange and cream, with horizontal bands. They have little whiskers (barbs) and slightly downturned mouths.

They are much calmer fish than my Zebra Danios, and for the first few days hid in the plants. (The Aponogeton is thinned out some; I've had to start cutting out stems as the leaves die back. A few of them are already sprouting new shoots. I added a few root tabs of fertilizer across the back of the tank; the older Aponogeton had stopped at four leaves- no new growth in a week or two- but once I put in the root tabs a new shoot emerged just a day later).

Gratifying to see them eat a bit yesterday for the first time; the Danios are quicker and dash to the top for food; while the Barbs look for things at midlevel and bottom of the tank, not the water surface. Even though there are only two Danios and they're a bit smaller than the new fish, they easily hog all the food. Today I tried putting a pinch of flakes in by lowering my hand into the water and then releasing the food, but the Barbs were frightened of my hand and by the time they moved back to investigate, Danios had gobbled it all up. The Barbs did get a little bit, but at this point the Danios were overeating so I didn't give any more. I think when they get bolder it won't be such a problem, and I will try some sinking foods.