Never get aquarium advice from a place that does oil changes.

I swore I wasn't going to get into aquariums. My beta tank and my fish bowl were enough. But a few nights ago I was at Waly-World and they had a 5 gallon aquarium on clearence for $12.97, regularly $29.99. It included everything needed except the gravel, and the fish, which were $0.28 each. The universe was telling me to get one. I was talking to the girl who was working there and she suggested that I also buy an algae eater(pleco) to keep that under control. Those cost $3 or so, so no big deal. She also told me to have the tank set up and going for about 1 hour before adding the fish. I set up the tank that night. After setting it all up, I read in the aquarium manual that you should have it running for at least 24 hours before adding fish. Oops, well I had to add the fish because I wasn't sure if they could survive in that bag. It also dawned on me that I had no algae for the pleco to eat since it was a brand new tank. I hope the poor guy doesn't starve to death. But I've had it for a few days now and they are all still living. Cross your fingers.