Just getting back from the ALA Convention

[fishdudein]

Hi folks. Just thought I'd check in here with all of you and let you know that I am back from the American Livebearer Association's 2005 Convention. What a great time! I had posted a couple threads earlier to see if anyone had any info on this or was interested in going. If you have any interest in livebearers at all, you missed a great time, I would recommend it for anyone if they ever get the chance to go to one. The entire convention covered Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, April 8,9, & 10. I was only able to go to today (Sunday). But....today was auction day!!!!

Here's my damage report ( ):
6 pairs of Endler's livebearer
2 pair and 6 young of Xenotoca eiseni (red tail goodeids)
2 pair of Ameca splendens (butterfly goodeid)
A trio of Xenoophorus captivus (green goodeids) (a threatened species in Mexico)
A pair of peppermint swordtails (cool looking fish that I had not seen before)
A trio of half-black pastel guppies (hopefully these will keep my strain going, these are gorgeous fish!!)
A pair of red delta guppies (some new blood for my strain)
Aphyosemion rubrolabiale (red lip killies....yes, MORE killies ) (not livebearers, but there also were several lots of albino kribs, 2 or 3 lots of angelfish, several bettas, and even some tetras in the mix!)
Also snagged a 1966 edition of "The Innes Book" (I had a copy of this book that I read from cover to cover several times over when I was a kid. Then I made the mistake of lending it out and haven't seen "it" or a replacement since then...it was like finding a long lost friend!!! )
I also bought a copy of "Swordtails and Platys" book that was the featured book special for convention-goers. Had the wonderful chance to speak one-on-one with Ted Coletti, columnist for FAMA and TFH magazines and author of several books, about the blue hi-fin variatus platys I have, and he pointed out a color plate in this book that is really close to what I am working with. He was very encouraging, and I am more than a little pumped up right now about my chances for marketing these fish.
Oh yeah, and I also bought some microworm and vinegar eel starter cultures, start giving my fish a live treat now and then!
Last but not least, I got 2 new hats, one with the ALA logo, and the other with a species preservation group's logo on it.
This auction was truly a BLAST! I had a styro fish box full of bags when I left the show, but I probably didn't spend much more than $50. There were SO many bags of fish...the auction started at noon, and I think it got over sometime around 7! Of course, there were lots of fish that went really high. The Montezumae swords that I was hoping to get always seemed to go for at least $30 a pair. But the longer you stayed to the end, the cheaper the stuff went for...at the very end, most bags were going for 1 to 2 dollars!

I'm just finally making it into the house, been busy since I got home acclimating, tanking and feeding all my new fish. Labor of love...

I had mentioned to someone in my previous thread that I was going to post pics when I got back. The "contest" part of the convention was Saturday, and by today at auction time, there were only a very few of the contest tanks set up. I was trying to get a picture of the huge amount of bagged fish in the auction tables........and found out that my camera batteries had run down . I think I might have managed to get a picture of somebody's Coleman cooler sitting on the floor in front of where I was standing!

Oh, and then I also found out last week that the American Killifish Association is having a show...you guessed it....same weekend! In Chicago! I'm in Lafayette IN, which is about an hour and 15 min from south side of Indy (ALA), and about 2 hours from Chicago (AKA)...talk about tearing a fishaholic up!!!

Maybe you can tell by my rambling, I am tired! Been a long day....think I'm gonna head off to catch a few zzzzzz's, maybe dream of a successful Montezumae bid!

 

[Mr Miagi]

hahaha, sounds like alot of fun! And i soo much look forward to pics once you get those bateries charged! LOL, i make sure mine are topped up and charged before i leave the house!

 

[Synastic]

You lucky ducky. Sounds like you had a kick butt time. See I told you to go. Man I wish I was you right now. Sounds like you had some great finds. I wanna see some pictures of the endlers.

 

[fishdudein]

You know, there are really very few places that I "want" to go to...definitely don't wanna go to work , don't really want to go shopping, etc.....but a few years back when I was working part time in a saltwater fish shop, one of the owners had just put up a poster advertising that year's MACNA convention (I think it was in Chicago that year), and said that he thought I ought to go to it. For one reason or another, probably work-related, I wasn't able to go...but it sure did sound like a good time, and it was then that I started noticing all these other convention "opportunities", and made my mind up that I would eventually get to one! My interests in fish are so diverse and I keep so many different kinds that it really didn't matter if it were saltwater, cichlids, catfish, livebearers, fancy guppies, killies...just about anything but goldfish , and I could probably have fun with those people,too!

Anyway, as I said before, if you are "into" this hobby at all, and one of these conventions comes to a city anywhere near you....GO! There were people at all stages of the hobby at this one, from people who kept just a few guppies, to people with basements filled with a couple hundred or more tanks....not counting the program speakers who you could talk face-to-face with, the reps from different fish product companies, etc. You all know the "looks" you get from people when you start talking about your fish ...these are "our own kind"! It's like going to your favorite LFS, only bigger and better!

mr miagi: You can't imagine how frustrated I was when I tried to take that first picture! Problem is, the camera is my son's, not mine. And he has been using it a lot recently to take pics of a car he is working on. I have not really had a whole lot of luck taking any "decent" fish pics with it. I can take so-so pics from a distance of my fish room set-up, but whenever I try to get any close-up "individual" type shots, they never turn out for crap. I know it's a 3-megapixel Vivitar, but that's about all I know about it. I am seriously considering getting my own camera, but need to do some research and make sure I buy what I need to get the "fishy-pics" I am after! (And then nobody will be running my battery down but me!)

synastic: Thanks, you were so, so right! It would have been really cool if a bunch of us from TFF could have met up there !
The endlers came mostly from a group called "Endlers R Us". According to some of the literature at their table, they are trying to raise money to go on a collecting trip and collect enough wild endlers to hopefully maintain pure wild strains in captivity for preservation purposes. They plan to use their facilities and those of dedicated hobbyists. Sounds like a worthy plan to me. I am no expert on endlers (these are my first), but the guy sitting next to me was looking at the first lot that I won and said they were what is known as "Nike" endlers. The males have a "Nike" logo-type "swoosh" pattern on their sides!
I had three tanks that completely "crashed" last week. Lost everything out of all three tanks. I couldn't tell you the last time I have had a major die-off like that, it has been a good many years ago, before I became a stickler about water changes and such. I have tested for everything I can think of as far as water quality goes, nothing seems out of line. So I am stumped....and was more than a little hesitant to buy too much at this auction! So far (keep fingers crossed) everything has been fine the last few days, and all new arrivals are doing OK. The same day that the losses started, we had a power outage, but it only lasted maybe 3 hours. No extreme heat or cold to contend with... ... just hope it's over!

Well, looky here. Looks like I have rambled on again! If you people would pay me to write this stuff, I could be rich!!!!

 

[Bignose]

I guess I should have stayed longer, I could only stay for about an hour, saw just the beginning of the auction, and at that point things were a little too rich for a student's blood. Plus, and I bet most forum members know what I mean, the fish tanks are pretty chock full at the moment, so no real room for a purchase anyway. I did enjoy browsing all the books, though -- better than Amazon, and better than fishbookstore.com -- at least there you can look at what book you are purchasing!