Fish club speaker topics - let's brainstorm

[GaryE]

I'm involved in setting up a local aquarium club, one of those groups where you actually meet and talk to other aquarists. It's small, with a core of 15 and about 20 people buzzing around, but it has been going well.
One of our goals is to get local members to present on topics. We are 7 hours from the nearest Canadian club, so there's no help incoming. I'm an experienced club speaker, but no one wants to hear the same guy every second month (there is also an experienced aquarium store owner on board). People hate presenting. I get that. The idea was terrifying before life steered me into a public speaking direction.
I thought it might be easier if we put up some topcs to see if anyone wanted to take them on. We've already had a virtual tour of a fishroom, and a talk on breeding 'plecos'. Can anyone help out some local aquarists living on the eastern edge of North America with ideas of what we can suggest as easy interesting topics for new aquarists and new speakers to take on?
Next month I'm doing easy egg layer breeding ideas, and after that, we have an issue...

 

[Magnum Man]

Maybe make use of the www. And pick interesting topics discussed on blogs, and other media, as the basis for discussion for your group… it’s way easier to critique, challenge or agree, and further discuss, ideas someone already provided the basis of, way less scary than proposing our own ideas, cold turkey ( sorry for the Thanksgiving Day pun ), at least doing that every other meeting, may get the juices flowing, and get members more comfortable speaking, and may result in more original dialogue, and my provide facts on the subject, or facts to dispute…

 

[Back in the fold]

Do you do a bowl show where each person brings a fish to show off ? The most interest in whatever fish would make a good topic . Another good topic is the community aquarium and how to pick compatible species . Way back in the olden days I gave a speech on Angelfish at my little Aquarium Society . The older members picked somebody plenty ahead of time and asked them to do a talk . I was nervous when my turn came but I did it . Once I got going it was fun .

 

[GaryE]

We don't do bowl shows. Too many fish get dangerously chilled in our climate - most clubs up here discontinued them 30 years ago. It's too bad, because I saw some cool fish for the first time in those.

 

[Colin_T]

Are you looking for ideas on what to talk about or what, I don't quite understand what you are after?

If you're after ideas, start with filtration, water changes & gravel cleaning, disease prevention, basic disease identification (maybe do a talk on one disease each month), plants, lighting, fertiliser. Each month do a species of fish or if you have time to kill, do a genus of fish. Do tank sizes for fish, how to set up an aquarium. Collecting wild fish. Culturing live food, making frozen food.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

My club's last meeting featured Mark Denaro, who manages one of the big importers, giveing a talk with illustratins of his trip to visit the plant farms in Asia. He also imports a lot of the plants directly from the farms.

I knew Mark from years back and had not seen him in some time. It was a pretty good talk.

We get speakers from all areas of the hobby. My club ( the Danbury Area Aquarium Society (DAAS)), has a diversity of members in terms of what they keep. We have breeders, we have plant pros, we have people who concentrate on a diversity of areas and our speakers are quite diverse.

De[ending on how far from the USA border you are, your club may be able to get some speakers to come to your club from the states. My club is a member of The Northeast Council of Aquarium Societies https://northeastcouncil.org/

Historically, the NEC has accepted membership from aquarium societies in the northeast area of the US; due to a recent change to our constitution, any club within the US and abroad can become a member of the NEC.

The following clubs are members of the NEC:

If you belong to any of these clubs, then you are a member of the NEC!
Aquarium Club of Lancaster County (ACLC)
Aquarium Club of Maryland (ACM)
Boston Aquarium Society (BAS)
Brooklyn Aquarium Society (BASNY)
Bucks County Aquarium Society (BCAS)
Capital Cichlid Association (CCA)
Central New York Aquarium Society (CNYAS)
Cichlid Club of York (CCY)
Danbury Area Aquarium Society (DAAS)
Diamond State Aquarium Society (DSAS)
Greater City Aquarium Society (GCAS)
Jersey Shore Aquarium Society (JSAS)
Koi Organisation International (KOI)
Long Island Killifish Association (LIKA)
Metropolitan Area Killifish Assocation (MAKA)
Nassau County Aquarium Society (NCAS)
New England Cichlid Association (NECA)
New England Fancy Guppy Association (NEFGA)
North Jersey Aquarium Society (NJAS) *CHARTER CLUB*
Norwalk Aquarium Society (NAS) *CHARTER CLUB*
Otter Valley Aquarium Society (OVAS)
Pioneer Valley Aquarium Society (PVAS) *CHARTER CLUB*
South Coast Tropical Fish Society (SCTFS)
South Jersey Guppy Group (SGJGG)
Southern New England Killifish Association (SNEKA)
Tropical Fish Club of Burlington (TFCB)
Tropical Fish Society of Rhode Island (TFSRI)
Upstate New York Killifish Association (UNYKA)
Worcester Aquarium Society (WAS) *CHARTER CLUB*

 

[MaloK]

It depends on the time allowed at each meeting. Knowing this could help develop a formula to have a lapse on diverse basic topics like Colin mentioned, then add diverse topics of the day, Free time with a lunch to make members get knowing each other, etc, this can go far.

