FIRST ANNUAL PHOTO CONTEST – Take your best shot!

FLYER: Front | Back

Deadline – September 30th, 2013

Freshwater Categories:

• Best Aquascape
• Best Nano Aquarium (2 ½ – 10 gallons)
• Best Med-sized aquarium (15 – 40 gallons)
• Best Large aquarium (50 + gallons)
• Spectacular Freshwater Fish
• Most Fabulous Plant
• Most Amazing Freshwater Invert
• Best Freshwater Photo (any category)
• Spectacular Cichlid

Saltwater Categories

• Best Aquascape
• Best Nano Aquarium (2½ – 10 gallons)
• Best Med-sized aquarium (15 – 40 gallons)
• Best Large aquarium (50 + gallons)
• Spectacular Saltwater Fish
• Most Breathtaking Corals Reefs
• Most Amazing Saltwater Invert
• Best Saltwater Photo (any category)

SPONSORS (Thank YOU):

Aqueon 

Coralife

Kent Marine

Hikari

Seachem

OFFICIAL CONTEST RULES

No purchase or payment necessary to enter or win

HOW TO ENTER

The 1st Brooklyn Aquarium Photo Contest will be announced June 14th, 2013 at the monthly Society’s meeting, all entries will be accepted until September 30th, 2013. The results of the Contest as well as the award ceremony will take place on October 11th at the Society’s monthly meeting. Digital photos must be submitted to BROOKLYN AQUARIUM SOCIETY YAHOO GROUP in JPEG format. Photos submitted must be 6 MP (mega pixel) or greater. As a condition of registration, you will be required to click where indicated to signify that you accept and agree to be bound by these Official Rules. With each submission, participants must include the following: 1) Name of Photographer, 2) Address of Photographer, 3) Phone Number, 4) Email, 5) Category of Freshwater or Saltwater photo is to be entered, 6) Scientific and Common Name of Subject in Photo.

> Brooklyn Aquarium Society @ Yahoo Groups < Submit your photos here.

Photo Eligibility
To enter, you do not have to be a member of the Brooklyn Aquarium Society or a member of the BAS Forum, contest is open to all, no age restrictions. BAS judging individuals and their immediate family are not eligible. BAS non-members taking part in the Contest and winning a prize for any of the 17 categories will receive a free 1 year membership to BAS. Entries that fail to comply with the Official Contest Rules will be disqualified.

Image Modifications
Minor digital enhancement is permitted, but images that have been significantly modified or appear unnatural will be disqualified.

Number of Entries
An individual may submit a maximum of 3 photos per category, any category.

Photo Subject Restrictions
Photos must be appropriate for category entered. Photos unrelated to the contest or of questionable content will not be considered. BAS retains sole discretion as to what constitutes appropriate content. Photos must not contain people or other objects other than the subject for the category entered.

Deadline
Contest ends midnight September 30th, 2013. Any late entries will not be considered.

Prizes
Prizes for each category to be announced during the June 14th, 2013 BAS meeting, and on the BROOKLYN AQUARIUM SOCIETY YAHOO GROUP, on the BROOKLYN AQUARIUM SOCIETY Facebook page and on our web site at basny.org. No substitution or transfer of prize permitted by winner. Sponsors reserve the right to substitute prize of equal or greater value. To be posted very soon, finalizing now.

Judging
Entries will be judged on the basis of photographic quality, and effectiveness in conveying the beauty and/or unique character of the object in their respective categories. A panel of judges consisting of representatives of the Contest’s sponsors as well as members of the BAS Board will judge the entries and all contest decisions are final.

Winners
The judging panel will select 17 winning entries (one per category). Winners and all prizes will be announced and presented during the BAS October 11th 2013 meeting. Any winner not able to attend the October 11th 2013 meeting, the prize will be kept at BAS until the December 13, 2013 meeting. If the winner/s fails to collect the prize as mentioned earlier, the prize/s will be auctioned at the January 10, 2014 meeting.

Photographer/Copyrights
Entries must be submitted by the original photographer. Do not submit a photo taken by someone other than yourself. You must be the sole owner of the image submitted. By submitting your photo, you guarantee that you are the author and copyright holder of the photo. By submitting, the contestant waives all rights upon submission and therefore has no recourse whatsoever in the use of the photo.

