From: mattk@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (matthew.kaufman)
Subject: Re: Let's hear about ACA Louisville!!!
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 14:17:45 GMT
Summary: Nice convention, well run, worth attending

In article <1992Jul21.134912.8277@meaddata.com> stever@meaddata.com (Steve Rothenberg) writes:
>Any netters make it down? I am interested to hear about the
>activities that you attended. Also in the auction, what types
>of new breeds were being sold. Thanks in advance.
>

Gee, I think only Dean Hougen and I from net-land made it, though Neil
Frank, who occasionally shows up here, was there as well. Vinny Kutty
was conspicuous by his absence.

The convention, overall, ran smoothly, had good talks, and was very
enjoyable, much more so than last year's ICC-2. Like a good baseball
umpire, you didn't notice the presence of the LTFF (Louisville Tropical
Fish Farmer's club, the hosting org,) because things went so smoothly, and,
frankly, unlike ICC-2, the club members were uniformly helpful, going out
of their way to be nice.

The first day included a steamboat tour of the Ohio river. It was nice, but
since I was upstairs yammering with Neil and other AGA types, we missed
the travelogue. Oh well. That night, besides registering, I attended 3
talks - one by Ellen Halligan on Discus, Steve Somermeyer on Tanganyikan
mouthbrooding cichlids, and a 'Heiko-Marathon' by Heiko Bleher on a recent
trip to the Amazon. Heiko, for those net readers who caught my review
last year, wasn't necessarily one of the shining lights of the ICC-2. Well,
he's much improved - he didn't spend 20 minutes thanking everyone (I think
Dean and I counted only 4 people that he thanked before starting,) and
during the talk he didn't hawk his new book (due out this fall, but I'll
believe it when it happens) as much. He had nice 'traveling in the bush'
slides, including some of a hair-raising episode where he jumped safely
out of a helicopter to get pictures not being particularly certain whether
the helicopter could return to pick him up :-). He did have 300(!) slides,
so his talk went on for awhile, till 12:30a.m.. It was *followed* by the
one study group meeting, the Apisto study group, discussing a collecting trip
to find Taenicara candida. Amusingly, the speaker returned from SA (Brazil
I think,) with 1 pair and lots of apistos. He thought he had too many
of a particular apisto (I forget which kind) so he left 2 dozen with a friend
in Dallas. These apistos turned out to be juvenile T. candida which the
happy friend is now spawning in large numbers. Some are supposedly going to
be available through Anchor Bay aquarium, a big mail-order cichlid seller.

The next day was 'talk day,' though overall there weren't that many talks.
Dr. Loiselle gave a good talk, much of which I'd heard at a local club,
about Dwarf Cichlid Husbandry. Steve Lundblad talked about Aulocnocara - he
breeds them for a living and recommends keeping them in tanks with sand,
rather than gravel, as they do sift through the sand for food when carrying
young and can grind them up if the pick up a mouthful of gravel. Dr. Joanne
Norton gave a talk on how to screw with angelfish genetics to predict what
results, but ehh, a talk on how to mutate fish wasn't that exciting. Thom
Grimshaw gave a very disappointing talk on cichlid collecting and living
in Belize - disappointing because of the low quality of the slides and the
information he gave out. Andy Jackson talked about cichlid farming in Florida
(I skipped that talk).

The fishroom was full by the 2d day, loaded with magnificent fish, with
*labels* giving the name of the fish (another improvement over ICC-2).
I particularly liked an aulonocara, a chocolate cichlid and a glorious
Heros Robertsoni. Well, the robertsoni won Best of Show and the aulonocara
came in 2d.

There was a very good dry goods auction - apparently the club contracted with
fellow that gets goods from manufacturers and auctions them off. The prices
were fair, a few bargains.

The smoothly-run banquet featured a rollicking banquet speech by Charlie
Grimes on fishkeeping. The Minnesota Aquarium Society, despite fierce
competition from the Southern California cichlid group, will host the
next convention. A multi-media slide show, produced, directed and narrated
by Dean Hougen, was featured at the banquet. Dr. Loiselle presented
the awards.

Sunday was the auction. I only stayed for about 1/4 of it. It ended around
9, lots and lots and lots of fish. Julies went for high prices (typically
a bag of 6 1/2" long julie whatevers went for $30,) apistos were
popular, not too many new world cichlids, lots of Africans. Not so many
angels or discus (there weren't many in the show, either.) The new
hot fish was Pseudotropheus Saulosi, there were lots of 2 males/4 females
from an importer that went for like $60-70/bag. Pairs of Tropheus Moorii
went for a lot of money, especially wild ones. There weren't many bargains
in the sales. I picked up 6 young Neolamprologus Elongatus "Kasegara"
and 3 Steatocranus Casuarius (only 1 of which survived the trip home,
unfortunately) for like $15/lot. I also acquired 6 Julidochromis
Transcriptus 'Gombi West Coast' in exchange for some killies I brought
out to a friend. The julies and 'brichardis' are doing fine in the
isolation tank, along with the 1 remaining buffalo head.

About 500 people registered for the convention, so there were lots of
opportunities to 'talk fish,' and to buy things out of
peoples rooms. I picked up an extremely, well, shall we say 'suggestively
shaped' discus spawning cone and a couple 'Rino caves,' ceramic caves for
spawning small cave spawning cichlids like apistos.
There was a brief meeting of the Aquatic
Gardener's Association late Saturday night. Join the AGA, its a growing
(almost 400 members) organization. There was some talk of doing an AGA
event along with some other hobbyist group, perhaps something will happen
in Minnesota. Heck, I think I'll finally join the AGA. So, if I can, so
can you!
-- 
"They'll never let you   | Copyright 1992 mattk@usl.com. Permission for
out of here alive.       | reproduction in printed media or by pay-for-read
They're not that stupid."| services explicitly disallowed. Permission granted
"I disagree."            | USENET and like free facilities.
Xref: sparky rec.aquaria:5992 alt.aquaria:4308