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

Our November event was the first event that had to be cancelled due to the weather in many years. I think the last time we cancelled a meeting was 20 years ago when Seth Kolker was President. The reason we had to cancel back then was that a large snowstorm had deposited several feet of snow in Brooklyn. This year, Hurricane Sandy, also known as “Frankenstorm,” destroyed everyone’s peace of mind and happiness for quite a while. I believe that this was a rude awakening to what “Mother Nature” can do if we are not prepared or if we become complacent thinking that it won’t happen to us. I hope that all of us emerged from this horror safe and sound. Homes, cars and businesses can be rebuilt, but lives cannot. I hope that all of our aquatic creatures are also safe.

The storm hit our NY Aquarium hard. There were many new elements recently installed at the Aquarium to be used for current and future projects, that were destroyed. Offices and exhibits suffered damage. Thankfully, the fish and animals got through the storm and aftermath successfully, but the Aquarium will require a major clean up and won’t be open to the general public until the Spring.

There is good news in all of this darkness. NY Aquarium Director Jon Dohlin, via Kate Fitzgerald, has granted us the OK to have our Holiday party at our Education Hall. So on Friday, December 14, we will have much to be thankful for. Doors will open for our members, families and friends at 7:30 PM. As in previous Holiday parties, everyone is to bring something to eat and/or drink. Please contact Second Vice President Marie Licciardello at our BAS Hotline (number listed below) as to what you will be bringing to the festivities. Any one not bringing anything will be charged $10 per person, at the door.

As always, there will be free parking and BAS Fish Bingo and we will be presenting BAS awards for all hard working and dedicated members.

People still ask me why they haven’t received the Bulletin and Aquatica in the mail. The reason is that they are now on our web site — and in vibrant color! So please visit our new web site where you can read the Bulletin and enjoy a full color Aquatica. Provided you have given us your email address, we can email you our publications and other important notifications of club events.

The interactive forums and sponsor sections on our site are truly enjoyable. Speaking of our interactive Forum – we are having a contest every month as to who has the most posts on our Forum. Please post questions and help provide answers to other hobbyists. You can also post items for sale and ask for items you need. There will be a $25 BAS BUCKS first prize and a $10 BAS BUCKS second prize for the most posts! It is a great place to web connect with other members and a fun location to interact and share information. Several of our wonderful sponsors have “rooms” within our Forum, such as Air, Water & Ice, Zoo Med and Reefs2Go
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, 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

I am filling in on the President’s message for our President, Joe Graffagnino. My name is Steven Matassa and I am your First Vice President. We had a great giant auction in October, with over 200 bags of fish, plants, and coral. We had a large selection of dry goods at our sales tables and we also had two sponsors, Bill Arnet from Your Fish Stuff with fish food, filters, and heaters, and Paul from Fish Junk with a large selection of Python products. Paul also donated a 55 gallon tank, so thanks, Paul. We had raffle bags, baskets and prizes. We also want to thank Petland for donating a 55 gallon tank and stand to our club. We also introduced our cool new bags with the BAS logo on it which are available for sale at $10 each. They are thermo lined to keep your livestock temperature steady.

There were also free bottles of startup given away by TLC Products that will help start up your tank’s cycle quickly and keep it stable. Anyone that did not get a free bottle, don’t worry — we will have more next month. The only thing we ask for in return is a review of your experience with this product to bounce back to TLC for their reference.

We are always looking for more help, so if you are interested, let us know at the next meeting. We never turn down help.

When you’re cleaning out your closets and find old fish products you don’t have any use for, keep us in mind. We accept all donations of livestock or dry goods. In fact, next month, we are doing a 50/50 with all live goods. Whatever we get for the sale of your live goods, you receive 50% of that the following month. Please visit our new website where you can read the BAS 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. We’re also having a Forum Contest which is open to anyone who registers on our forum. The member that has the most posts will receive $25.00 in BAS Bucks and the second most posts will receive $10.00 in BAS Bucks. For anyone who doesn’t know, BAS bucks can be used at any of our auctions or tables to pay for items at our events.

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, which are held at the Education Center of the New York Aquarium on the 1^st Friday of the month at 7:30 pm, please notify Joe at (718) 238-1792 by the Tuesday previous to the meeting.

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

Steven Matassa
First Vice President

Welcome to the start of our new season. Our guest speaker was most probably the best fish breeder in the United States, if not the world. Mike Hellweg came in from St. Louis, Missouri to discuss his fish breeding contest with Ted Judy. Mike bred 169 species of fish in one year. The contest was sponsored by Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine. The first question on everyone’s mind was “Would you do it again?” Mike’s answer was “Definitely not!” It was a grueling 12 months of non-stop water changes, feeding fish and changing fish into various tanks. The discussion and presentation was educational and very enlightening, especially to people who enjoy breeding fish. Mike was very generous with his ideas and success stories and even spoke on some not so successful spawns. The Q & A went on for a long time. It was interesting to note that several members procured a couple of Mike’s books via our website link to Amazon.com. Mike was happy to autograph each book during the meeting.

October brings our Fall Giant auction featuring marine fish and corals, freshwater plants, fish and invertebrates. As always, we will have many bags of your favorite species. Great bargains will be available, so make sure you come to the greatest auction in New York on October 12. Our unique sales tables will be open for shirts, hats, books, magazines and other aquarium equipment and supplies. Doors open at 7:30 and the giant auction will start at 8:30 PM sharp!

As always, there is free parking and free refreshments.

People still ask me why haven’t they received the Bulletin and Aquatica in the mail. The reason is that they are now on our web site in vibrant color! So 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.

Speaking of our interactive Forum – we are having a contest every month for the most posts on our Forum. Please post aquarium-related questions and help provide answers to other hobbyists. You can also post items for sale and ask for items you need. There will be a $25 BAS BUCKS first prize and a $10 BAS BUCKS second prize for the most posts! It is a great place to web connect with other members and a fun location to interact and share information. Several of our wonderful sponsors have “rooms” within our Forum, such as Air, Water & Ice, Zoo Med and Reefs2Go.

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.

President
Joe Graffagnino