Fishies!!!

Yay! I have finally, after years of waiting, got myself a fish tank! Well, that is, Elspeth and I have got a tank, but it is most definitely mine from the point of view of looking after it. I'm perfectly happy with this: as long as I can watch my fish all day long.

Here is a photo of the tank taken last week when it was sitting with no fish in:
 

For fact fans, it's 125 litres and is maintained at 26C.

After leaving it all of last week to equilibrate to temperature and for me to wait until I could get to the local fish shop (Mr Fish - a quite different prospect to Mr Cod), on saturday I went and bought my first fish. You have to start off with only a few fish and build up slowly, so that the happy bacteria which break down the toxic ammonia the fish produce into nitrites and then nitrates have time to build up in the filter (and yes, for you chemistry fans, I do mean nitrosomonas and nitrobacter).

Anyway, I have five of these little fellas  

(for photography fans, taking good photos of fish is bloody difficult) in my tank. They are red wagtail platys and are currently about an inch long, although they'll be about twice that size when they're bigger. They are absolutely fantastic and I can sit for ages just watching them swimming around. They really do have lots of character and are lots of fun. I haven't had any noticeable problems yet, so I'm rather happy.

Expect to see a lot more on the blog about my fish in the future!