Dear Aquarist,

Happy New Year to all! Our first event for 2017 was a rousing success. The snow and ice stopped to allow our guest speaker Michael Barber to present his talk without all of us worrying about the elements. Michael’s talk was titled “Tropical Fish Collecting & Wildlife Expeditions.” He has partnered with our good friend (and a person we know well since he spoke in Brooklyn on several occasions) Ian Fuller, the international corydorus expert. Michael, Ian and others take aquarists on expeditions for collecting South American species, mainly from Peru. Whatever your personal favorite species that you want to collect in the wild, they will take and also ship the specimens back for you. They specialize in catfish, cichlids, killies and characins such as tetras and hatchetfish. For anyone that wants to collect fish and stay in a modern facility with experts in their various fields, then Go Wild Peru is the place to go! Get a group of friends together and contact Michael Barber at Michael@GoWildPeru.com. I know you will love it!

For February, our friend and sponsor returns – Pat Donston, owner of Absolutely Fish in Clifton, NJ. Pat’s topic for the evening will be “Biodiversity Practices for Reef & Planted Exhibits.” Pat has been our guest speaker many times over the years and is an expert in his field. I know that you will thoroughly enjoy his presentation.
February is also our 106th birthday! On Valentine’s Day, 1911, our forefathers created our great society. Make sure you come down and wish all of us a very happy birthday and many, many more.

Doors open at 7:30. As always, there’s free parking and refreshments. Remember, we can always use help. If anyone wants to help out in any way, please let us know. See me personally or any officer or board member. If anyone has any topics they want to hear expert speakers on, or any specific speaker, please tell us that also.

We would like to thank our members and our sponsors for their constant generous donations that keep us going. Anyone who has any aquatic items, supplies or equipment, and that would include healthy livestock of fish, corals or plants, we always welcome the donation.

Thanks and see you next month!

Steven Matassa
President

Dear Aquarist,

Our December Holiday Party closed out another calendar year at BAS with our annual holiday party at the Bridgeview Diner, and it went off very well. We handed out our awards and certificates for writing articles for our award winning publication Aquatica. We also won many awards from the Federation of American Aquarium Societies (FAAS). We celebrated the acknowledgement of our many sponsors and benefactors; without them we would not exist.

Come January 13, we will have Michael Barber kick off the new calendar year with his talk on “Tropical Fish Collecting & Wildlife Expeditions.” As always, we will meet on the second Friday of the month, and have free parking and refreshments. Doors open at 7:30 pm.

At our January event, we will be raffling off two tickets to the Kingsborough College play that runs between February and May, 2017.

The members voted for where they want to go for a club bus trip. We will be going to the Baltimore Aquarium on a Saturday in either April or May. We will also visit a couple of local fish stores on the return trip. However, we are still working on a price for the trip. Please let us know of your interest so we can investigate costs.

We continue to have several vacant slots for our Officers and Board members. The openings are 1st Vice President, Exchange Editor and Treasurer. Also there are several Board slots open. Having these positions unfilled creates a negative impact on what the club can do for our mem¬bers. As with any organization, less people means less gets done. This is your club and we are asking you to step up and help out. Vacancies in vital positions make a huge difference as to what we can provide to you, our members! Please help out. One thing that we must drop is our 50/50 for livestock at our April and November events since we do not have a Treasurer to coordinate.

Also, if you want to see different speakers and learn about different aquatic systems, fish, plants and marine life, please let me know. The elected officials of the Brooklyn Aquarium Society are here to serve YOU! Let us know what you want and why because it’s helpful to everyone. It is important that you visit and patronize our sponsors. It goes full circle: by helping them, they are also helping you as hobbyists and everyone is helping the Brooklyn Aquarium Society, so help us, help you!

For more info, please call our BAS Hotline at (718) 837-4455, or visit our modern website at www.brooklynaquariumsociety.org.

On a more personal note – any member who wants to attend a Board meeting, which are held at Education Hall of the New York Aquarium on the 1st Friday of the month, September through June, please notify me at (347) 277-4793 by the Tuesday before the meeting.

