I e-mailed them with tons of questions. Yes I can reserve her (and I found two others) but only for a few weeks so I'm still waiting. They know the gender and hatch-date of each fish and guarantee live-arrival! I think I found my new supplier.

So I found this charming eyeless fantail today.... 

If it doesn't have eyes, that means that something has plucked them out, it sometimes happens that goldfish lose an eye due to trauma. Either from bullying or from shipping. The fish might be in bad physical shape due to the stress and injuries, it wouldn't be a very good idea to get such a fish since it might not live for very long.

One of my baby pearl scales lost his eye soon before it he died It looked so terrible and it just broke my heart really, so I understand the feeling of wanting to take care of the little soul

Oh, that's terrible! I can't even believe how they have fish in that shape (anchor worm and fin rot) up for sale
It's disgusting what they think they can get away with

On a brighter note, has your tank finished cycling yet?

SQUEEEEEE<333333333333  
hehehe
fyi the quarantine fish weren't actually for sale, they were "under examination" -.-
it was sad the number that had finrot, there were even a few in with all the rest of the fish (there was an adorable pearlie with, like, half the top of his/her dorsal fin missing, beautiful little baby, made my heart hurt :/ )
oh and i'm actually not sure, i need to get more test strips  or should i splurge for a better kit lol although idk if the petstore has them and i don't know where any lfs's are here haha

Hmmm my LFS uses test strips, they tested my water for me for free when I went in asking questions because I was worried about Lucky. Why do people say test strips are un-reliable anyway? It's something I hear a lot....

Lauren I would say, get a liquid one if you can, only because they last longer than strips do, so it's more economical to buy one liquid set than buy loads of strips. In my LFS they had strips for Ammonia £10 and strips for Nitrate and Nitrite that were also £10, so it would be £20 for both, but these packets alone would only cover 50 tests or so. So it was better for me to buy the liquid test kit for £30 that covers everything and claims it can do over 800 tests. So here in the UK at least you're really not saving money that much when you buy strips!
Plus it's kinda fun mixing things in test tubes, I feel like a scientist

This is the one I use, I found it on Amazon for you (Link is not visible to guests. Please register to view.)

The instructions are really clear, so a clever lady like you will understand it no problem, the booklet also recommends products to try if one of your water parameters are too high and not going down.
The set gives you everything you need to check the PH, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrates

Tetra do a 6-in-1 test strip pack:25 strips, tests for:NO₃^-,NO₂^-,GH,kH,pH,Cl₂

Hmm I usually just check my water once every few weeks just to make sure it's okay or if Lucky's acting strange.
So I still think the liquid one's are best, otherwise you're paying £10 for only 25 tests (so £30 worth would only give you 75 tests).

The only test strip I've considered getting is the ammonia one, because I find it hard to tell what colour the liquid one is sometimes  

But again these two products show what I mean, both test for ammonia;
(Link is not visible to guests. Please register to view.)
This one is a liquid test at £8.80 and the kit yields up to 50 tests.

(Link is not visible to guests. Please register to view.)
This one is a strip test at £8.98 and only gives you 25 tests.

So practically the same price, but one will give you twice as much!

I suppose at the end of the day it depends on preference really I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have a liquid test but then some strips just in case you run out or are un sure on the colours.

Yes..They are easy to use...I only test if I think there's a problem as I find that using"Easy balance" keeps the tank nice and stable.

I've looked at the liquids, but the thought of spending nearly £40 made me blanch.


 

I do that too now that the tank is cycled, so I figure I won't actually need any particularly amazing test equipment, to be honest.

What's the manufacturer of Easy balance? I might have seen it somewhere around

I just do a half weekly gravel/glass clean...to take out excess waste

[image]

Yeah as I mentioned once before, I don't trust something that says it's just as good as a 'water change' XD
Adding a product and the tank will be okay for 6 months? Obviously these people have never kept goldfish! Could you imagine the amount of poo and un - eaten food in the gravel after 6 months?!

Scrivens your plan of attack makes sense, I imagine with doing gravel cleaning that frequent, you end up doing small partial water change anyway!

I think it would be just fine. Just because it says on the bottle that it would be as good as a water change, it doesn't mean you'd have to use it as a substitute for one.
Notice how many tropical fish keepers are changing just a small, small amount of water at a time? In that case I'm pretty sure this product would be ideal, and as scrivens says, it would probably be helpful while you're out of the house too