We had another great meeting this month with over 250 bags for auction, and a insightful talk by Harry Faustmann who shared his knowledge on Killifish. Harry always brings an informative talk — even pointing out the Cadillac of Killifish! He has a vast knowledge on many topics and we love having him here! Thank you Harry.
We continue to build our saltwater membership, and as a result we have more and more saltwater items for auction. With many new sponsors, our number keeps growing. We had some terrific coral pieces this month, thanks to donations from Pop Coral, Bull Reef, Absolutely Fish and others. Thank you all.
We opened back up in September with a great talk from Marc Levenson of Melev’s Reef. Marc spoke on how to move your tank. Something we all run into at least once or twice. It was a thorough discussion on everything you have to think of and how to avoid last minute surprises. We had a full house for the auction too, with over 270 items for auction, plus our usual sales table.
The summer is coming to a close, but that means another new year at BAS. I for one am excited to get back. We will open up September 12th with Marc Levenson from Melev’s Reef. Marc will give a talk on moving your tank. Most of us had to do that atleast once or twice, so that should be interesting. Marc is known among reefers for his site Melev’s Reef, I am looking forward to his talk.
As most of you probably know we visited the Long Island Aquarium, this past week. For those of you that missed it, it is your loss. Joe Yaiullo gave us an amazing behind the scenes tour second to none! We got to see just how much work is put into running an aquarium, and how many people it takes to do it. It was fun and educational. There was also a terrific boat ride to a remote island. The staff there was so helpful and knowledgable. We thank you Joe for your long support of our club!!
We finished up our season with a terrific meeting! Our own Dan Puleo gave a great talk on water changes. Dan, who also is one of our auctioneers and a board member, stepped up with an informative presentation; which happened to be our last of the season. But no worries — we will be back on September 12th with Marc Levenson who will give a talk on moving your tank. Marc is known for his site Melev’s reef.
April was a terrific meeting with the help of our long time friend and speaker for the night, Joe Yaiullo. Joe always gives a great presentation for us. He spoke on his 38 years of creating of the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead. We got to see his early drawings and watch the installation of the shark tank panels. It was sensational! We enjoyed his talk so much that we’ve setup a day to go visit the his aquarium. BAS is going to the L.I Aquarium on Saturday, August 16th, and everyone is invited. All members, family, and friends are welcome.
We will be collecting money at the next two meetings. The price is as follows: for the aquarium only is $22.00, the boat tour with the aquarium is $40.00 and the butterfly exhibit adds $2.00 to any package. All three total $42.00. Please pay by the June meeting. Please note that these are club discount prices. Anyone not paying before, will not get the discount the day of the trip. We will meet at the aquarium at noon on the 16th.
Hopefully the frigid months are behind us. The older I get, the more I hate the cold. February was COLD, but our members are hearty and came out to hear Bob Likins of Pet Advocacy Network speak on important issues facing the hobby both here and abroad. Since there was a storm in the forecast, we featured him virtually. He answered a lot of questions at the end of his presentation.
Pet Advocacy Network is a great organization who fights for the fish trade and keeping us up to date. We thank Bob for taking time to enlighten us on the work his of organization.
February the club featured Joe Yaiullo from Long Island Aquarium who came to speak to us. Joe never lets us down! His talk was on “A Hard Reboot of a 20,000 Gallon Reef Tank and Combating a New Coral Parasite Known Only as THEM.” It was a riveting tale on how he got his showcase tank emptied out and then ready for prime time again. He battled creatures both big and microscopic. In fact prior to the talk, he’d just gotten stitches removed from his hand and arm due to the potent and mysterious mytobacteria. What an incredible story! Joe is the curator of the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead, and if you haven’t been there yet, it is worth the trip!!
It takes a lot of effort from many people like our board members who continue to work hard to bring a great show every month. I want to thank them for their dedication, drive and loyalty. Anyone wishing to help out, we will gladly give you something to do! Please ask.
Our January Auction showcased James Perrenod speaking on cichlids,. As always James gives a great talk. He packs the house. We had many donations from stores, Manufacturers, and our own members. The 50/50 is bringing in many bags of donations each month. Whatever livestock our members bring in they split with the club, 50/50. This is for livestock only. We will continue to do a 50/50 every month from here on out. This is a great way to make a little money and enjoy the breeding. Don’t forget to submit your breeders form to claim breeders bragging rights and submission to the awards points program. Sending in a photo with short description of the fish and tank description will grant you addition points.
Our October Giant Auction event was a great success! We had many donations from stores, manufacturers and our own members. The 50/50 model is bringing in a lot of bags of donations each month. What is a 50/50? Whatever livestock our members bring in, they split the winning bid with the club, 50/50. This is for livestock only. We are going to continue to do a 50/50 every month except during our next Giant Auction which is in May.