In a young club that has a low numbers of members, the best way to get them to present on topics is to start by making them talk about their own setups.

Call it The MTS support group moment, get a member or two or three... to talk about their setups, take note of their strength and specialty and then corner them to invite them to have a periodic section at each meeting.

Sadly today, you have to whip people a little to get them going, loll. Present things has a challenge...

My best line is "Don't get in an aquarium club if you're afraid to get wet."

 

[GaryE]

I'm looking to make a list of easy topics someone who isn't a natural speaker could cover. Colin had some beauties there.

As for the NEC - I've presented at the convention, a looooong time ago. We're 3 hours north of Bangor Me, so a ways from the US clubs. I spoke at Burlington Vt a few weeks back, and that was a 9 hour drive. So as kind as people are, I don't see much hope other than generating our own topics.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

What about doing Zoom presentations? or some other form o the speaker appearing online at during the meeting in some way. And I bet if you offerd to pay a nominal amount that would not hurt. Usually a club will at least pay for the speaker's transportation costs and often a meal.

I was a vendor at a number of the NEC annual weekend events. They were mostly held about an hour and a half drive from me and I was friendly with the person who chaired the event for a number of years.

 

[fishorama]

I belong to a plant club, so I'm going to suggest plants as 2tank & Colin said. When a club member, also a member of the local fish club, started a new plant study group in that club, my carpool friend & I went to support him. I brought "grass-like" plants of a few kinds (big vals, sags, liliaeopsis). & he talked about stem plants, crowned plants; anubius, ferns & mosses that aren't planted, & touched on higher tech plants that are difficult without co2 & maybe high light. Also, of course, talking about lighting & ferts for low-medium tech plants but only a bit. Leave them wanting to know more!

I donated my plants for my club friend to sell & he made more for both clubs than I'd thought possible, since in my plant club we give them away unless it's something very special. Of course these is a largish clubs.

Also, there's landscaping/hardscaping, the "golden rule" of 3/5. Or the more "Italianate" formal symmetrical style & my favorite, "jungle style", lol. Every plant that grows well might need some control, but not too much; remove any plant that doesn't work in your conditions. Go with what works!

Breeding fish is always a good topic. Livebearers, egg scatterers, egg tending parents like cichlids & plecos. How to avoid hybrids & selective line breeding for traits. It can help sell some fry too, .

I'd also say algae control, early disease recognition, available treatments etc. You know, everything we discuss on fish boards

 

[GaryE]

Good ideas coming in here. Later, as we move along, zoom could work. Right now, we're all socially engineering each other with the idea that technology doesn't do it all. That face to face human contact thing is a hard concept for a lot of younger people. Once we're used to that, onwards and upwards.
The plant suggestions, among other good ideas, are helpful. We have two members who are solid with plants, and wanted to do "plants". Breaking them up into groups makes sense, as we don't get the same presentation that way, and they can go more in depth.

I've given dozens of talks over the years, all over. There's that problem that develops - being into it too much when discussing with people who are just getting involved. I'm trying to see what will work for intelligent people starting out, wanting something more developed but in its early stages.

 

[Archerfish]

Sorry I'm late to this discussion. Thanksgiving Day with wonderful family, great food, even some people we haven't seen in years. Great time for sure. Anyway, perhaps you can line up a couple of speakers via Skype? Looks like you have a good head start with the suggestions above. Having a store owner on board is a gold mine my only caution is to make sure the members don't wear the person out. People tend to only want to discuss what they are comfortable with. For long-term projects, perhaps ask some of them to obtain fishes they have not kept and periodically report on the lessons learned. Give a progress report at each meeting. And if they agree, hold a meeting in their home to allow the members to see either the on-going progress or results. Doing a new project requires them to research, plan and implement. It will expand your clubs foundation. I wish you much success with your new club!

 

[Lateral Line]

This will not help with sourcing speakers, but this link is to the FBAS and the FBAS speakers list which may give you ideas for topics. Some of the subjects are rather broad or vague I'm afraid.

<edit>
Sorry, I should have made it clear, the FBAS is the "Federation of British Aquarist Societies".