In 2005 a great year with Dr David Price, Charley Grimes, Ian Fuller, Brian Walsh and Bob Cashin...
As always the December meeting is the club's American Supper evening. It is a very informal occasion where anyone is welcome to come along to chat among themselves about anything and everything (although fish topics are usually on the agenda for many). As the title suggests you are asked to bring along enough food for yourself and this is pooled on a table for everyone to help themselves - with any luck we will have a good selection and not a table full of salmon sandwiches!
This month is our Annual General Meeting. Traditionally this is never well attended as I am sure people are worried about being pressurised into doing a job they don't want to. Let me assure people that there is never any pressure and that it is vitally important to attend and give your input on who you think would be the best people to run the club for the next year. Hopefully this years meeting can have an even greater attendance than last year (which was a record turn-out I believe!)
Charley Grimes is speaking to us tonight about Diving in Mexico's Natural Aquarium. Although we have had several talks about diving this is the first one to cover tropical fresh water and is based on the lakes of Cuatro Ciénegas in Mexico. As I understand it, these are 4 marshes that are fed by thermal springs originating in the Sierra San Marcos mountains.
Members evening. With a good few new members joining the club over the last couple of months it is an ideal time for us to have a general chat about our tanks and fish-keeping problems / successes. There is no set agenda so bring along a few ideas and we will hopefully all learn from it.
Venue: BAWA club, Filton, Bristol, UK
Time: 8pm start to 10pm approx
Ian Fuller is presenting a talk on Corydoradine Catfish, C numbers and Identification - these wonderful little Catfish are a firm favourite with many people but who can ever tell the difference between them! Hopefully after this talk we will all end up knowing enough to get by.
Venue: BAWA club, Filton, Bristol, UK
Time: 8pm start to 10pm approx
Dr David Price is a lecturer in genetics at the University of Plymouth. He is also a leading authority on catfish and will be presenting the very broad topic of "catfish" to us this evening. Given these shy little (well often large actually) fish are a favourite among fish keepers this should be an interesting talk for us all.
Venue: BAWA club, Filton, Bristol, UK
Time: 8pm start to 10pm approx
Members Evening - No doubt we will have the usual barrage of questions and answers regarding all areas of fish-keeping; this is one meeting where it is possible to learn an incredible amount in only a few hours.
Since this meeting is only a few days before our Show we will be dedicating up to about 15 minutes on final preparations. Everybody's help is needed to minimise the workload for everyone so please turn up and offer your services.
Venue: BAWA club, Filton, Bristol, UK
Time: 8pm start to 10pm approx
Brian Walsh - Wood carving and a mixed bag on fish. Brian has a reputation in our club of being one of the best speakers we have ever had. His presentations use a combination of sounds, music and slides all synchronised to perfection - I'd suggest arriving early as this will hopefully be a very crowded room on this evening.
Venue: BAWA club, Filton, Bristol, UK
Time: 8pm start to 10pm approx
Unfortunately Monty Ray's talk on Dwarf Cichlids has had to be postponed. However, we have another American visitor - Richard or Rit Forcier as he prefers to be known. He is Chairman of both the Northeast American and National Livebearer organisations but is giving us a talk on the Coral and Marine fish of the Caribbean. I have been told that he spend most holidays in this area diving and has put together an excellent programme.
Venue: BAWA club, Filton, Bristol, UK
Time: 8pm start to 10pm approx
Jim Griffiths - Tropical Aquaria plants. I am unsure as to whether this evening's talk will be about the varieties of aquarium plants, the growth of them or a general overview. Either way this should make an interesting evening covering a topic in which very few people have success.
Venue: BAWA club, Filton, Bristol, UK
Time: 8pm start to 10pm approx
Bob Cashin - Livebearers. Bob is an American on holiday in Bristol for a couple of months. From his short talk in January it is apparent he has a good knowledge of this topic and this should be a very interesting insight into a VERY large topic.
Venue: BAWA club, Filton, Bristol, UK
Time: 8pm start to 10pm approx
The first meeting of 2005 was a success (in my opinion). I, John Williams, gave a 15 minute talk on carbon dioxide and this provoked lots of discussion about growing aquarium plants in general with several people giving details of their own experiences of carbon dioxide. Ivan Dibble's visitor from the USA, Bob Cashin, also gave us a 15 minute talk on the four-eyed Livebearer Anobleps - this was a fascinating topic and well presented by Bob who has an obvious enthusiasm and depth of knowledge of this fish. I look forward to his talk next month on Livebearers in general.
