We found it dead on the carpet – it must have jumped out while one of the glass panels was off (it stayed off for a fair while). I had seen it lying there a few hours previously, but thought that it was just a leaf; it wasn’t moving then, so I couldn’t have saved it anyway. So that’s a bit sad; should make me pretty careful in the future.

Somehow our ammonia and nitrites are both zero – I’m not sure how this can be; maybe we’re doing the tests wrong, because I don’t see how it can be perfect so early. pH is at 6.6.

The cloaches just rip into some of our plants – pulling the stems to bits. And the angels like the feathery plant a bit too much!

They include: 3 clown loaches, partly to deal with the snails (they have already eaten a lot of what we assumed were snail babies, on the leaves); 6 Siamese Flying Foxes (to eat the algae, and they have been sucking it up like little vacuum cleaners), and 4 mostly-silver angels (because they look cool). The cloaches and angels will apparently get fairly large, so that should be entertaining.

The angels, with their beaky mouths, appear to like tearing into the plant with the feathery, pine-like needles. The cloaches and Foxes look pretty funny, with their mouths underneath, as they mow the algae. The tetras appear to be sulking, but hopefully they will get used to having to share the tank.

We bought a stack of kits, as well – ammonia and nitrite both seem to be about 0, which seems odd for such a new tank. We’ll have another go at testing tomorrow.

Haven’t noticed any other Odd Bits on fish.

It wasn’t there when they went in the tank yesterday… two days in and already we have a medical issue on our hands. It’s on the dorsal fin…

The other fish seem happier.

They’re Black Phantom Tetras, and there are ten of them. We also got a light for the tank, and a few plants, some rocks and some very expensive driftwood. It was fun working out where to put the rocks and wood to create the best ‘look’ for the tank. The fish seem a little unsure of their new environs.

Got tank and gear a few days ago. Had to empty tank today, because we hadn’t washed the gravel and consequently couldn’t see to the back of the tank, let alone from one end to the other. Doubt that fish would like that.

It’s a 4-foot tank, about 150L with gravel (is that about 30 gallons?). All I wanted was some goldfish in a large-ish bowl, for my birthday, and I get this… some people are a little ridiculous.

NOTE: these diary entries are taken from a paper-based diary which I started on this day. I am now writing them up here for the edification primarily of other beginning fish-keepers. We made a lot of stupid mistakes early on, because we didn’t research enough and were given almost no advice by the fish shop. Please read at least the first two months’ worth of entries before either copying us (a bad idea anyway) or judging us!