What’s New With KWAT? May 2023

Hey Twisties,

I hope you’re all doing well and the weather is good wherever in the world you are! Here in the UK we’re just getting into Summer, with warmer days and shorter nights. It’s still not that warm at times but it is definitely getting there!

So, what’s been happening this month?

1. I Came Back!

Whew! That was a mass panic, wasn’t it? Somehow, I had two business plans running on my blog, plus plug-ns, costing me about £150 per month. It’s little wonder then that I was struggling so much! Needless to say I’ve cut it down to one plan now, which unfortunately only renews annually now, instead of at a smaller, more manageable monthly charge like before (thankyou, WordPress!). I’ve also got rid of my newsletter, which was a huge source of stress for me and was massively underperforming. Onwards and upwards, Twisties!

2. We Celebrated Our 10-Year Wedding Anniversary!

I still can’t believe that Matt and I have been married ten years, it still feels like two. We didn’t do a lot to celebrate it and yet, in a way, not doing a lot was the perfect celebration for us anyway. We talked about having a huge celebration before but time and time again neither of us were really bothered about having a big party, so in the end we just went out for a pub dinner with friends instead. It was still nice, though!

3. I Updated 2 Of My Most Read Posts

Right now, much of my blog is outdated – by at least three years! That’s tragic and that’s something I never knew I’d have to remedy, I just thought you could post a blog post and then it would sit there and do it’s thing, but no! I’ve been working from the bottom up of my posts lists, updating the older stuff until I get to the newer stuff, but in doing that I updated two of my most-read posts yesterday and it’s already making a difference to my traffic. Awesome!

4. I Got Verbally Assaulted

There are some real jackasses on this planet, aren’t there? On this glorious May day, I was working in the front garden and as a man drove past, he shouted “wow! That’s ugly, wow!” of me, then again when he got out of the car. Where is the need, really? Why can’t we all just respect one another? I’ve let the police and my landlord know and they’re definitely keeping an eye, but I’ve told them to hang tight for now because the guy only lives a few doors away and it’s best not to make a bad situation even worse.

5. Some Of My Shrimp Are Still Alive!

I added at least 20 two months ago, and from a count last night, I still have about 11 red cherry shrimps left. I think I overdid the water changes a bit when I first added them, I was too keen to keep them alive and in doing that, I accidentally killed some of them instead. There’s a lot of convoluted imformation on the web about keeping red cherry shrimp and I’ve found that the best tip so far is to keep the TDS between 200-400 and use small, regular water changes. For fellow aquarists out there who may be struggling with shrimp, my tank is a 13 gallon freshwater twice sponge filtered (one UV) set-up with five panda corydoras, four pygmy corydoras, five zebra thorn nerite snails and red cherry shrimp (super peaceful before feeding time!). I do one 1.3 gallons water change per week (treated with Tetra Aquasafe), aged 24 hours to bring up to room tempature and syphoned in slowly with a piece of air hose (never pour!). I alternate feed days between dried food (Tetra Crusta Menu and Supa catfish pellets, plus a calcium mineral block once per week) and blanched pea (shelled and mushed with a few drops of tank water). My water chemistry sits at NO2- 0PPM, NO3- 20PPM, NH3 0PPM, TDS 360 (tap water 300), I’ll be making up and adding a java moss wall hopefully tonight to suck up those remaining pesky nitrates – I hope that helps! 🙂

6. My Chili Rasboras, Though, Are Not

I’m not quite sure what happened or when, but one by one, any time I’ve done work in the tank, my chili rasboras have been dying off. Maybe I lost a few and the stress of a smaller shoal got to the others and weakened them? I’m not too sure. A few days ago I had to turn my UV filter off because one of my darling snails (can you tell how often this is a game to them?) got into outlet to feed off of the gunk that’s in there and blocked the propeller, and when I turned the filter back on, one of my rasboras was floating dead on the top. I had two left and knowing how this was likely going to end, I decided to rehome them with a rasbora-keeping friend instead. Hopefully they’ll survive their time in quarantine and settle in to their new home just fine. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

7. I’m Still Working On The Garden!

With thanks to my feminine wiles, the whole process has gone much faster than I had anticipated. I didn’t get any help yesterday, but I did get some help laying down one whole 850kg bag last week, putting me much further along in the process than what I had anticipated. It’s definitely showing and my garden looks huge and much brighter, thanks to the sunlight reflecting off of the light gravel. I can’t wait to finally start getting some plants in 🙂

That’s it from me for this month! What’s new with you? Be sure to give this post a like and share your gossip (good or bad!) in the comments below, or click here for more of my latest writings!