The fish Kavi gave me I put in the new tank next to the garage, which I have described already as providing a home for some of the angels who were born on the balcony way back in October 2022. There are four of them there, placed after I had put in a lotus plant that I hoped would provide them with shelter, though I also placed netting along the sides.

Before that I had had a few little fish, only a couple of whom have survived, but they include a Black Molly which I think was one of those who survived being moved into a basin that was a nursery for lotus seeds, and lived on there with a friend when the lotuses gave up. He was joined by two tiger barbs, and two green barbs, which are related though they have a green splodge instead of the stripes that make their counterparts so beautiful.

And then there were four white catfish, who dart about the place, in contrast to the stately angels who glide along with great dignity, two white ones, a black one, and one that has a golden streak.

Into this menage I added four Oscars which Kavi gave me for Christmas. Two were white, preposterously round, with bulbous eyes. One of them had these characteristics in spades, and he practically fixed himself to the front glass of the tank, and causes me great joy, not least because he is excessively greedy. His mate took some time to join him, but is now often in evidence, while the black ones were more coy though they too have taken courage now.

What I find astonishing, and thrilling, is that a whole host of them are waiting at the edge when I go down of a morning to give Rocky his yoghurt and then feed them (in that order, since Rocky is very sensitive and sometimes will not eat if I feed the fish first). Generally I find three of the angels with their noses to the glass, and the two white Oscars, while the little black fish swim in and out amongst them.

Missing are the catfish, but they appear soon after the food is dropped in, and twist in and out amongst the others, darting at the blobs of food, while Round Oscar munches steadily on.

And there is even greater joy there for the lotus plant I put in has produced blossom after blossom. The plant is in a basin which is in the centre of the pond, and after the first blossom which was there to start with three buds have surfaced through the water, and have burst into flower when the sun is hot. Sadly they do not last longer than three or four days before they droop, but they look magnificent when they bloom.

Unfortunately they do not blossom early morning, so I have to make another trip down, and lurk so that I can get a picture of the flower with fish surrounding it. 

The first two pictures are from the end of last year, with the white oscars to the fore, a dark one also in the second picture and the angels in profusion. The lotus seen there had faded, as the second picture shows but been replaced by another, and then that too fell away after a couple of days. But the next, as seen in the last picture, was once just blooming when I went to feed the fish, so you can see the dawn chorus, the oscars as always leading the band.