Additional Terms and Conditions
BAS is not responsible for computer system, hardware, software, or program malfunctions or other errors, failures, or delayed computer transactions or network connections that are human or technical in nature. Furthermore, BAS is not responsible for: (i) lost, misdirected, misplaced, illegible, unintelligible, incomplete, or late entries or (ii) any act, failure to act, or delay regarding the transmitting or processing of entries. BAS reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel or suspend all or any portion of this contest without notice. BAS is entitled to interpret these rules as needed and its decisions are final. BAS reserves the right to disqualify any entrant that BAS has reason to believe is not the original work of entrant, or does not otherwise meet the contest rules.

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

TILIPIA MARIAE

This beautiful yellow and green cichlid from Africa would be a great addition to any aquarium. The Tilipia Mariae, also known as Tiger Tilipia and Tilipia Marie, is not your average African cichlid. It is not well known or a publicized aquarium fish and that is why it’s not easy to acquire, but more about this later.

Allow me to describe this strikingly beautiful fish:
The male is larger than the female by approximately one to two inches (Male 5 1/2 to 6 inches, female 4 -4 1/2 inches) both genders have a yellow body with light green top and back. Along the lateral line are 5 black dots, the female has a red blotch behind the fins and above the stomach area (similar to a Salvini cichlid), the pectoral fins are yellow, trimmed in black, the eyes have a red blotch with a black, diagonal line running through them. The bottom rear fin has red streaks in it and the most beautiful part is the tail and upper fin, which has this light florescent green dot pattern with a red, white and blue edging.

They are extremely protective of their fry and will attack any fish or human hand if it ventures close enough. It was interesting to note that while I had large green severums and Trout cichlids (Champsochromis caeruleus) in the tank they showed no inclination to spawn. When these larger fish were removed, they seized the opportunity and laid approximately 80 eggs on a vertical side of a wooden piece. I placed a tank divider between the Tilipia and the other fish in the 180 gallon tank (4 Turquoise severums, pair of Aulonocara baenschi, pair of Haplochromis Rhoadesii, large clown loach and a large Synodontis angelicus).

Tilipia Mariae are very tolerant of ph, water hardness, and will eat anything (except snails), like the temperature in the high 70′s F. and for breeding in the low 80′s F. They make an excellent aquarium fish for mild or medium tempered, African or Central/South American cichlids. The spawn they had is the most indestructible fry you will ever see. They will voraciously eat anything, but really love floating plants. The fry will put on a show for you when you feed them the “Sera nips” (8 per pack tablets that stick on the glass), they go berserk as 80 of them hit this tablet at the same time and wont stop until it’s all gone. I believe that plant or vegetable matter would be an important part of their diet.

The babies have a beige body with 8 black bands around it from the eye to base of the tail, resembling Tilipia buttekoferi. I am noticing that after 2 months, there is a red streak in the dorsal fin. After 10 days with the parents I separated the majority of the fry and placed them in a 15 gallon tank. I left 9 fry with the parents. I feed the same menu to all the siblings and the babies that stayed with the parents, more than doubled in size. The larger ones are 2 – 2 1/2 inches in length, whereas the ones moved to a 15-gallon tank were only 1 – 1 1/2 inches. Even though I did water changes to the smaller tank more than the larger tank (3 -1 ratio) the fry keep with their parents grew much faster. Conclusion is the larger volume of water in the original tank increased growth more than just water changes. I moved the 9 original fry into another 180-gallon tank shared with African and South/Central American cichlids and they are doing fine. I placed their brothers and sisters back into the same tank with the parents and surprise to me, the parents took them back without a problem. Several weeks later they are still with the parents and are doing great. The parents have not shown any inclination to spawn again, perhaps because the babies remain with them, however they still continue to protect their fry.

I have been feeding them flake food, live black worms, frozen bloodworms, home made vegetable food and pellets – they eat everything! When I place duckweed, riccia or other floating plants, they devour them in minutes. I keep the ph at slightly alkaline (7.6) and a temperature of 80 degrees F, never check hardness.

I believe that it is interesting to note that I had obtained this pair of fish from Basil Holubis, President of the Norwalk, CT. Aquarium Society by trading with him a small colony of Aulonocara baenschi (Sunshine Peacocks). One of the many benefits in joining an aquarium club is that you have an opportunity to meet members of other clubs. These members have aquarium fish that, in many instances, your club members don’t have. By exploring the possibilities of either trading or attending another clubs auctions or shows you can open an avenue to obtain new and different fish for your club and yourself.