Steven Matassa
President

Dear Aquarist,

September is the start of another year at BAS, and it kicked off great. This is our 105th year, and we are still growing stronger and larger. With many familiar faces and plenty of new members joining our ranks, we had a great turn out as well as beautiful weather.  Speaking of familiar faces, our very own Joe Graffagnino gave a talk on his new fish room. The talk went over very well, as do most of our talks. Joe was very informative as to what was used and why, along with how he squeezed in tanks in every possible space. It was educational and very interesting on how he walked us step by step through the basement build out of his fish room from beginning to end.

Next month is our Giant Auction, so there is no speaker and no door charge. We will have many rare and hard to obtain livestock for freshwater and marine set ups, including soft and hard corals and plants. As always, free parking and refreshments. Doors open at 7:30pm. Bring your friends and family, as it is always a fun time for all.   See you in October.
Please visit our website where you can read the Bulletin and enjoy a full color Aquatica. The interactive forums and sponsor sections are truly remarkable. Provided you have given us your email address, you will be getting notifications of club events via email.

I am asking for your help and support. We need knowledgeable members to help fill the void for our Society’s officers and Board members. We have several positions open, such as 1st Vice President, Treasurer and Exchange Editor. How will the loss of these positions affect you? We won’t know what our sister clubs are doing without the Exchange Editor; the 1st VP slot is our main coordinator for trips, breeders awards program, photo contest and many other things that our Society is involved with; without our Treasurer, there are no more 50/50 livestock events. Please get involved – by helping us, you are helping yourself and what you have come to enjoy in our club.

If you want to see different speakers or try different things, please let me know. The elected officials of the Brooklyn Aquarium Society are here to serve YOU! Please let us know what you want and why. It would be helpful to everyone.

It is important that you visit and patronize our sponsors. It goes full circle: by helping them, they are also helping you as hobbyists and everyone is helping the Brooklyn Aquarium Society, so help us, help you!

For more info, please call our BAS Hotline at (718) 837-4455.

On a more personal note – Any member who desires to attend a Board meeting (which are held at the Education Center of the New York Aquarium on the 1st Friday of the month, September through June), please notify me at (347) 277-4793 by the Tuesday previous to the meeting.

Steven Matassa
President

Dear Aquarist,

May was a great month for us at BAS, good weather, and a great auction. We were packed to the maximum capacity allowed. The donation tables and aquatic supplies were bustling with excitement. Also, several established vendors displayed their wares at various tables.

Discounted shirts, hats and patches kept the crowds looking for more. The aquatic supply and equipment tables held many hobbyists’ interest. The auction had almost 250 bags of livestock and that was not counting aquariums, lighting and aquatic stands. It was a late night, but our members are worth it.

In June we have Rit Forcier coming up from Florida. Rit’s topic for the evening will be “Goodeid Livebearers.” As always, there will be free parking and refreshments. Doors open at 7:30 pm. Entry is free to all active members, non-members are asked to donate $5.00 at the door to help offset expenses; however, their donation that night is good towards the cost of annual membership. Members receive discounts in most of our sponsoring stores and free entry to all our auctions.

Anyone wishing to donate any healthy livestock (fish, plants or live corals) or dry goods can bring them to any general meeting. Donations are always welcome and appreciated – it’s what keeps your club healthy!

I must ask for our members’ help – Our Treasurer Denise and Board member Stu Hershkowitz are moving to Florida. We need a Treasurer and Board member. Please, if you have experience in accounting, we need your help.

Also if you want to see different speakers and learn about different aquatic systems, fish, plants and marine life, please let me know. The elected officials of the Brooklyn Aquarium Society are here to serve YOU! So please let us know what you want and why because it would be helpful to everyone. It is important that you visit and patronize our sponsors. It goes full circle: by helping them, they are also helping you as hobbyists and everyone is helping the Brooklyn Aquarium Society, so help us, help you!

For more info, please call our BAS Hotline at (718) 837-4455, or visit our modern website at WWW.BROOKLYNAQUARIUMSOCIETY.ORG.

On a more personal note – any member who wants to attend a Board meeting, which are held at Education Hall of the New York Aquarium on the 1st Friday of the month, September through June, please notify me at (347) 277-4793 by the Tuesday before the meeting.

