Derby ongoing

‘ve just published Part 181 of a long series about what we went through. I gave some background information for uninitiated readers.

In my experience, the bullying tactics have involved throwing disinformation our way; or a variant: throw some baits our way, see if we eat them.

This is a pattern of attacks on media in the UK (and elsewhere), so we need to do something about this whole phenomenon.

Don’t capitulate, fight back.

Consider the SLAPP industry in the UK. We’ll need see which one gets fish (business of SLAPP), then study the fish and talk about it. We’ll see what triggers the SLAPP companies, then focus more on that. We’ll get warmer and closer to their “skeletons in the closet” over time.

I reckon I can spent another decade dealing with this problem.

They know the face!

HE other day or about a week ago in Mayfield we tested the birds to see if they can recognise us and distinguish us (from the crowds passing by). Some birds did. When they see us – and they do in fact know the faces – they know food has arrived. No mnemonic like clapping necessary anymore.

One bird then follows the other. A flock forms.

Birds are smart.

So far, so good

t has been nearly 24 hours for the new arrivals and they seem to be coping OK. I spent many hours working on them yesterday, checking their condition every 10 minutes or so until going to sleep. Time-consuming? For sure. Even gave me a physical headache. But the first few hours or days are critical, I wanted to be sure the creatures all get along and, if not, intervene before it’s too late.

Learned from experience…

I don’t expect this week to be busy anyway. Many things have calmed down, people go back to work, and this coming week/days/weekend there are many fans walking past the streets here to concerts, including the very weird fans of Melanie Martinez. The music scene has gotten truly bizarre.

had a very productive day today, especially all the “fish tank” stuff. At one point we discussed the options available to us, then I left home just in time to reach the pet store at 9AM (when it opens). I spent a long time looking at all the animals and could see the people who ran the shop really love animals. One was hugging the lizard while cleaning its cage; the lizard would not let go when he came to the fish section to help and advise me. They also checked things on a computer system to give me expert advice when I asked questions.

There used to be a pet store (another multi-floor shop) closer to us, but it shut down not long after COVID-19. Their fish section was a lot smaller and they kept some fish in very tiny containers (maybe 2 litres per fish), which looked and felt cruel.

Black and pink (blackpink?)

am glad to say that we have 20 fish right now and they are all healthy and seemingly happy. They get plenty of human attention. They’re not being neglected, abandoned, or malnourished (except when nasty men engage in lawfare).

Aside from the loaches and penguin tetras we not have some pearl danios in the cold tank and many flame tetras in the warm tank along with cardinal tetras as seen in this photo:

Almost the entire time (that is observable by me) they do characteristically move in schools, always together or nearby, unlike some other fish we’ve had. The fish in the cold tank are very close to me as it is 5 inches from my keyboard and below the screen that I type articles on. The hundreds of shells are doing well, but they are slow-moving. They don’t steal attention.

I’ve joked with a friend that I should write a script to generate passwords from their movements, no lava lamps necessary.

I’ve noticed the danios love swimming against the current that’s coming out from the filters and they always move quite tightly in groups, which means they’re a very social fish and they will grow a LOT more over time. We’ve calculated their projected final size to ensure the tanks won’t get too congested, overcrowding would make grumpy fish.

Just in time for our anniversary.

Coping better

T is day one for the new arrangement of the shells here and so far they seem to be doing OK. They were getting a shocking rinse yesterday, so they went into their shells and now, slowly, they are coming back out and moving around on the surface. Soon we’ll add the filter and some decorative items.

The change was months overdue.

Snails/shells

vening time today was spent transferring all the shells (I estimate over 200 of them) to a bigger tank and setting it all up. As far as I can tell, all should be able to survive the transfer and I didn’t see any dead one.

They might need companions soon – a task for the coming week or maybe only a few days.