In addition to swapping or buying fish you can open a resource of knowledge for any and all information regarding tropical fish. When I visit aquarium clubs like North Jersey, South Jersey, Norwalk, Greater City, Nassau County, Long Island and many others, I meet and interact with hobbyists and professionals in the aquarium business. These people can, and do, provide all kids of information for tanks, equipment, transporting, food, insulation tips, etc. I have meet and have had in-depth discussions with Ginny Eckstein, Dr. Paul Loiselle, Chuck Davis, Ad Konings, Joe Ferdenzi, Lee Finley, Rosario LaCorte, Frank Policastro and Tom Miglio to name a few of the experts in this hobby. These people are REAL, they are friendly and easily accessible and by getting active in aquarium clubs you can have access to a wealth of knowledge you’ll never find in any set of books.

Bibliography:

Photo of Tilipia Mariae is from “The Most Complete Colored Lexicon of Cichlids” by Dr. Herbert R. Axelrod, page 542, published by TFH Publications, Inc. 1993

Other sources for the article were:
“Enjoying Cichlids” by Ad Konings, pages 170 – 171, Cichlid Press, 1993
“Cichlid Aquarium” by Dr. Paul V. Loiselle, pages 212-216, Tetra Press, 1994

We will once again be having a 50/50 split on donated livestock only (corals, fish and plants in good health) for members only. Members must sign in at the donation desk that they want 50% of whatever their livestock items are auctioned for (no reserves). The total of all donations must be greater than $5 and your return check will be available for pickup at the next regular meeting.

If you have any questions regarding this event please don’t hesitate to contact us or just post your questions below.

Not a member yet? No problem, become one today http://membership.basny.org/

Thanks to The Brooklyn Zoo for their generous donation and their continued support to the Brooklyn Aquarium Society.

Please visit their website at http://brooklynzooandaquarium.com/

Remember to show them your BAS membership card to both show your support and get additional discount.

Once again, thank you!

Dear members,

It is with deep regret that we must cancel our February 8th ”Ponds; the easy way” by Kathy Cardineau event due to severe storm warning for our area.

Please note that there will be NO meeting tonight. The next meeting is scheduled for March 8th, 2013 and will feature Kevin Kohen of LiveAquaria.com

The 50/50 split for livestock only will be at our March event.

For a complete list of upcoming events please kindly visit Our Events

Please download the latest copy of The Aquatica and our Bulletin for your reading pleasure.

P.S. Everyone who has received a bottle of STARTSMART COMPLETE for either fresh or marine aquariums please send your product evaluation to the our P.O. Box or email it to me at JoeGraffagnino [at] yahoo.com.

Stay warm and safe,

Joe
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

All,

It is with sadness and regret that I must cancel the Brooklyn Aquarium Society meeting for this Friday November 9. Due to Hurricane Sandy the NY Aquarium will be closed until the Spring.

The Education Hall is being used for volunteers working to repair the aquarium. Any person seeking to volunteer to work as a laborer to help the wildlife survive at the NY Aquarium please go to the Facebook page or the web site of the Wildlife Conservation Society and leave information that you want to volunteer at the NY Aquarium. Someone will contact you.

We hope to see you at the Holiday Party on Dec. 14. I am not sure where it will be but I will let you know.
Joe Graffagnino
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

Breeding Anabantoids with emphasis on Bettas

Anabantoids are extremely interesting fish. Most anabantoids go through great lengths to prepare a nest site, attract a suitable mate and then place the fertilized eggs into the nest. After the fry hatch generally it is the father that cares for the fry and he chases mom away. As the children start to leave the nest, to explore their surrounding area, dad is kept very busy in protecting the fry, even to attack the hobbyist hand if it gets too close to the nest. You can feel the frustration on the harried father as the little fry start darting away from home. He must try to eat to sustain his strength and health, protect and recapture his fry and spit them back into the nest continuously. It is no wonder that after several days of this hectic activity that he starts to cannibalize his offspring. I’m sure that many of us have thought the same with human offspring – remember the terrible two’s?