Steven Matassa
President

Dear Aquarist,

Our April event was a great way to welcome Spring — by having a renowned speaker provide a lecture on a fascinating subject. Richard Pierce gave an in-depth talk on mysterious and controversial marine species. His topic for the evening was “Seahorses, Pipefish and Sea Dragons.” He warned our members that these creatures are not easy to keep in captivity. Some of these guys can grow to 18 inches in length. Sea horses can have 1,800 fry in a single spawn. It would be very difficult for a hobbyist to provide a sustainable biotope for these creatures. You must plan this out before seeking to obtain these creatures.

Richard was kind enough to be our speaker for the evening, even though he had an obligation to the NEC for the same weekend. Richard is an officer in the NEC and he took time out from his duties at the convention to fulfill his commitment to BAS. We thank him profusely for that.

In our continuing endeavor to educate our members and fellow aquarists, we had a representative from Hydor speak briefly on new medications for both marine and freshwater fish, so our members got a two for one deal. We hope to continue to bring product and manufacturing representatives to our meetings so our members can learn first hand about their new products and how they can improve the quality of life for aquarists.

As always, we had lots of livestock bags at the auction (we had a 50/50 with our registered members for the evening on donated plants, corals and both freshwater and marine fish), great items at the sponsor tables, and new BAS shirts, hats and club patches. We also had a large assortment of FREE refreshments to keep our members satisfied.
The weather was great; we had a packed house — all in all a great night.

Next month we have our May Giant Auction! No guest speaker, but plenty of fish and dry goods presented for our members and guests. As always, parking and refreshments are free. Doors open at 7:30 pm. Hope to see you there!

Steve Matassa
President

Dear Aquarist,

Our March event was another BAS milestone –- we are now 105 years and 1 month old. To help us celebrate this unique event, we had to bring in a unique speaker. Sal Silvestri came down from Connecticut and brought with him some old Brooklyn friends that have not graced our door in many, many years, such as Basil Holubis and Artie Platt. Sal spoke a few times in Brooklyn, but it was at least a decade ago. Sal talked about what he knows best, which is Apistogrammas! His topic for the evening was “Breeding and Maintaining Apistogramma genus & other South American Dwarf Cichlids.” He gave a great presentation and spoke about many rare and hard to find species. Sal has a knack for making the hard stuff look and sound easy.

Next month is our April event and we will have Richard Pierce coming from Rhode Island. Richard is a very interesting speaker and has a wide and diverse background in the aquarium hobby. He is into marine fish, killies and cichlids. He is affiliated with many organizations like the Tropical Fish Society of Rhode Island and he is an officer in the Northeast Council of Aquarium Societies. In fact, the NEC convention is on the same weekend as our meeting and he will come to our club and then return to his duties at the NEC – WOW, talk about dedication! Richard’s topic for the evening will be “Seahorses, Pipefish and Sea Dragons.” Rich will take the mystery and false rumors away and give the straight talk about raising these amazing creatures in your home aquarium. As always, the meetings will be at the NY Aquarium Education Hall. Doors open at 7:30 PM. And, as always, there is Free Parking and Free Refreshments.

Please visit our website where you can read the Bulletin and enjoy a full color Aquatica. The interactive forums and sponsor sections are truly remarkable. Provided you have given us your email address, you will be getting notifications of club events via email.

I am asking again for your help and support. Our Treasurer Denise and our Board member Stu Hershkowitz are moving to Florida soon, so we will need a new Treasurer and Board member. Please if you have experience in accounting, we need your help. Also, if you want to see different speakers or try different things, please let me know. The elected officials of the Brooklyn Aquarium Society are here to serve YOU! Please let us know what you want and why. It would be helpful to everyone.

It is important that you visit and patronize our sponsors. It goes full circle: by helping them, they are also helping you as hobbyists and everyone is helping the Brooklyn Aquarium Society, so help us, help you!

For more info, please call our BAS Hotline at (718) 837-4455, or visit our modern website at WWW.BROOKLYNAQUARIUMSOCIETY.ORG.

