fishdudein
Fishaholic
Hi folks. Just thought I'd check in here with all of you and let you know that I am back from the American Livebearer Association's 2005 Convention. What a great time! I had posted a couple threads earlier to see if anyone had any info on this or was interested in going. If you have any interest in livebearers at all, you missed a great time, I would recommend it for anyone if they ever get the chance to go to one. The entire convention covered Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, April 8,9, & 10. I was only able to go to today (Sunday). But....today was auction day!!!!
Here's my damage report ( ):
6 pairs of Endler's livebearer
2 pair and 6 young of Xenotoca eiseni (red tail goodeids)
2 pair of Ameca splendens (butterfly goodeid)
A trio of Xenoophorus captivus (green goodeids) (a threatened species in Mexico)
A pair of peppermint swordtails (cool looking fish that I had not seen before)
A trio of half-black pastel guppies (hopefully these will keep my strain going, these are gorgeous fish!!)
A pair of red delta guppies (some new blood for my strain)
Aphyosemion rubrolabiale (red lip killies....yes, MORE killies ) (not livebearers, but there also were several lots of albino kribs, 2 or 3 lots of angelfish, several bettas, and even some tetras in the mix!)
Also snagged a 1966 edition of "The Innes Book" (I had a copy of this book that I read from cover to cover several times over when I was a kid. Then I made the mistake of lending it out and haven't seen "it" or a replacement since then...it was like finding a long lost friend!!! )
I also bought a copy of "Swordtails and Platys" book that was the featured book special for convention-goers. Had the wonderful chance to speak one-on-one with Ted Coletti, columnist for FAMA and TFH magazines and author of several books, about the blue hi-fin variatus platys I have, and he pointed out a color plate in this book that is really close to what I am working with. He was very encouraging, and I am more than a little pumped up right now about my chances for marketing these fish.
Oh yeah, and I also bought some microworm and vinegar eel starter cultures, start giving my fish a live treat now and then!
Last but not least, I got 2 new hats, one with the ALA logo, and the other with a species preservation group's logo on it.
This auction was truly a BLAST! I had a styro fish box full of bags when I left the show, but I probably didn't spend much more than $50. There were SO many bags of fish...the auction started at noon, and I think it got over sometime around 7! Of course, there were lots of fish that went really high. The Montezumae swords that I was hoping to get always seemed to go for at least $30 a pair. But the longer you stayed to the end, the cheaper the stuff went for...at the very end, most bags were going for 1 to 2 dollars!
I'm just finally making it into the house, been busy since I got home acclimating, tanking and feeding all my new fish. Labor of love...
I had mentioned to someone in my previous thread that I was going to post pics when I got back. The "contest" part of the convention was Saturday, and by today at auction time, there were only a very few of the contest tanks set up. I was trying to get a picture of the huge amount of bagged fish in the auction tables........and found out that my camera batteries had run down . I think I might have managed to get a picture of somebody's Coleman cooler sitting on the floor in front of where I was standing!
Oh, and then I also found out last week that the American Killifish Association is having a show...you guessed it....same weekend! In Chicago! I'm in Lafayette IN, which is about an hour and 15 min from south side of Indy (ALA), and about 2 hours from Chicago (AKA)...talk about tearing a fishaholic up!!!
Maybe you can tell by my rambling, I am tired! Been a long day....think I'm gonna head off to catch a few zzzzzz's, maybe dream of a successful Montezumae bid!
Here's my damage report ( ):
6 pairs of Endler's livebearer
2 pair and 6 young of Xenotoca eiseni (red tail goodeids)
2 pair of Ameca splendens (butterfly goodeid)
A trio of Xenoophorus captivus (green goodeids) (a threatened species in Mexico)
A pair of peppermint swordtails (cool looking fish that I had not seen before)
A trio of half-black pastel guppies (hopefully these will keep my strain going, these are gorgeous fish!!)
A pair of red delta guppies (some new blood for my strain)
Aphyosemion rubrolabiale (red lip killies....yes, MORE killies ) (not livebearers, but there also were several lots of albino kribs, 2 or 3 lots of angelfish, several bettas, and even some tetras in the mix!)
Also snagged a 1966 edition of "The Innes Book" (I had a copy of this book that I read from cover to cover several times over when I was a kid. Then I made the mistake of lending it out and haven't seen "it" or a replacement since then...it was like finding a long lost friend!!! )
I also bought a copy of "Swordtails and Platys" book that was the featured book special for convention-goers. Had the wonderful chance to speak one-on-one with Ted Coletti, columnist for FAMA and TFH magazines and author of several books, about the blue hi-fin variatus platys I have, and he pointed out a color plate in this book that is really close to what I am working with. He was very encouraging, and I am more than a little pumped up right now about my chances for marketing these fish.
Oh yeah, and I also bought some microworm and vinegar eel starter cultures, start giving my fish a live treat now and then!
Last but not least, I got 2 new hats, one with the ALA logo, and the other with a species preservation group's logo on it.
This auction was truly a BLAST! I had a styro fish box full of bags when I left the show, but I probably didn't spend much more than $50. There were SO many bags of fish...the auction started at noon, and I think it got over sometime around 7! Of course, there were lots of fish that went really high. The Montezumae swords that I was hoping to get always seemed to go for at least $30 a pair. But the longer you stayed to the end, the cheaper the stuff went for...at the very end, most bags were going for 1 to 2 dollars!
I'm just finally making it into the house, been busy since I got home acclimating, tanking and feeding all my new fish. Labor of love...
I had mentioned to someone in my previous thread that I was going to post pics when I got back. The "contest" part of the convention was Saturday, and by today at auction time, there were only a very few of the contest tanks set up. I was trying to get a picture of the huge amount of bagged fish in the auction tables........and found out that my camera batteries had run down . I think I might have managed to get a picture of somebody's Coleman cooler sitting on the floor in front of where I was standing!
Oh, and then I also found out last week that the American Killifish Association is having a show...you guessed it....same weekend! In Chicago! I'm in Lafayette IN, which is about an hour and 15 min from south side of Indy (ALA), and about 2 hours from Chicago (AKA)...talk about tearing a fishaholic up!!!
Maybe you can tell by my rambling, I am tired! Been a long day....think I'm gonna head off to catch a few zzzzzz's, maybe dream of a successful Montezumae bid!