I am becoming, well, bored with my 30 gal. community set up. And so I am trying to think of a fish that could work in a species tank that does well in high ph/hardness and also can do fine with some plants...
Steatocranus casuarius
sounds like you need yourself some cherry barbs.
up it to 6 or 8 gbrs it really brings out their character, heavily plant it, make some caves they may even spawn