Perhaps more accurately, I am fascinated by the entire aquarium community thing. 

MY SET UP

A 15L (approx) all in one aquarium (with under gravel filter), water pump and flourescent lamp included

Initial collection of fish (initial, because it’s no longer the case… sob!)

• 10 Guppies (2 black tail, 2 orange/black spotted tails, 3 yellow tail, 3 silver-blue tail) - I don’t know the exact names of the varieties
• 10 Black Widow tetra
• 2 algae eaters (think they could be Siamese or Chinese)

I’ve spent hours just watching them.  Since the lamp is 8W, and the water pump/filter 8W, it’s a cheaper alternative to watching TV!  And very very relaxing too. 

But poor little wonder boy is feeling neglected – he mopes a little but will come paw me when he thinks it’s time for his walk.  Woof!

Mistakes made by a first time aquarium owner (i.e. ME!)

Getting a small tank set up (instead of a larger tank)

It’s actually supposed to be easier to maintain a larger tank because the environment can be more stable, and less frequent changes of water would be required.  Also, a larger tank can accommodate more fish, which leads me to my second mistake…

Getting too many fish!

22 fishes (albeit small fishes) are way too many for a tank size like mine.  Anyway, natural selection reduced the numbers somewhat over the days…

Mixing varieties without doing proper research first

I was told by the fish shop person that it’s all right to mix tetras with guppies.  That is true only to a certain extent.  I made the mistake of selecting black widow tetras – which I found out are rather aggressive fin nippers.  A few of them have nipped most of the guppies to death.  They start by nipping at the tails, and when a guppy gets rather weak and cannot swim away so fast any more, I’ve observed 2-3 black tetra really chasing that guppy and chewing off the tail.  Poor guppies. 

Current situation

Total fish surviving as of this writing – 10

• 3 Guppies (7 died from their tails being nipped by the tetras) – remaining are 1 black tail, 1 orange/yellow with black tail, 1 yellow tail (this one looks about to go too – its tail is looking slightly shredded, and it weakly stays near the top) 
• 6 Black tetras (3 died – of stress I think, 1 had some whitish stuff round its mouth, and it died some time after I placed it in a separate bowl)
• 1 algae eater (the other one died rather suddenly – I thought it was doing well because it looked like it was eating and getting quite fat, but a short while later I found it dead at the bottom of the tank)

Here’s how the tank looks now – I added another plant to provide more hiding places, and changed the pot to another pond ornament because the fish did not seem interested in going into the pot, plus it was trapping a lot of dirt.

I’ve realised that there is one particularly aggressive black tetra which is causing all the damage to the guppies.  Once the guppy is weakened, a few other opportunistic tetras would then also go after that guppy. 

The bully black tetra is a real terror, as it goes round just terrorising all the other fishes (except the algae eater) in the tank.  It swims all over the tank, and will go butt at any fish in sight.  Only moving off when the other fish moves out of its way.  It will also go butt at fishes resting among the plants, and nip at guppy tails.  I’ve tried to remove it from the tank, but it’s really clever, and swims very fast.  I gave up trying to catch it because the other fishes were probably getting stressed out by the chase.

This evening, the tables have turned somewhat. 

Of the three remaining guppies, the black one (a female) seems to be getting more and more pregnant by the day.  The orange/yellow/black tail guppy is definitely a male, and has become very protective of this one female.  Previously when the bully tetra would try to nip at the guppies, they would just swim away to avoid it – mostly not very successfully.  But now, the colourful male (whose colours, by the way, appear much more vibrant now) has taken to chasing away any tetra who tries to bother the female.  This has helped to check the bullying behaviour of the black tetra, though it still sometimes goes and chase the other tetras. 

The picture below shows the two guppies and the bully tetra – it’s really hard to capture them as they are moving all the time…

It’s no wonder I can spend hours watching the fish – it’s really as good, perhaps better than any soap opera on TV!  There’s murder, intrigue, revenge, love, chivalry….

Pattern and instructions from this book (ISBN 4-579-10814-0)

Book is all in Japanese.  I don’t know any Japanese but the pictures were clear enough to show how to make up the shirt.  Instructions are given for putting together short sleeve as well as long sleeve shirt.  And from the two basic patterns, one could make several variations, including two different jackets. 

I “cheated” by using my serger to finish up the seams.

Good tea: 观音王 (King Goddess of Mercy) – a refreshingly light and fragrant brew (in Teapot No. 41, a “black sesame” speckled clay teapot)

Good read: Death by Darjeeling (first book in Laura Childs’ Tea Shop Mystery series).  Surprisingly, this is no run-of-the-mill mystery cozy.  Information about tea, tea drinking is woven into the story effortlessly, without alienating non-tea drinkers with too much details.  The protagonist, Theodosia Browning, is intelligent and likable, and the mystery itself is engaging enough, revolving around a much hated land developer who drops dead over a cup of tea.