I bought my FIRST fish last night around 5 o' clock p.m eastern time. First thing i did was set the cup on the kitchen counter for a bit while I got the water, conditioned it, and poured it into the bowl. After letting the conditioned water sit for a couple minutes, I took of the lid of the pastic cuppy thingy, and put the plastic cuppy thingy into the water to float in it so the water temp. would be similar and so not to shock the fish. After about 7 or 8 minutes of that ( i was being sooo impatient that day ) I started to acclimate, and did that for a little over ten minutes. Then i gently pushed the cup down and let the fishy in the water. NOW, to tell you about the fish. the fish <s> is </s> was, a gorgeous dark red crowntail, only about 1 inch long. Moving around in his cuppy a lot, and at the store he was flaring at the other males ALL around him in THEIR little plastic cuppies. He was breathing about 1 1/2 per second which i think is normal, and was breathing regularly. He didnt have any white spots, so inflated stomach, bulging eyes, etc. He looked like a healthy crowntail! But some things he did in the bowl were wierd. for example, he stayedin one spot for LONG periods at a time. And when he moved he looked a little like he had a stroke... So now on to what I have in the bowl. There are NO other fish in there. Washed and bleached garden pebbles from home depot serve as the gravel. the bleach had LONG evaporated dont worry about that.. i had done that over a week earlier. There was a glass blue whale in there pretty big about 3 - 4 inches long a couple inches thick. its a pretty awesome whale for the bowl it looks super pretty. My fish seemed to like it; he hid behind it a lot that night before he passed away. The fish floated half the tiem at the very bottom of the two gallon bowl, or the very top using his labrynith organ. It was at two a.m last night when I realized he hadnt moved from his spot for a whole hour. i got a clean chopstick and poked him. he didnt move AT ALL. even drifted a teeny bit. i looked at his gills which werent moving. He was DEAD. No, this tank was not cycled... or filtered... it was just temperature adjusted conditioned tap.....yah Anyways im still really upset about Kavi dying. He was my first fish and a real beauty. I loved the little fishy bishy! Anyways, please tell me if any of you guys have an idea why he died. Im starting to cycle another two gallon thing I have right now for the next fish.