Dear Aquarist,

Our March event brought in a different type of guest speaker. Gene Ritter, an experienced diver in NYC waters, was our guest for the evening.  His topic was “Reef Diving in NYC.” Gene’s presentation and videos were fascinating. He spoke of his many different exploits and findings beneath the waves in our own back yard. He discussed the finding of the Steeplechase Pier bell, a sunken Army barge filled with ammunition at the base of the Verrazano Bridge, and having celebrities take dives in the waters surrounding New York – which included our NY Aquarium Director Jon Forrest Dohlin. Gene discovered several Revolutionary warships that were sunk in the East River and a World War II fighter plane that went down off of Westchester. The fighter plane on a training mission crashed without a trace. Many years later, a relative of the pilot was convinced he knew where the plane was located. He talked Gene into the search and before long they did discover the aircraft 40 miles away from where it should have been. A coincidence or a voice from beyond? You decide.

Since poor weather kept some members away last month, we decided to have our 103rd birthday party at our March event. It was a beautiful and delicious cake (proof of that was there was not one piece left). A good time was had by all!

Next month’s event brings Rachel O’Leary as our guest speaker. Rachel is a most sought after speaker. She will be speaking on “Freshwater Nano Diversity – The Ins, Outs and In-Betweens.” Rachel is an invertebrate expert, so I’m sure she will talk on snails and shrimps and what fish species would go well with them. Put it on your calendar to be at the NY Aquarium Education Hall for April 11 at 7:30 PM. As always, there is Free Parking and Free Refreshments.

Please visit our new website where you can read the Bulletin and enjoy a full color Aquatica. The interactive forums and sponsor sections are truly enjoyable. 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. 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, please notify me at (718) 238-1792 by the Tuesday previous to the meeting.

Joe Graffagnino,

President

Dear Aquarist,

We kicked off 2014 with a great event. Pat Donston, the owner of Absolutely Fish, a fabulous aquatic retail store in Clifton, NJ, was our guest speaker. Pat’s presentation for the evening was “Stronger Fish, Healthy Aquariums.” The members and guests had a great time listening to Pat giving detailed information about the how’s and why’s of keeping marine fish and corals. Pat was kind enough to bring in corals and aquatic products and donated them to our event.

Pat Donston has offered to have us come to Absolutely Fish on a Saturday and has promised a 30% discount for that day to all attendees.  To add to the fun, he will open early just for us. Absolutely Fish normally opens at noon, but for us he will open at 10:30 AM so those that come with us will have an hour and a half of private viewing and buying. Come to the February event to find out what Saturday we will be going!

Our February event will be on February 14, which coincides with our 103rd birthday. We plan on having a birthday party, so bring your best sing-along voice. Our guest speaker for the evening is Kathy Cardineau, a pond expert who is the president of the Nassau County Aquarium Society. Anyone hoping to install a pond this Spring should definitely attend. Kathy’s title is “Setting Up A Pond.”  As always, there will be free parking and free refreshments.

I want to remind our friends and members to visit our BAS Forum. The Forum is a great place to get good, solid information from experts in the hobby. Many of our sponsors have “rooms” on our Forum to talk about their latest products and to answer questions on their products and equipment, but also to field questions from concerned hobbyists. Please take a few minutes to visit our Forum. I’m sure you’ll be glad that you did. To reach our Forum site, please visit our web site (www.BrooklynAquariumSociety.org) and at the top right side click on the Forum and follow the instructions for joining.

I am asking for your help and support. If you want to see different speakers or want to go on a field trip to the Baltimore Aquarium and visit huge pet shops along the way, 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, held at the Education Center of the New York Aquarium on the 1st Friday of the month, please notify me at (718) 238-1792 by the Tuesday previous to the meeting.

Joe Graffagnino
President

President’s Message

The December 2013 Holiday party was a fun time for all. I think this is the most enjoyable event of the year – at least for the Board and Officers of our great Society. This is the one time all year that we can relax and enjoy the wonderful foods and pleasant conversation with our fellow aquarists. We all shared the great dishes our members and their families brought in. It was truly a feast of different tastes and aromas. John Todaro and his son Andrew ventured down from the snows of Vermont to join us in the festivities. John made some of his famous meat pies, culled from medieval recipes. Everything was delicious!
I handed out the hard earned awards for those dedicated members who worked all year to make this club what it is today – the largest, oldest and most successful aquarium society in the United States. I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for joining us and working so diligently all year. John Todaro gave out the Aquatica and the FAAS awards for the best written articles submitted to John for publication in our Society’s magazine Aquatica – one of the best aquarium society publications in the United States.

