Friday, April 17th

Hello All!

Another great meeting.  I hope everyone enjoyed my presentation about my Florida trip and Imperial Tropicals.  It just so happened one of our members is a photographer and took some great pictures at the meeting.  I must thank everyone that helped out.  Pretty much my whole regular crew could not show, and I did not know how I was going to do it all, but the new crew did amazingly well.

As you can see from the pictures it was almost a full meeting.  I think if all the members show up at one time it will be standing room only.  Mary and Kosta took first in the fish show with a pipefish and Ed took second with an Emperor Tetra.  I have to tank Henry from O’Henrys Tanks a lot for his generous and excellent quality plant donations for the auction.  You must visit his website.  Also, Aqua Hut with his fish donations every meeting.  I also have to say thanks to all our younger generation fish keepers for their help at every meeting.  There are some pictures of our new members and younger members, even one enjoying his Krispy Kreme donut.   We are probably one of the only clubs with three generations of fish keepers attending and having fun.

My visit to Imperial Tropicals was so impressive I had to do a presentation about it.  Mike Drawdy, the owner who gave me a personal tour is not only a great businessman but an excellent fish keeper and breeder.  He really takes every aspect of the farm and fish to heart.  He runs a really tight ship being the third generation in the business at the facility and truly cares about the fish.   I hope to be able to put together a group order soon.

I will send another letter before the next meeting for a reminder.  I’m not sure what the presentation will be about but will work on it.  Any Ideas, or if you have a presentation you would like to do, please contact me. Check out all the great pictures from the meeting!

Tom Keegan

President LIAS

Hello All!

      Sorry for the delay with the letter and for not making it to the last meeting. I had the flu really bad, then had to deal with the snowstorm and super cold weather. The koi ponds and the cold weather have also been quite a chore. Hope our members with ponds are doing OK. If you have any questions about your ponds, please call or email me.

      I must thank Nick and Carla and many others for stepping up to the plate to make the meeting come off without a hitch. I think the meeting went better than when I was there! It looked like everyone had a great time in the pictures. Henry from O’Henrys Tank a Lot gave another great presentation with his talk about filtration. Ed received a plaque for Supreme Auctioneer. He not only does the auction for our club but also the fish auctions in most of the clubs in the tri-state area. Carla won Fish Show winner for the whole year! She also won the same night, working on points for next year. She took first and second place with a dwarf cichlid and a placket betta. Maxx took third place with his lyretail molly. What a great award night!

     I am working on the next meeting right now. I’m not sure what it will be about but will send out another mail before the meeting.

LIAS President,
Tom Keegan

Hello All!

        I’m not sure what to say except wow! Our holiday party was very successful. All our members had a great time. I think the new members that came for the first time did not expect such a great group of people getting together talking fish. The raffle, fish show, auction, and food were all amazing. I really can’t say which part of the night was better. It took a lot of planning and work for the party, and I guess I just became too exhausted to do the auction at the end, so Buzz stepped up to be the reliving auctioneer.

        There were probably close to 200 bags in the fish auction and some great entries in the fish show. I myself took third with a Gardneri Killifish. Second was taken by Gene’s Long Fin Red Ancistrus. First was an Oyster Goby which is a brackish fish by Maxx. There were twenty-five aquarium related items in our can raffle, some big and some small. I always enjoy finding items for the raffle, some not yet available in the US.

        This letter will be short and sweet. This meeting crept up on me, and I started writing a letter last week but thought I had time. I was quite busy over the holidays and did not realize our meeting was this Friday. Unfortunately, I got the flu last Wednesday and am not out of the woods yet. I hope to be able to get everything together by Friday the 16th. We will have a Speaker, Fish Show and Auction. Raffle and Refreshments. The meeting will start at 8 but I would really appreciate help to set up at 7:30. 

PS: if you feel like you are under the weather do not come to the meeting. There will be another meeting before you know it.

LIAS President,
Tom Keegan