Not so much fishkeeping as fish-losing.

I am new to fish keeping. Not so long ago I purchased on ebay a very nice tank and went about setting it up as it said in my book. I thought that if I just followed all the instructions, everything would go smoothly and I would have a beautiful tank and very happy fish. I have discovered it is not that simple. I have since spent hours shopping at local and online aquarium stores looking at fish, cleaning stuff, treatments, food, etc. I have joined fishkeeping forums and subscribed to Practical Fishkeeping. It is in fact one of those hobbies that sucks you in. It's quite complicated and there in lies the challenge. I fall for it every time.
So anyway, I naively went about setting up my tank. I won't bore you too much but basically I used tap water which around here is very hard and has loads of nitrate in it. The hardness means I now have a high pH and the nitrate has caused loads of algae. I am sorting this out gradually with water changes but it's taking a while. In the meantime I went ahead and got my first fish. They are zebra danios. Small, cute, friendly but most of all hardy and should withstand the odd beginners fishkeeping whoopsie. Or so I thought? They seemed very happy, I was just starting to get attached when one of them ups and disappears. It's just gone. I keep expecting a little fish body to float up from behind a plant somewhere, but nothing. I've checked the filter and he couldn't of jumped out as the lid is too tight. The only thing I can think is that one died and the others ate him. But in 12 hours! How hungry are they? Maybe I bought Piranhas by mistake. Maybe I shouldn't put my hands in there anymore...

Comments

[tom]

Hi, nice article I have a funny feeling that your fish jumped out, can I plug my new fishkeeping forum, check it out at http://fishkeeping-forum.com