What I got at this month's Friday DAAS Meeting

[TwoTankAmin]

I am a member of The Danbury , CT Aquarium Society. The clubs meetings are held in NY which is where I live. "General meetings are held the 4th Friday of the month (except July & December)" The club does a major auction In Jan. and an outdoor swap meet in Sept.

The presentation tonight was on West Affican CIchlids. The speaker is the person in a store responsible for this section of fish from top to bottom. His house if full of tanks filled with all sorts of the fish he discussed. He offered to bring anything folks might want from the store,. I had a list, but most of it was either more than I wanted to pay (i.e. I could get it for less). What I did get was 3 pairs of Inpaichtys kerri (purple emperor tetras) to go with the six I already had. I also had a lone white cloud mountain minnow- the one we all know before the other two species were discovered. I got it six friends.

I bid on a bag of 3 albino ancistrus 2fm/1m. I stopped at $22 since I would have to split the male off as I wanted algae control only and no kids. I did get a big bag of frogbit (Limnobium laevigatum) as well. We have a member who is almost a plant factory and always has stuff from his tanks. I passed on the the Hoplo cats from the club's master breeder as I have no place for them.

To defer the cost of the above I sold two bags of 13 assassin snails and a medium piece of maylasian driftwood. There were no cories this week. I could use a few for a 29. Plus the harlequin rasboras at the speaker's store were in treatment for ich having arrived with it. I needed 6-8 of them and another 4- 6 espei. These are all for my planted community tanks.

Aquarium clubs are a great place rto share fish and usually for a good price and healthy too. If you have one within a reasonable distance of you and you are not a member, I suggest you go to one, clubs welcome guests who might want to join. We had several tonight.

edited for typos

 

[On_a_dishy]

That sounds brilliant!

 

[Archerfish]

Locally owned fish shops and aquarium clubs are the bedrock of our hobby. Nice report. Thanks!

 

[GaryE]

Some time back in the 1930s, 40, 50s, 60s, 70s or onwards, someone wanted to meet other aquarists, and took the initiative to start a physically meeting club. And he or she had fun, met people with similar interests and watched the club grow. My old club was founded by a guy around 20 who was working in the aquarium section of an old fashioned department store in 1933. He enjoyed that club for more than 70 years.

Now, we sit around and say there are no clubs where we live. That's an opportunity. Make one. I started one where I live now about 6 months ago, and it has a dynamic membership mostly in their early twenties. They keep different fish than I do, but the monthly meetings are fun, and there is a growing buzz in the clientele of the local fish stores. If everyone who said they wanted to come showed up, we'd have 75 people a meeting instead of 20-25.

There is a group in a small city about an hour up the road who are discussing starting their own club. I'm told they're waiting for the snow season to end, and may come down to a meeting to see what we're doing.

The first guy I approached with the idea thought there was no way anyone would attend a fish club in this town.

 

[Fishmanic]

Some time back in the 1930s, 40, 50s, 60s, 70s or onwards, someone wanted to meet other aquarists, and took the initiative to start a physically meeting club. And he or she had fun, met people with similar interests and watched the club grow. My old club was founded by a guy around 20 who was working in the aquarium section of an old fashioned department store in 1933. He enjoyed that club for more than 70 years.

Now, we sit around and say there are no clubs where we live. That's an opportunity. Make one. I started one where I live now about 6 months ago, and it has a dynamic membership mostly in their early twenties. They keep different fish than I do, but the monthly meetings are fun, and there is a growing buzz in the clientele of the local fish stores. If everyone who said they wanted to come showed up, we'd have 75 people a meeting instead of 20-25.

There is a group in a small city about an hour up the road who are discussing starting their own club. I'm told they're waiting for the snow season to end, and may come down to a meeting to see what we're doing.

The first guy I approached with the idea thought there was no way anyone would attend a fish club in this town.

Where does your fish club meet?

 

[GaryE]

For the moment, in an open area in a local independent fish store. It's a start up that hasn't filled all its space, and the owner has a 20% off sale for all members when the meeting ends (the store is technically closed when meetings are held). That's his rent. We're looking for more neutral ground. In my last city, we used a community centre that offered monthly meeting rooms for free to registered non profit clubs. Before that, we had a church basement, a rental at a school, a room in a municipal library... finding spaces is an issue.
Our first meeting was in a room at the house here, a large space in the basement. But it was too small for an ongoing venue.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

My club met for years in a hall connected to a local fire department. One of the firemen was a fish keeper. That ended a while back and we now meet at the Laura Sprain Memorial Cornerstone Park, 1 Fair Street in Carmel, NY.

We also rent the Knights of Columbus hall across the street for our big January auction.