Open With the Instruction That Surprises Every Sitter
The first written note for a white cloud mountain minnow sitter should be the one that feels wrong: do not add a heater. Explain that this shoal lives in an unheated tank by design, that cool water suits a fish from mountain streams, and that a normally heated room is all the warmth they need. Follow it with the second surprise, that the lid stays fully closed at all times because these small fish jump through gaps a sitter would not credit. Put both rules at the top of the page rather than buried in detail, since each guards against the two commonest holiday accidents for this species, a well-meant warming and an escape during a curious peek.
Write Feeding for a Small, Quick Shoal
Feeding notes for white cloud mountain minnows should specify fine food in a single small pinch, scattered along the filter flow so the whole shoal feeds in the drift instead of competing at one spot. Tell the sitter the minnows will rise and take food mid-water with quick darts, and that the meal should be gone briskly; food still settling on the pebbles minutes later means the next portion shrinks. Name the food and where it lives, note any second food used on particular days, and forbid substitutes from the sitter's own kitchen or another tank, because rich or oversized food fouls a cool, modest setup while offering the fish little they can use.
Cover Heat, Light and Top-Ups as the Whole Water Brief
Water care for this species during a short absence is mostly environmental, so write it that way. Ask the sitter to glance at the thermometer daily and message you if the room turns hot for a stretch, since a heatwave is the realistic water emergency for a white cloud mountain minnow, and to leave the tank light on its timer rather than improvising longer days. Evaporation is topped up slowly with the conditioned water you prepared, to the line you marked, and no water change or gravel cleaning is attempted while you are away. If the home has a sunny spell, closing the curtain nearest the tank is a genuinely useful sitter task for this cool-water shoal and worth writing down as one.
Tell the Sitter What a Contented Shoal Looks Like
Describe the ordinary picture so the sitter can report against it: the minnows drift as a loose group, red fins bright, males occasionally displaying and sparring briefly near plants, everyone rising together at feeding time. Note that the group may scatter and hide for a minute after the lid is opened, which is reflex rather than illness. The reportable changes are a minnow isolating itself under a plant all day, several fish holding station in the filter current with fast gill movement, faded colour across the group, or a fish found outside the tank. Keep the list beside your phone number and the name of the aquatic shop you use, so a worried sitter has exactly one page to act from.
Let the Notes Carry the Counterintuitive Parts Next Time
After the trip, correct the notes wherever the sitter hesitated; with this species that is usually the heater rule and the smallness of the feeding, so sharpen those sentences for the next reader. A white cloud mountain minnow routine depends on a handful of facts that contradict general fishkeeping instinct, which makes the written version unusually valuable. Filing that version in your KinsLe Care Pass gives a trusted sitter temporary, clear access to the shoal's cool-water rules, lid discipline and feeding size, so the fish are kept the way they actually thrive rather than the way a kind stranger assumes.