Marie Licciardello ran our “Fish Bingo” this year and we had plenty of fishy prizes to give out. It was a lot of fun.

The January event will feature Pat Donston as our guest speaker. Pat is the owner of Absolutely Fish in Clifton, NJ who has been an enthusiastic sponsor of our great Society for many years. His retail aquarium store is fantastic and has huge selections of marine fish and corals, freshwater fish and live plants. The quality of his establishment is superb. Pat travels all over the United States to give insightful presentations on marine and freshwater subjects and also how chemicals affect aquarium environments. Pat’s topic for the evening will be “Stronger Fish, Healthy Aquariums.” So be there on January 10 at 7:30 PM to welcome Pat. As always, there will be free parking and free refreshments.

I want to remind our friends and members to visit our BAS Forum. The Forum is a great place to get good, solid information from experts in the hobby. Many of our sponsors have “rooms” on our Forum to talk about their latest products and to answer questions on their products and equipment, and also to field questions from concerned hobbyists. Please take a few minutes to visit our Forum. I’m sure you’ll be glad that you did. To reach our Forum site, please visit our web site (www.BrooklynAquariumSociety.org) and at the top right side click on the Forum and follow the instructions for joining.

The awards for this past year were given to:

PRESTIGIOUS AWARDS:

BREEDER OF THE YEAR:Larry Jinks
RICHARD SPANVILL MEMORIAL AWARD: Virginia Cahill
JOE & ANN BELLER MEMORIAL AWARD: Michael Roman
HOBBYIST OF THE YEAR: Tomasz Lis
William F. DeFoe Award: Marty Karfinkel

Auctioneer Awards went as a big thank you for our wonderful and dedicated auctioneers that for many, many years have gone above and beyond, with very little thanks.  I want to personally praise Dennis Alestra, William Amely and Seth Kolker.

We did have C.A.R.E.S. awards for those aquarists who bred and raised endangered aquatic species. This year’s awards went to:
Frank Nell for the Pseudotropheus demasoni
Larry Jinks for Xiphophorus meyeri, “Puebla Platy”
Tilipia gutterosa, a West African cichlid from Lake Bermin, Cameroon
Pelvicachromis subocellatus, a Kribensis type of African cichlid

I am asking for your help and support. If you want to see different speakers or want to go on a field trip to the Baltimore Aquarium and visit huge pet shops along the way, 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, held at the Education Center of the New York Aquarium on the 1st Friday of the month, please notify me at (718) 238-1792 by the Tuesday previous to the meeting.

Joe Graffagnino
President

Dear Aquarist,

November event was an interesting meeting. Our guest speaker for the evening was John Coppolino. John’s topic for the evening was “SPS Success”. Although the coral pictures and John’s methodology in growing them successfully was very interesting I think most people were interested in his new home which has a 1,300 gallon marine aquarium installed. I think he built his home around his aquariums. Spectacular doesn’t do it justice. We also had a 50/50 on livestock (plants, fish and corals) that was very successful. Our auction and donations of products had many attendees enjoying our sponsor’s products.

We gave out the prizes to the winners of our BAS photo contest and took pictures of the winners and their prizes for each of the 17 categories. The pictures, along with the photo that won the prize (for the two areas that had ties all the pictures will be shown) will be available in our upcoming Aquatica for you to enjoy and to think about what pics you want to enter for next years’ contest. I want to personally thank our panel of judges from SeaChem, Hikari, and Central Aquatics (which owns Aqueon, Kent Marine and Coralife, along with our own Kay Martin and Dr. Robert Price. All the pictures can be seen on our Yahoo Group BrooklynAquariumSociety. Thanks for everyone who entered!

Our next event is our Holiday Party. This is where we break bread and share stories with our members and families. Everyone is to bring in a dish so all can share in the bounty of BAS food, desserts and non-alcoholic beverages. All attendees must bring in a dish or they will be charged $10 at the door. This is also the evening we present our awards for our hard working Board, and members and least we forget our sponsors and other donators. The meeting/dinner will be on December 13. As always doors open at 7:30 PM, and there is free parking.

I am asking for your help and support. If you want to see different subjects offered, please let me know. As examples, some members asked when we were having another bus trip to the Long Island Aquarium & Exposition Center; another asked if we would be willing to do a bus trip to the Baltimore Aquarium, take in a ballgame at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, do an overnight and then hit several huge aquarium stores on the way home. I said sure why not, IF you can get enough people to fill a bus. So, those who are interested get back to me with what you want to do!

