Setting up a fish tank...

So my mother brought home two goldfish Wednesday night. They've been sitting in a bowl in the bathroom since then, and yesterday we got them a tank, 5 gallons...

Good LORD they get touchy about what to use in the instructions! You have to use a NEW sponge or wash cloth to clean the tank(I used a new pouf I bought last night, too), to clean the gravel you need to use basically a NEW bucket not exposed to chemicals(I used metal pots... And strainers.)... Basically, they want you to shell out more than the initial $50+tax you already have to for the tank and set-up. Granted, yes, a new bucket and sponge would run about $3, but still... A bit much, yes?

Did I mention they're goldfish? They're feeder fish. The fun part's going to be moving them to the new tank... They're going from what I think is a 1-gallon bowl to a 5-gallon tank. Which, their prospects are already pretty good - They came in a bag that was full of water so grody, you could barely see the FISH. They're rather shy little buggers, and I have no names for them yet, but they're at least distinct from each other. I may see about getting them a third buddy who's not nearly as shy... 5 gallons is a lot of space for just two little fish!

Which, speaking of fish, not to go on a tangent, but... We saw GlowFish while we were at Wal-Mart last night(Yes, I shop there, no shame here!)... You know how most things at Wal-Mart are often much cheaper than the specialized stores? $5. For a fish that's smaller than my finger nail clippings. And that's just ONE fish, so if you want a school of them, that's $20+, just for the FISH. So how much was the tank running?

Around about $30, I want to say... It was rather pricey and actually cost MORE than the tank I bought for the goldfish. Yeah... Just for $5-a-pop fish. At least you can say that if they got out into the ecosystem... GlowFish are all sterile(Never mind how they get more of them). Though now I wonder, if a trout ate GlowFish, would it begin to glow, too...?

Man the hum of that filter's actually quite soothing... I may mute my TV tonight so I can fall asleep to that instead of the TV!