Local Aquarium Clubs

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That One Guy
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I was remembering way back when my town had an aquarium club. It hasn't had now for many years. It had a newsletter and a bi-monthly bowl show and monthly meetings. I was just a kid but it was great seeing the adults and older guys there. That made me think I was doing something worthwhile, that it wasn't just some frivolous kid hobby. Guys traded fish and plants and advice. Do any of you have one in your town now and do you belong? I recently had to get a recommended plant from the Internet. If my best friend and mentor hadn't of passed away three years ago I would have gone to him and got it. He had everything that was absolutely needed. But I don't even know any other aquarists here in town. When you have that you really have something valuable. You can trade things and brag to each other. And also bust each other's chops. This TFF forum is a great blessing to me. Even if it is only a talk and read deal, I have that camaraderie of fellow fish nerds. I mean the term nerd in the highest regard. I wear the nerd badge proudly.
 
People don’t get my fascination with fish. I don’t get their lack of fascination with them. I know we have some aquatics clubs in Houston but too far away for me.
 
I feel the same way. I can stare at my fish for hours and my husband always asks how I can do that. But when my BN pleco comes out at night it’s a different story. My husband gets super excited and begins narrating what Plucky is thinking and doing. It’s ridiculous. “Oh yay it’s night time! Time to rearrange all the sand in the tank and anger the human - bonus points if I dislodge a plant. Mmm... this glass tastes so delicious.” I would have to drive rather far to find an aquarium club. The closest I can get to fish talk is this forum and hanging out at my lfs talking about fish with one of the owners. Ha ha.
 
I've been a a nerd and geek most of my life, lol. Was a "band geek" since 7th grade, and have been a computer nerd since I was a senior in HS.

We don't have any clubs that are within an hours drive, so I rely on forums for all my Q & A and general BS sessions. It would be nice to have a mentor, or to be a mentor, or meet & greet, but it is what it is.
 
It’s a shame that Lfs don’t Sponsor local fish clubs/meetings. It would be great marketing for them.
 
It’s a shame that Lfs don’t Sponsor local fish clubs/meetings. It would be great marketing for them.
Yes, that would be very smart for a shop to do that. They would have X amount of customers in the place every month. The club we had here years ago always had door prizes, compliments of the fish stores, at every meeting. That always made people feel kind of obligated to go repay that by visiting those stores.
 
It’s a shame that Lfs don’t Sponsor local fish clubs/meetings. It would be great marketing for them.
They used to here in WA. In fact there were a number of fish shops that donated items to the raffle table every month and gave fish club members a 10% discount when they bought anything from the store.

When I was in ANGFA WA, I was editor and did a monthly newsletter. In the newsletter I would put a list of native fishes that were available at different shops so club members could see what was available and not have to drive all over town to find them. In return for this, every shop used to give me loads of items for the raffle table. It got to a stage were we had dozens of donated items at every meeting.
 
It’s a shame that Lfs don’t Sponsor local fish clubs/meetings. It would be great marketing for them.

Yes, that would be very smart for a shop to do that. They would have X amount of customers in the place every month. The club we had here years ago always had door prizes, compliments of the fish stores, at every meeting. That always made people feel kind of obligated to go repay that by visiting those stores.
With Amazon, Ebay, and all the other online retailers, it's hard to compete. I agree, it seems it would be advantageous to have a store full of like minded, potential customers all milling around your merchandise.

On the down side, many LFS close 5pm ish. It would involve paying overtime to the employees unless the owners themselves manned the store. It would also require space that in my experience, most LFS are in short supply of.
 
With Amazon, Ebay, and all the other online retailers, it's hard to compete. I agree, it seems it would be advantageous to have a store full of like minded, potential customers all milling around your merchandise.

On the down side, many LFS close 5pm ish. It would involve paying overtime to the employees unless the owners themselves manned the store. It would also require space that in my experience, most LFS are in short supply of.
My Lfs stays open until 7:00 but are a maw and paw shop so could stay open later one day a month. The problem with them, as mentioned, is space. :(
 
I wonder what it would take to start something ? These kind of things always wind up with one or two people doing everything all the time and nobody else caring. Maybe put up a sign in the LFS to gauge support and go from there. Sounding kind of good to me. I got nothing else to do. Maybe it's time for a new Billings Aquarium Society.
 

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