Hello All!

It’s August already.  We are always trying to cram beach, pool and barbeque into three months, but in the end many of us cannot wait for fall and winter.  That is when we start up with our indoor fish that we neglected somewhat during the summer, and we return to our club meetings.  Many of us have ponds or tub gardens outside that we are having fun with right now. 

I know it’s been a while since our last farewell meeting for the summer.  Had lots of personal stuff I had to deal with.  What a great meeting with Food, People and of course Fish!  My friend from Nino’s, the hero place in Smithtown really hooked us up with the heroes. The owner and the two guys that work with him all went to my store for many years and may join us when we start up again. They took their tanks down a few years after I closed my store, losing interest.

Our club keeps growing and at the last meeting I was able to talk to more of the members, both old and new, and got to know them.  I think many of the members also were able to meet and talk to people that they did not before. I like having presentations and parties, but I think the meetings where we have nothing planned also work. We learn from each other more sometimes than in a presentation. I am going to keep mixing it up with some things planned and sometimes just a mingle meeting.

As far as fish go, I am very happy with our fish auctions.  We have some amazing breeders in our club that are always bringing fish to the auction, and I thank them very much.  If you have even one fish, it’s fun to see what you get for the fish and who buys it.  Equally fun is bidding on fish to see what you win it for.  It is not, however, fun to bid against the president LOL. 

We have also had some great fish shows and members should bring a fish.  You never know if you are going to win. Our last fish show winners were me with First and Third, and Ray sandwiched between with Second. Our regular raffle and special can raffle were also a great success with many members winning filters and lighting for their tanks.

Our next meeting will be Friday, September 20.  Have a good rest of the summer!

Tom Keegan, President

To see photos from this meeting and past meetings, click here.

Hello All,

This letter will not only announce our last meeting of the year before the summer break, but also highlight the last meeting. I consider this our first full year after reactivation – going from September to June. In the past year our membership has doubled, and we are a strong and growing club.

What better reason to have another hero party to celebrate!!

At the last meeting Harry Faustmann, who is one of our members and is also the president of Nassau County Aquarium Society, gave a presentation on live foods. He showed us that there are many live foods we can easily raise ourselves to help get fish fry started. I have started using vinegar eels which are not hard at all. If anyone wants a starter culture, I am sure we can get you one. After the presentation we had our door prize, raffle, and fish show. The winners of the fish show were me taking third, Ray taking second and Buzz with another first! We had a lot of fish dry goods in the fish auction. I thank everyone who brings in fish for our auction. The auction sales contribute to the funding of the club, so when members bring in boxes full of fish, it’s great!

I also thank Ed who picks up fish that Aqua Hut donates to our club. When you go there, please thank Don, the Aqua Hut owner, for the donations to our club.

Our next meeting will be a social event with heroes and deserts. We will still have our door prize, raffle, fish auction and show. There will also be a can raffle with four or five larger items. Being the last meeting for the summer break I would like the auction to be big, so bring in a fish or plant, even if it’s just one item. Also please bring in a fish for the show. Someone out there must have the “Buzzer Beater” so to speak. Our club is going in the right direction where we all know each other and talk even after the meeting. Many members have contacted me for fish keeping advice, or for the phone numbers of other members. Do not hesitate to do so.

Please RSVP me for the next meeting if you are coming or bringing a guest. Guests will be five dollars. You can’t even buy a happy meal for that!! I want to have enough food for all. I hope everyone can make it. Please email me. Tomfish4@hotmail.com

Tom Keegan
President

Link to the Fish Show Rules

Here’s a Google link to the location:
https://goo.gl/maps/R1mvrKVPFGJeYzDj7

Hello All,

Our next meeting is this Friday the 17th.  I am sure we are all busy outside getting gardens and spring stuff done getting ready for the summer.  I myself am getting ponds cleaned, outside tubs set up, and Koi ready for breeding.  Speaking of tub gardens, I was trying to get my friend Basil, from Norwalk Aquarium Society to do his fish tub presentation but unfortunately, he will be away the weekend of our meeting.  So, I have arranged to have Harry do his live food presentation.  He will talk about different types of live food that you can make yourself to feed your fish and especially your fry when they first hatch to get them going strong!

This is going to be our second to last meeting before we break for the summer.  Our last meeting on Friday June 21st will be more of a social event.  There will be heroes and food just like we had for our holiday party for a great summer send-off.  I like that we cannot settle down for a presentation because we are talking to each other so much.  I think it’s also a great thing that we ask questions and add more info to the presentations.  As we combine all our fish knowledge we get better and more experienced with keeping fish.

In addition to Harry talking about live foods at this week’s meeting, there will be a raffle, fish show, and of course an auction.  We have had some great fish auctions and most go home with some amazing fish at the end of the night.  Bring in a fish for the fish show.  You never know you may win!

Tom Keegan
President

Link to the Fish Show Rules

Here’s a Google link to the location:  
https://goo.gl/maps/R1mvrKVPFGJeYzDj7

Hello All!

We gain new members at every meeting and the April meeting was bigger than ever. I have come to recognize many of your faces and know when you are absent. We had almost ten of our regular members who weren’t able to make it, so the crowd could have been even larger!

We even had three generations of fish keepers in one family! It’s a Friday night, with no school the next day, so why not bring kids.

If our membership keeps growing, we may have to look for another venue. If you know of one, please contact me.

There were also many entries in our Fish Show. If you won or even placed, you should be proud of yourself. Some of the entries are from fifty-year veteran fish keepers. I proudly won third with female Albino Kribenses. Second was taken by Ray with a very nice Multi Guppy. Carla won first prize with a beautiful Plakat Betta.

Many enjoyed my revised pond presentation, even some members who have had ponds for years. My goal in the next year is to get others to do presentations either from our club or sister clubs. If there is a last-minute cancelation, I’ll fill in with one of my presentations or we’ll figure something out.

I will another letter sometime before the next meeting on May 17 to let you know what will be happening.

Tom Keegan, President

To see photos from this meeting and past meetings, click here.