Forty-four days into the tank's life, it's stable enough for me to introduce fish. Today, I stopped by Justin's place (Ocean Aquarium) and George and Steven's place (Aqua Forest Aquarium) to lightly populate the tank with an algae squad. My early algae problems abated, but I have lingering hair algae that, while not a threat, is simply unsightly. Here are the fish I bought:

• Siamese Algae Eaters (Siamensis): quantity 2: I had abysmal luck with these fish two years ago when I had them in Assgard (my 6g). I've learned a lot since then and feel comfortable having them around to gobble up annoying hair algae.
• Otocinclus affinis (dwarf otocinclus): quantity 3: I also had terrible luck with these fish a few years ago. They're so interesting and great scavengers, so I'm happy to have them around in a much healthier tank.
• Monotetrus travancoricus (dwarf freshwater puffer): quantity 1: I fell in love with these little guys when I first saw them at AFA. They stay very small and can live in a community tank with other fish who aren't too small. Although they may nip fins, they're not terribly aggressive in the absence of other puffers. Until I add my final school of color fish, he's the top dog in the tank.
• Cherry shrimp (indeterminate species): quantity 3: It's been a couple of years since I had beautiful cherry shrimp. Right now, they're incredibly small, so I've wrapped cheesecloth around the inflow pipe so they don't get sucked into the canister filter.
• Caridina japonica (Amano shrimp): quantity 2: As much of a fan of Amano as I am, I've never actually had Amano shrimp. Cherry, Tiger, Crystal Red, sure, but never Amano. I thought it was about time.

One of the young Siamenses followed closely by another.

One of my favorite types of shrimp. This specimen--quite young--is only a few millimeters in length.

Upper left corner, you can see my new puffer hovering over the Siamensis. He's a plucky one!

Tomorrow, I'll post new pics of the whole tank with my new Christmas present, an Olympus digital camera specially designed for zooms as close as 3 centimeters.