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, held at the Education Center of the New York Aquarium on the 1st Friday of the month, please notify me at (718) 238-1792 by the Tuesday previous to the meeting.

Joe Graffagnino
President

Dear Aquarist,

Happy Halloween! I’m afraid we didn’t have any pumpkins at our Giant Auction, but we had plenty of fish, plants, corals, filters, lights and aquariums. There was plenty of haunting going around or maybe that was hawking our wonderful shirts, donated books and magazines and our donated items at our freshwater and marine items tables. We had a wonderful time and our members and guests came away with some spectacular items.

Our November event is on a marine topic. Renowned MASNA speaker John Coppolino is our guest lecturer and his topic will be either “Modern Fish Keeping In Reef Aquaria” or “SPS Success.” I think that either one will be a big hit. As always, doors open at 7:30 PM, and there is free parking and free refreshments.

Our photo contest is over. There were some technical problems with Yahoo Groups so our judges are still compiling the votes for the winners in each of the 17 categories. We will announce the winners at our November event and present them with their wonderful prizes at that event. The prices are at least $100.00 in value for each category. Our sponsor/donator/judges are – SeaChem, Hikari, and Central Aquatics (which owns Aqueon, Kent Marine and Coralife). The winners will be posted on our web site (www.BrooklynAquariumSociety.org).

I am happy to note that our Corresponding Secretary position has been filled by Dan Smith. Welcome aboard Dan. Mike Roman, our current Corresponding Secretary, will be posting the position’s data to Dan over the next few months. Mike, we will sorely miss you! You have been a tremendous asset to BAS and we want to wish you good luck and happy fish when you move to Wisconsin.

I am asking for your help and support. If you want to see different subjects offered, please let me know. As examples, some members asked when we were having another bus trip to the Long Island Aquarium & Exposition Center; another asked if we would be willing to do a bus trip to the Baltimore Aquarium, take in a ballgame at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, do an overnight and then hit several huge aquarium stores on the way home. I said sure, why not, IF you can get enough people to fill a bus. So, those who are interested, get back to me with what you want to do!

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, held at the Education Center of the New York Aquarium on the 1st Friday of the month, please notify me at (718) 238-1792 by the Tuesday previous to the meeting.

Joe Graffagnino
President

Dear Aquarist,

Dear Aquarist,

June has come and gone. June marks the end of our fiscal year and we plan on having a much needed rest over July and August. June was also club officer and Board member elections and we basically have the same crew as last year with one exception. Mike Roman must leave his position of Corresponding Secretary at the end of the calendar year because he is moving to Wisconsin. We will miss him dearly. Mike was always very dedicated and hard working no matter what task was before him. People, we need a Corresponding Secretary! This position sends the official letters from BAS. If anyone is interested, please let me know.

Our guest speaker for June was Laura Birenbaum of the Long Island Aquarium & Exposition Center. Laura provided a very interesting talk on dry shipping corals and invertebrates. She demonstrated her experiments in a Power Point display, provided the results and showed how she had improved mortality results in various shipping methods. Laura and Joe Yaiullo brought in many coral ‘frags’ and donated them to BAS, for which we are very grateful!

We had a 50/50 on livestock – fish, corals and plants only! It was quite successful as members and attendees will see a nice reward for their effort in donations at the September event. 

We are having a photo contest which began at the conclusion of our June event. All contestants are to put their pictures on our Yahoo Group called the Brooklyn Aquarium Society. We have 17 categories for you to enter. Each member may enter 3 pictures of 6 Megapixels or greater in each category. Winners will be selected by our sponsors and members of the Board that have not entered the contest. The contest will run through the summer and the winners will be selected at our October event. Winners must be present to collect their prizes.

The September event will have me as the guest speaker. Hobbyists tell me all the time that I know all this crazy stuff for keeping aquarium maintenance easy and helping fish and fry, spawning different types of fish, etc., so why not put all this useless stuff (for non-aquarists) into a presentation. Ok, you want it, so I will try to put something together for you. No promises of anything mind blowing though. Doors open at 7:30 PM.  As always, there’s free parking and free refreshments.