I deviate from the story. Anabantoids can be separated into three distinct classes:

• Bubble nest builders – Examples of these are the majority of gouramies and betta splendens (Siamese Fighting fish).
• Submerged plant nest builders – Examples are betta brownorum, betta coccina, betta tussyae and betta livida. From Africa there is the centopoma species.
• Mouth brooders – They include betta channoides, betta albimargineta, betta unamaculatum and betta macrostoma,

The bubble nest builders I have found to be the easiest to spawn. Bubble nest builders build their nest to impress and attract a female to spawn with them. I generally have a Styrofoam cup cut vertically so the long side is now in half. I let that sit in a shallow tank, such as a 10 gallon with 6 – 9 inches of water at neutral pH (7.0) and a temperature of 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Water in Brooklyn comes from the tap soft (3-4GH) and neutral pH. Add floating plants such as duck weed and fairy moss so the fish can use the plant to anchor his bubble nest together.

At this point the male becomes very aggressive. He would even attack your hand or finger should it enter his territory. I keep the female in a small, clear glass container with the top of the container a few inches above the water line, in the same tank as the male, at the opposite side of his bubble nest. When the nest is complete and the females’ abdomen has become full with eggs, it is time to release her into the tank. Within a couple of hours the breeding should begin. One method to know if the female has eggs in her is after feeding them a diet of live or frozen food such as black or blood worms for 5 continuous days, don’t feed her for a couple of days. If she still has a round stomach area then its eggs. After spawning the female should be removed from the aquarium to protect her from the male and to help her recuperate from her strenuous ordeal. Within a few days the male will start chasing the fry that are hatching from the nest. He wants to keep them in his nest. At this point I would remove the male and place him into a separate tank from the female.

Allow the fry to grow in their original aquarium. It is important to have the same water parameters for the male and female as was in the spawning tank. Also the surface air temperature cannot deviate more than 3 degrees Fahrenheit from the water temperature, for when the fry come up for their first gulp of air they could catch pneumonia. The fry will grow very quickly on baby brine shrimp (live or frozen). Depending on how many fry you want to keep it would pay to start moving the fry to grow out tanks after their first month or for many of them their growth would become stunted.

Species that are submerged plant nest builders are more difficult mainly because you normally can’t see the nest and if there are fry in it. The usual method of noticing a successful breed is when you start seeing fry moving around the tank. Problem with this is that the parents may eat them and if there are other fish in the tank they will definitely eat them. Fish of this type generally like slow moving water and that the water is more acidic (4.5-6.5 pH). African centopomas fall into this category. I accidentally found a betta brownorum nest inside a submerged 35mm film canister.

Mouth brooders such as betta macrostoma utilize this type of spawning behavior. Breeding takes place between one pair of fish. When the female is gravid she initiates the mating process. The male wraps himself around her and squeezes the eggs from her while simultaneously fertilizes them with his milt. I have seen the female recover the eggs and at times the male will also recover eggs and while both fish face each other she will spit the egg into his mouth. Both betta channoides and albimargineta the female gathers the eggs in her mouth and spits them up over her head where the male is positioned to catch them. The male then holds the eggs until they hatch and he will release them from 14 to 28 days, depending on the species.

Anabantoids are beautiful and amazing fish. If the hobbyist wants to experience a different type of spawning behavior I highly recommend them getting a group of anabantoids.

Dear members,

Month after month, the Brooklyn Aquarium Society continues to bring you great speakers, auctions, aquarium books and supplies. We even maintain two publications to help everyone become better hobbyists. This is hard work that all of us chip in to make possible, but it costs time and money.

The only way we can continue with the high standards we have been maintaining for the past 101 years is by generous donations from manufacturers, stores, and members. We have many members that continue to bring us donations to our monthly auctions.

Donations can mean fish, plants, other live stock, old tanks, filters, aquarium equipment: pretty much anything that you have no further use for (but is in good working order). Remember, one man’s unused or unwanted item is another man’s treasure. So dig deep in the back of those closets. I know there are aquarium items you don’t use anymore. If you have bred fish, propagated coral or plants and can spare some, that will be greatly appreciated.

Please notify any Board member and we will contact you.

Steven Matassa
First Vice President

2012-2013 BAS Sponsor Calendar –

For a list of our upcoming event please visit “Our Events”

You can now download/view/print your own copy of Sponsor Calendar.  See all area events happening each month at BAS and all sister societies around the tri-state area.

Many thanks to our board member Gene Kogan for creating this nifty calendar.

Enjoy, and let us know (by leaving a comment below)  if you’d like to see something included/changed.

