new fish!

Yes, again. I am trying to finish stocking my aquarium, with fishes that I like looking at. This is the first time I have paid the extra money (earned from my vectors) to buy fish online directly from a breeder. I once received a plant in the mail, but never fish before:

As advised I opened the package slowly in a dim room, as the fish have been in complete darkness during transit. It really is a small thrill to see live fish moving around in there!

To my mild surprise, the printed instructions in the box said not to float the bag or gradually add tank water, but to immediately dump the fish straight into the aquarium. Not to quarantine, either. Instead I was supposed to have done a water change and gravel cleaning in my home tank the previous day, adding Quick Cure and aquarium salt too. They claim this is the best method for introducing new fish with minimum stress. I guess I didn't read the website careful enough. Well, I had done a small water change on the 20gal just the day before yesterday in order to set up the small quarantine tank for new arrivals, so that one did have clean water. And the 10gal got a thorough cleaning on friday, which was just three days ago. I don't have Quick Cure, but I did add a half-dose of dissolved aquarium salt. I put one kuhli loach straight into the small aquarium, and two into the larger home tank.

I put the three blue wag platies into the quarantine tank on my kitchen counter. At first they were pale, nearly transulcent, hiding behind the decor, one had slightly clamped fins. But after an hour or so relaxed a bit, not hiding as much, their color starting to show.

Not wanting to go against the advice, but I don't want to cause an ammonia spike in my 20gal by adding too many new fish at once. It so recently had a crash with the ich. I plan to put the platies into the big tank at the end of a week, after next water change.