Introducing the first three

Fig. 2.1

Bringing home the first three fishes! 
2nd January 2012, our trip to Petsmart a week after we set up the tank with filter and heater on to make sure the water is good enough for the new fishes. 
Platys, Tetras, Guppies, Mollies, Algae Eaters, etc were some of the non-aggressive Tropical community fish. Here I liked Bloodfin tetra and he liked the Long fin Red minor Tetra. So we settled for that! 3 of them came home with us. All excited, eyes set on the tank to see if anyone was floating up there. They made it through the first day. 

Fig. 2.2

We brought home some flakes "Omega Fish food" to enrich their color. They say do not over feed the fish. We started feeding the fishes at 9am and around 9pm. The light stays on for 12 hours too! Location wise the is away from the window, not on the way of foot traffic, away from the draft of the main door if any. 



How to introduce the fish in the tank for the first time?
This is what we did: 
Took a sample of water to Petsmart, made sure that the ammonia level and the ph of the water is safe for first time fish. We bought Long fin red minor Tetras from the store straight home. They say no stops anywhere on the way. Place the bag in the tank and wait for about 10-15mins so that the temperature of the water in the bag is the same as that of the tank. Then with a fish net introduce the fish into the tank.
Observation:
The little ones were confused. They started moving around in panic, settled at the bottom of the tank and then gradually started fin nipping the smallest fish. They say its a common behavior of the tetras. We observed them for a night and next day morning saw the little one's tail was irregular shaped! We figured it was the other two who were responsible to it. We decided to add two more that would be five of them. This would help them set their hierarchy and the little one would be saved.