On a more personal note – Any member who desires to attend a Board meeting, which are held at Education Hall of the New York Aquarium on the 1st Friday of the month, September through June, please notify me at (347) 277-4793 by the Tuesday previous to the meeting.
Steve Matassa
President

Dear Aquarist,

February was cold, but a warm month for BAS, since we had a great speaker, Joe Caparatta of Manhattan Aquarium, who packed the house. Joe spoke on a new marine system for reef tanks called the Triton Method. This was not Joe’s first talk at our club and, as always, he was informative.

We also had a great auction, clothing and equipment tables, free refreshments and free parking; a very good deal for all. We at BAS always try to do our best at our events, but if you think we are missing something, we want to hear from you, our members, so please let us know.

Next month we will have Sal Silvestri speaking on “Breeding and Maintaining Apistogramma Genus and other South American Dwarf Cichlids.” Doors will open at 7:30 pm on March 11. For all future events, please check our web site – www.basny.org’

Remember, if not for our local pet store sponsors, BAS would not be able to survive, so please patronize our loyal sponsor stores because they keep us up and running.

If any of our members have a topic they want to hear speakers talk on or have ideas about our events, we want to know about them. We need your feedback to keep our club going strong. Don’t be shy – let us hear from you! Members can contact us at our hotline (718) 837-4455 or visit our web site www.brooklynaquariumsociety.org, where you can find our upcoming events or join our BAS Forum.

The BAS Forum is a great place for your questions and answers, and to buy or sell aquarium items. Members can also bring up new ideas at our Board meeting on the first Friday of the month in the NY Aquarium Education Hall. If you want to attend a Board meeting to help out or just to express your thoughts, you are always welcome. Please call me at (347) 277-4793. You must call by the Tuesday previous to the meeting. The next Board meeting is March 4, 2016. Hope to see you there.

Thanks and see you next month!

Steven Matassa
President

Dear Aquarist,

The new year is here, and we rung it in with our speaker, Jeff Bolbach. Jeff has spoken at BAS before and this time his discussion was great again. Jeff’s presentation was about “Getting Rich Breeding Fish.” Although It was a cold night, we still had approximately 100 members show up for Jeff, and our auction — or perhaps maybe just the cake — either way, it was a good night.

Next month, our guest speaker will be Joe Caparatta, owner of Manhattan Aquarium. Joe will be speaking on the “Triton Method” for reef tanks. Joe has spoken previously at BAS and has always been a great supporter of our Society.

Doors open at 7:30. As always, there’s free parking and refreshments.

Remember, we can always use help. If anyone wants to help out in any way, please let us know. See me personally or any officer or board member. If anyone has any topics they want to hear expert speakers on, or any specific speaker, please tell us that also.

We would like to thank our members and our sponsors for their constant generous donations that keep us going. Anyone who has any aquatic items, supplies or equipment, and that would include healthy livestock of fish, corals or plants, we always welcome the donation.

Thanks and see you next month!

Steven Matassa
President

Dear Aquarist,

Another year has come and gone in our club, and we still see so many familiar faces, and of course so many new ones, as our club continues to grow. We still maintain as the largest and oldest aquarium society in the country – thanks to our dedicated members.
December’s event was our Holiday Party at the Seaport Buffet Chinese Restaurant in Sheepshead Bay. We decided to try something different this year; normally, we would all cook or bring food, dessert or non-alcoholic drinks to share with fellow members, family and friends. We thought we would try to give the chefs and cooks a break this year by dining out. We had over 60 members attend to enjoy the many varieties of foods, sushi and desserts. Everyone had a good time. It is always fun to reminisce among friends and talk about our favorite subject – tropical fish. It is even better when we can do that along with eating and drinking delicious and never ending gourmet cuisine. I think everyone truly enjoyed themselves.
In January, our guest speaker will be Jeff Bollbach. Jeff’s topic for the evening will be “Getting Rich Breeding Fish.” Sound interesting: making money from breeding fish, instead of costing us money? This certainly caught my interest.
As always, we will have free parking and refreshments. We also have a sales table for our new shirts, hats and club patch. Don’t forget our livestock auction and used aquatic equipment display for your perusal.
Doors open at 7:30 PM

We can always use help at our meetings, so anyone willing to pitch in, please let us know. We always are looking for your input, so if you have any ideas please let us know that as well.
Our local stores keep our club going with very generous donations, so please patronize these establishments and show your BAS membership card. These stores give discounts to BAS members. Check our web site or our publications (The Bulletin and Aquatica) for a list of our sponsors.  You can also pick up a sheet of coupons at the next meeting.
Hope to see you in January and have a good holiday.