We had a very good turnout in March to see our own David Manuel speak on starting a saltwater tank. This was David’s first time speaking at any club, and he did a great job! This is a topic that many of our members are interested in. Thank you David for once again stepping up for us! Since the pandemic, it has been hard to get speakers to make the trip to Brooklyn to speak. We will continue to do our best to bring you engaging speakers.
Our March event was a big success thanks to our faithful board members. I can’t begin to thank them enough because without our volunteers, we would not exist! Our board members and volunteers help put our meetings together while making sure they run to smoothly. I don’t think our membership realizes what’s involved in structuring our meetings: from picking up donations, to bringing merchandise to our meeting location and back to our storage at the end of the night. Then we have our publications, advertising, website, bookkeeping, board meetings, sponsors and the arranging of speakers. This is work done throughout the month and year, not just the day of the show. With that said, I thank all the volunteers for their dedication!
We are finally back in the NY Aquarium!! In February, we had our first meeting since Covid shut us out in 2020. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we are very glad to be back. Our February meeting was a big hit! We had our own Don Lang speaking on breeding fish. Don did a great job filling in as speaker at the last moment. His presentation was well received. He not only delivered his first BAS talk, but he is always there to help where needed, and we’re thankful for his dedication.
We are back to start another year at BAS, the 112th. That’s pretty amazing even for a fish club. We resumed by bringing you a speaker all the way from Germany, Andreas Tanke. Andreas gave a great talk on Plecos. We will continue to bring you great speakers in the future.
That’s right: The Brooklyn Aquarium Society is finally back! We had our first event in over two years, and we had a great time. Our location was changed to St Brendan’s Church, and it was a big success. We had many familiar faces and also many new ones. There were a lot of great deals on fish, tanks, and supplies, and a great speaker, James Perronod from Discusrus.com, who graciously stepped up at the very last minute since our scheduled speaker, Yemi Amu was sick. James, as always, held an informative question and answer session. There was no question that could stump this pro! We thank him. Continue reading President’s Message – May 2022→
I usually try to focus on the good when I write my message, but this is the hardest President’s message I have ever written. It is with a heavy heart that I must announce the passing of our past President and my longtime friend Joe Graffagnino. Joe was well-liked by all who knew him. I have never met anyone who had a bad thing to say about him. He was always the first to volunteer his help for our club and even other clubs, in any way he could. He has left a big void in all of us and he will be greatly missed. Our heartfelt prayers go out to his family.
All of us at BAS are hoping that everyone is well and staying safe and healthy. We all know this pandemic continues to grip our world. All of us are praying that we can resume normal life in the near future. I do not have any information as to when we can have in person BAS events at Education Hall. I have been in contact with Scott Doyle of the New York Aquarium and I am quoting his email response to my question about any updates we can share with our members. His response is:
This is a difficult President’s Message to write. Our events for March, April and May have been canceled, along with every other club in the world. The Coronavirus has impacted economies worldwide, hundreds of thousands of people have died and it isn’t over yet.
One of the coldest months of the year turned out to be warm and sunny when Joe Yaiullo, Curator of the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead, Long Island arrived. His presentation entitled “Sometimes It’s The Little Things” was fascinating. This event was a wake-up call for marine and freshwater hobbyists alike because it spoke about setting up the steps to prevent catastrophe, planning ahead so disaster doesn’t strike and having redundancy parts and equipment in the event something fails. It was an enlightening and educational adventure from one of our oldest and dearest friends. Joe was kind enough to donate cuttings from the corals in his 20,000 gallon aquarium. The audience was very interested and asked many questions.
For our first general meeting of the year we thought we would warm things up with one of our favorite speakers, Luis Morales. Luis gave a very informative presentation on “Fish Photography”. It was a great lecture for beginners and advanced hobbyists that wanted to take great photos of their favorite fish, plants or corals. Luis had given similar presentation years ago but updated it with information on the newer technology in the world of photography.
Our November event was a cold and windy one. Our guest speaker warmed us up though with a great presentation and he came with a few boxes of raffle prizes, which made everyone happy. Lou Ekus, CEO of Tropic Marin came down from Massachusetts and his topic for the evening was, “Reef Chemistry Made Easy.” Lou takes the guess work out of chemicals in our reef aquariums and simplifies the entire environment. It was a great talk from a wonderful person.
November was our semi-annual 50/50 on livestock. We had many bags of high quality freshwater fish, marine fish, both fresh and marine plants and invertebrates, along with hard to get live corals. Many attendees went away with great bargains. We had aquariums, lighting, pumps, filters, aquatic supplies and fish/plant and coral foods. Everything you need to keep and maintain your aquatic creatures with the best of everything to keep them happy and healthy.