2012

September 2012 | October 2012 | November 2012 | December 2012

2013

January 2013 | February 2013 | March 2013 | April 2013 | May 2013

June 2013 | July 2013 | August 2013

Breeding Blue Angelfish

At a Greater City Aquarium Society meeting last year, fellow member Jerry O’Farrell came up to me and asked, “Have you breed angelfish?” I said that I had, but it was over 25 years ago. He said. “Good, then it’s time you did them again,” and he thrust a bag of 8 beautiful quarter size blue angels in my hand. Before I could respond, he walked away. I looked at the plastic bag full of fish and marveled at how beautiful and majestic these little cichlids appeared. The blue on their heads stood out in dramatic contrast to their silver bodies.

I brought them home and placed them into a 20 gallon aquarium. The pH was 7.2, the temperature was 80 degrees Fahrenheit and the General Hardness (GH) was 4. The angels grew quickly, especially the dominant male who soon eclipsed his tank mates. The group fared well with bi-weekly water changes of 30 – 40 %, and feedings of flake food followed by live black worms or frozen blood worms. Occasionally they were fed live brine shrimp and/or frozen cyclopeeze. After 8 – 10 months, the group started to pair off. I moved the non-pairs of angel fish into a 10 gallon, when in less than a month another couple had paired up. This new pair was moved into another 20 gallon tank.

The second pair of angelfish was sharing a habitat with Glo-Lite tetras, but that didn’t stop them from laying eggs on a tall piece of driftwood. Both parents kept the Glo-Lite tetras to the farthest end of the aquarium. They also took turns cleaning and fanning the eggs. I noticed from both breeding pairs of fish that the eggs that were fungused were left alone and not removed. I thought this was a poor cleaning job on the parents’ part.

I had a 25 watt heater that had the heating coil wrapped with airline tubing. I did this to prevent the fry from killing themselves on the heating coil. I placed the air tube with air-stone under the slate piece so the air bubbles would travel in front of the eggs. . I also added a dose of Acriflavin to reduce the infertile eggs from becoming fungused. As the eggs hatched, 5 days later, I moved the air-stone into an existing sponge filter several inches away from the hatching eggs and performed a water change to remove most of the Acriflavin. I replaced the water with parent tank water. The unfertilized eggs that did fungus remained on the slate until I removed them with a pipette. Several days later, the newborn fry were attaching themselves via their egg sack to everything in the tank – plant leaves, the slate piece, pieces of wood and rock. The fry can’t eat until they are free swimming so I do not feed them because the food will only pollute the aquarium.

An interesting experiment was tried, accidently, when I neglected to replace the slate board they lay their eggs on. There was a large wood piece that wasn’t solid, having holes throughout it. I saw them evaluating the wood piece, but I guess they weren’t satisfied with it. The only other object in the tank, except for the large sponge filter or the heater, was a small flat rock that I used to keep the slate board from slipping.

If you are into saltwater fish and reefs this event is definitely for you. Entrance is $25 per person, children under 16 admitted FREE.

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Lots of free corals will be given away at our frag demonstration station throughout the day including chalices, soft corals, SPS and more.

Dear Aquarist,

The May giant auction was a huge success. We had over 200 items up for grabs and a packed house of members and friends looking for (and finding) great deals. We had an enormous selection of marine fish, invertebrates and corals, as well as freshwater plants, fish and interesting shrimp and snails.  We needed our three auctioneers because there were so many items that their voices were getting tired really fast. Dennis Alestra, Bill Amely and former President Seth Kolker all pitched in and made like a tag team, giving breaks to each other when needed.

We also had several tables represented by Your Fish Stuff manned by Bill Arndt and his lovely wife (who won the 50/50 drawing), Python Products, and Charles Stein aquatic supplies, in addition to BAS equipment with a special $1 only table. Members and friends departed the evening with many great deals.

June will be our final event for the year.  As always, we shall finish it off with a big bang and who better to end the year with than Todd Gardner, whose topic for the evening will be “Getting Started In Marine Aquaculture.” Todd is an aquaculturist at the Long Island Aquarium & Exposition Center. For a great night of educational fun, join us on June 8 at 7:30 PM.  As always, there is free parking and free refreshments.
We are planning a bus trip to Long Island Aquarium & Exhibition Center, Riverhead, NY, on Saturday July 28, 2012. Anyone interested in attending, please let me know at the June event.

I am asking for your help and support. If you want to see different topics offered, please let me know. June is elections month; please consider running for a position as an Officer or a Board member. If anyone is interested in running for a position, please let me know at the beginning of the June meeting. Believe me, we need all the help we can get.

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