I am asking for your help and support. If you want to see different subjects offered, please let me know. As examples, some members asked when we were having another bus trip to the Long Island Aquarium & Exposition Center, another asked if we would be willing to do a bus trip to the Baltimore Aquarium, take in a ballgame at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, do an overnight and then hit several huge aquarium stores on the way home. I said sure why not, IF you can get enough people to fill a bus. So, those who are interested get back to me with what you want to do! 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, please notify me at (718) 238-1792 by the Tuesday previous to the meeting.

Joe Graffagnino
President

Dear Aquarist,

May, what a beautiful month! Not only does it bring flowers, but it brings our Giant Auction. What a great array of fine aquatic creatures donated by our members and friends! There were over 200 items at the auction and everyone left with great bargains. There were freshwater fish, marine fish, corals and plants, tanks, magazines and coupons from our sponsors. Our great auctioneers, Dennis Alestra and Bill Amely, took turns at the podium working up bag after bag and the many aquariums, to the attendees’ delight. Even former president Seth Kolker joined in to help out and give our regular auctioneers a breather. If you missed this event, you missed a spectacular evening.

June will be our final event of the season before we take a summer hiatus. To end our sessons on a very high note, we have Laura Birenbaum of the Long Island Aquarium & Exposition Center as our guest speaker. Her topic for the evening will be “Coral & Marine Inverts’ Tolerances for Dry Shipping.”  For all you marine guys, this is a not to be missed event, especially if you were thinking of mailing a frag to a friend.
June’s auction is our promised 50/50 on livestock – fish, corals and plants only! If interested, please tell Marty when you bring your items in.

June is also election night, the time for all members to vote for your elected officials. Anyone wanting to run for an Officer or Board position must have been a member for 6 months. Please let me know what job or function you wish to be nominated for. Doors open at 7:30 PM.  As always there is free parking and free refreshments.

We plan on having a photo contest starting in June. We have started a Yahoo Group called the Brooklyn Aquarium Society. We plan on having at least 16 categories for you to enter. Each member may enter 3 pictures of 6 Megapixel or greater in each category. Winners will be selected by our sponsors and members of the Board that have not entered the contest. This is still in the planning stages; however, the contest will run through the summer and the winners will be selected at our October event. Winners must be present to collect their prize. Stand by for more info which will be posted on our web site.

Don’t forget to enter our Forum contest. The winner of the most posts in our Forum wins $25. worth of BAS Bucks and second place wins $10. You must be in it to win it.
I am asking for your help and support. If you want to see different subjects offered, 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!

On a more personal note – Any member who desires to attend a Board meeting (they are held at the Education Center of the New York Aquarium on the 1st Friday of the month), please notify me at (718) 238-1792 by the Tuesday previous to the meeting.

Joe Graffagnino
President

Dear Aquarist,

The month of April was a busy month for our speaker Mark Denaro. Last week, he gave a couple of wonderful presentations at the Northeast Council convention in Connecticut and last night he was with us in Brooklyn. He sure does move around. Mark is the President of the Bucks County Aquarium Society and the originator of Annubias Design, a tropical fish and plants Yahoo Group. He recently created a new Yahoo Group called American Labyrinth Fish Association. This is a very interesting group that specializes in the many varieties of Labyrinth fish species such as Bettas, Paradise Fish, Gouramis and other rarer types.

The crowd was standing room only and all were keenly interested in the variety, colors and environmental conditions these rare and often misunderstood species require. Mark is an expert in these beautiful and complex fish and answered the many questions from the audience in clear, concise and understandable terms. I can’t wait to have some of these beauties!  The event was fun, rewarding and educational.

Our next event in May will be our Giant Auction! This auction is SOoo big we can’t have a guest speaker. On May 10th, we will have nothing but fish, plants, corals and aquarium products. Our sister club from North Jersey Aquarium Society will host a table to sponsor their upcoming 60th Anniversary in October, which will be a 4 day extravaganza. I don’t want to give away any surprises, so I will let them tell you about it next month. Bill Arndt will have a table for “Your Fish Stuff” for aquarium supplies and tropical fish foods. As always, this will be an exciting event that is not to be missed. So come on down and join us on May 10. Doors open at 7:30 PM.  As always, there is free parking and free refreshments.

May is the opportunity for members, officers and Board members to announce their willingness to participate in the elections for June. As most of you are aware, June is election time for positions on the Board. It is hoped that many of you will volunteer to be more active in club business and help us run our great Society. Anyone interested in participating, please let me know at the May event.
I am asking for your help and support. If you want to see different subjects offered, 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, please notify me at (718) 238-1792 by the Tuesday previous to the meeting.

Joe Graffagnino
President