Steven Matassa
President

Dear Aquarist,

Our November auction was another big hit, with a great presentation from our speaker Mark Denaro on “Fishes for the Reef Aquarium.” Our members really enjoyed his talk. The weather was great and we had a “standing room only” crowd. With over 200 bags of livestock and lots of aquarium related supplies, aquariums and other aquatic products for sale, we all stayed late and enjoyed a successful night.

We awarded our photo contest prizes at this meeting. There were some terrific photos to match the great prizes. Every year it gets better because this year we had more entries than last year’s contest. Check out our web site for the winning photos.  I’m sure you’ll agree that our members submitted some excellent, professional quality pictures.

Remember, if not for our local pet store sponsors, BAS would not be able to survive, so please patronize our loyal sponsor stores because they keep us up and running.

Next month we will be having our holiday party at Seaport Buffet, Chinese Restaurant, in Sheepshead Bay on Friday, December 11th. Tickets are required in advance.  There will be no entry without one.  If you have not yet obtained your tickets, and want to attend, please contact Joe Graffagnino (see number below). Hope to see you there.

If any of our members have a topic they want to hear speakers talk on or have ideas about our events; we want to hear them. We need your feedback to keep our club going strong. Members can contact us at our hotline (718) 837-4455 or visit our web site www.brooklynaquariumsociety.org where you can find our upcoming events or join our BAS Forum. The BAS Forum is a great place for your questions and answers, and to buy or sell aquarium items.

Members can also bring up new ideas at our board meeting on the first Friday of the month in the NY Aquarium Education Hall. If you want to attend a board meeting to help out or just to express your thoughts; you are always welcome. Please call Joe Graffagnino (718) 238-1792. You must call by the Tuesday previous to the meeting. The next board meeting is December 4, 2015. Hope to see you there.

Steven Matassa
President

Dear Aquarist,

Our October giant auction has come and gone. Even though we had a rainy night, that did not keep our members home. We had a great turnout, with plenty of fish and supplies for sale.

We had a busy night with over 200 bags of fish, plants, marine fish and corals, all donated from local fish store sponsors and members. We had many rare and hard to find fish for our auction. The night was a great success.

Next month, we will have Bob Fenner speaking on reef stocking. Bob is a renowned author on saltwater, and we have been asking for him as a speaker for some time. We finally were able to pin him down and are looking forward to him to gracing our club with his pearls of wisdom. For all you reef enthusiasts – don’t miss him. We always have free parking and free refreshments, so mark your calendar. See you next month.

Remember, if it was not for our local pet store sponsors, BAS would not be able to survive, so please patronize our loyal sponsor stores because they keep us up and running.

Our photo contest has come to a close, so if you did not post any photos, plan for next year’s competition. We have been making announcements about our annual photo contest, which started in June and ended on October 18th. Winners will be named at our next meeting. As always, we have lots of great prizes, so hope you cleaned up those tanks and got your photos ready.

If any of our members have a topic they want to hear speakers give a presentation on or have ideas about our events, we want to hear them. We need your feedback to keep our club going strong. Members can contact us at our hotline (718) 837-4455 or visit our web site www.brooklynaquariumsociety.org where you can find out about upcoming events or join our BAS forum. The forum is a great place for your questions and answers, and to buy or sell aquarium items.

