Sunshine guppys and massages

Or perhaps it'd be better to say Sunset guppies... I bought four yesterday which are beautiful and have cheered me up a lot though this photo doesn't display them at their best. Just was the only one I could find on the web. I intended to go bird watching but it was so cold my brains felt like they were starting to freeze, not to mention my sunglasses steam up so I decided to visit the water garden cum pet shop instead to restock my almost empty tank. Some details on them and a pic;

This entertaining fish is one of the most extensively bred and readily available fish of recent years. It makes a bright addition to the middle and top of the tank. Males (3cm) are clearly recognized by their brightly-coloured fan tail, whereas females are larger (6cm) and duller. Breeding is easy approximately at 4 week intervals; females give birth to live young. Bushy plants will provide cover for young fry and may allow a few to survive in a community tank. Females may already be pregnant when purchased. As females can store sperm, a female can give birth to several separate broods without a male. An undemanding fish, although due to captive breeding (all brightly coloured guppies are captive-bred), their hardiness is much reduced compared to wild guppies, and they have become more demanding of good water conditions.

I also bought some Cardinal tetras;

The cardinal tetra, Paracheirodon axelrodi, is a freshwater fish of the characin family (family Characidae) of order Characiformes. It is native to the upper Orinoco and Negro Rivers in South America.
Growing to about 3 cm (1.25 in) total length, the cardinal tetra has the striking iridescent blue line characteristic of the Paracheirodon species laterally bisecting the fish, with the body below this line being vivid red in color, hence the name "cardinal tetra". The cardinal tetra's appearance is similar to that of the closely related neon tetra, with which it is often confused; the neon's red coloration extends only about halfway to the nose, and the neon's blue stripe is a less vibrant blue, however.
The cardinal tetra is a very popular aquarium fish but is less widespread than the neon tetra because until recently it was difficult to breed in captivity. However, many breeders are now producing the fish; in most cases one can determine if the cardinal tetra is bred or wild caught due to damaged fins on wild caught specimens. Normally aquarists prefer to buy tank bred fish but some Brazilian ichthyologists believe that fishkeepers should continue to support the sustainable Cardinal fishery of the Amazon basin, since thousands of people are employed in the region to capture fish for the aquarium trade. It has been suggested that if those fishermen lost their livelihood catching Cardinals and other tropical fish, they might turn their attention to engaging in deforestation.

 and some baby tiger barbs to keep my single, remaining adult tiger barb company;

The Tiger Barb is one of the more widely kept members of the Barb family, especially because of its looks and behavior. They're small, very active, playful and usually not shy at all. One of the more well known traits of the Tiger Barbs is a tendency to "fin nip" on other fish. Long finned species such as Angels and Bettas are especially victimized. My experience has been that this behavior can be avoided if you keep them in small groups (5 or more). In this case they spend most of the time chasing each other around and tend to leave the other species alone. Lonely tiger barbs, on the other hand, seem to feel bored or insecure and start fin nipping as some sort of defensive instinct. A beautiful green strain and an albino variety are often available in fish shops.

Animals always make me feel more relaxed and warm, whether I'm reading about them, watching, or just cuddling the g-pigs. Its not just that the natural world fascinates me or distract me, reflecting on it puts everything into perspective somehow. Basically the study of the natural world is the study of the rich tapestry of life and it reminds you of the tivialness of your own existence, how fleeting our terrible civialisation is and the rightness of death.

Mum has also been giving me massages before I go to bed to help me relax more. This has helped my stress a lot. I now have no need to take any Melatonin whereas before I was taking 5 tablets! She is training to be a biodynamic massage therapist so its good for her to get lots of practice too

I'm seeing a alternative practitioner called Mark for counselling. His son has serious thyroid problems so I feel alright talking to him as he is used to sick teenagers and ignorant, scared Drs