Members can also bring up new ideas at our Board meeting on the first Friday of the month in the NY Aquarium Education Hall. If you want to attend a Board meeting to help out or just to talk about your ideas, you are always welcome. Please call Joe Graffagnino (718) 238-1792. You must call by the Tuesday previous to the meeting. The next board meeting is November 6, 2015. Hope to see you there.
Steven Matassa
President

Dear Aquarist,

We had a great night weather wise, and not too bad fish wise either. We started our September event with Rick Borstein as our guest speaker. Rick spoke on ideas for the aquarium, titled “60 Tips in 60 Minutes.” Rick has spoken at our club before and was remembered and well received by our members. We thank him for taking the time from his busy schedule, and hope to see him again soon.
We had another busy night at our auction, with over 100 bags of fish and plants donated from local fish store sponsors and members; the night was a real success. Next month will be our Giant Auction. We anticipate lots of rare livestock and all types of freshwater, marine, coral and plant items, as well as lots of dry goods. There will be no speaker at our Giant Auction, so come early to check out our livestock, aquatic supplies and equipment. We always have free parking and free refreshments, so mark your calendar. See you next month.
Please remember, if not for our local pet store sponsors, BAS would not be able to survive, so please patronize our loyal sponsor stores — they keep us up and running. Show your membership card for applicable discounts and to let them know we support them.
We have been making announcements about our annual photo contest, which started in June, and ends on October 18th, so get those photos in right away. As always, we have lots of great prizes, so clean up those tanks and get your photos ready. See our Web site for instructions on how to enter.
If any of our members have a topic they want to hear speakers talk on or have ideas about our events, we want to hear them. We need your feedback to keep our club going strong. Members can contact us at our hotline (718) 837-4455 or visit our web site www.bas.org where you can find upcoming events or join our BAS forum. The forum is a great place for your questions and answers, and to buy or sell aquarium items.

Members can also bring up new ideas at our Board meeting on the first Friday of the month in the NY Aquarium Education Hall. If you want to attend a Board meeting to help out or just to bring us your thoughts, you are always welcome. Please call Joe Graffagnino (718) 238-1792. You must call by the Tuesday previous to the meeting. The next Board meeting is Oct. 2, 2015. Hope to see you there.

Steven Matassa
President

Dear Aquarist,

June is one of the more enjoyable months of the year and it was made more so by our guest speaker Lou Ekus. Lou brought his family with him and a warm, fun family they are. Lou is a great guy and a very knowledgeable speaker on Reef Chemistry, which was his subject for the evening. Lou is the manager for Tropic Marin in the United States. His talk was very entertaining and made the complicated chemicals and their interaction very basic. We had a crowded meeting thanks to Lou. Our auction and raffles contained many interesting items and products from our sponsors, donators and members. As always, everyone went home happy.

June is election time for BAS. After the smoke cleared, we found many new faces in various Board and Officer positions. The new people and their positions will be listed in the Bulletin. This was my last year as your President. I had a wonderful time for the past 8 years and I thank you, the members, officers and Board members for making it so. I thank you from the bottom of my heart! I am not traveling off into the sunset, but will still help out and attend meetings; however, my personal life has caused my priorities to shift.

We will be taking the months of July and August off and will return in September with a new group of speakers and other fun things that we shall do together as BAS members. Our September speaker will be Rick Borstein, who is the FAAS [Federation of American Aquarium Societies] President and an officer in the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association.
As always, the meetings will be at the NY Aquarium Education Hall. Doors open at 7:30 PM, and there is Free Parking and Free Refreshments.

Please visit our website where you can read the Bulletin and enjoy a full color Aquatica. The interactive forums and sponsor sections are truly remarkable. Provided you have given us your email address, you will be getting notifications of club events via email.

We are asking again for your help and support. If you want to see different speakers or try different things, please let us know. The elected officials of the Brooklyn Aquarium Society are here to serve YOU! Please tell us what you want and why. It would be helpful for everyone.

It is important that you visit and patronize our sponsors. It goes full circle: by helping them, they are also helping you as hobbyists and everyone is helping the Brooklyn Aquarium Society, so help us, help you!

For more info, please call our BAS Hotline at (718) 837-4455, or visit our modern website at WWW.BROOKLYNAQUARIUMSOCIETY.ORG.

In addition: Any member who desires to attend a Board meeting, held at Education Hall of the New York Aquarium on the 1st Friday of the month, September through June, please notify Steve Matassa at (347) 277-4793 by the Tuesday previous to the meeting.
Joe Graffagnino
President (outgoing)