Dear Aquarist,

We had a fun time at this month’s event! James Fatherree was our speaker and he delved into his topic of “Reef Basics” head first. He showed how easy it was to set up and maintain a marine aquarium. Just keep it simple and stay with the basics. He had a great presentation and stayed late to answer the audience’s questions. Everyone got a real education thanks to James.

Our auction was very diversified with marine livestock, plants and freshwater fish. Members who brought in fish, corals and plants were able to go 50/50 at the auction. We only have this twice each year – November and April. This is our way of giving back to our members and also sharing the livestock with others so everyone can benefit.

We had the winners of our 2014 Photo Contest come up and accept their fantastic prizes. Our wonderful sponsors provided high quality products so everyone was happy they participated. More on this later in the Bulletin.

Just because our Photo Contest is over doesn’t mean there aren’t more exciting things going on at BAS. We still have our Forum Q & A contest. Submit questions and/or provide answers on fish, corals and plants to win prizes. We plan on having this contest 3 times each year, so get involved and try to stump our Forum members. You do not have to be a BAS member to enter.

We had a terrible tragedy befall our club at Halloween. One of our young members, just 7 years old, died from an allergic reaction to something he ate. Joseph DeNicola was always an active participant at our meetings. I don’t know how he managed to stay awake and continue to help with his big brother and his dad, but he never stopped. This month, we passed around the hat for a collection for his family as our way of fostering solidarity that we are one family. Little Joey will be sorely missed by everyone!

December is our Holiday Party so please bring enough food for all of us to enjoy. The last couple of years the food quantity has been replaced with soda, cookies and desserts. Please contact our 2nd Vice President Marie Licciardello as to what you want to bring or she can recommend a dish of food that you and your family can bring. [See separate article in the Bulletin for Marie’s contact information.] Please keep in mind that we cannot have any alcoholic beverages on the premises. What we will have is our award ceremony where hard working members who toiled all year will get their rewards. Also, lest we forget, we will have our wonderful Fish Bingo, administered by our wonderful Marie Licciardello. You must participate in order to win our great fishy prizes.

As always, the meetings will be at the NY Aquarium Education Hall. Doors open at 7:30 PM. And, as always, there is Free Parking and Free Refreshments.  Be alert to detours to Ed Hall during construction.

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 remarkable. Provided you have given us your email address, you will be getting notifications of club events via email.

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

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

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

Joe Graffagnino
President

Dear Aquarist,

October means that Fall is here and the goblins are coming, but so is the BAS Giant Auction! We had a fantastic auction of close to 250 items of livestock alone! We had A LOT of equipment, aquariums, lights, canopies, stands, filters, and much, much more. It was also a packed house with members and friends coming from far and wide to partake of our auction of products, fish and plants.

Our great auctioneers, Dennis Alestra and Bill Amely, rocked and socked the audience with a barrage of hard to find items that kept them coming back for more. Dennis Alestra (a professional auctioneer) even brought his high-tech stand and auctioneer equipment. Dennis also brought us fresh cakes, cookies and many more delectable items. He even donated a coffee maker and a pressure cooker to our raffle. Everyone had a great time and we must thank our great retail stores for donating livestock and equipment to make our auction a success.

Due to miscommunication listed in our Bulletin, we must extend our 2014 Photo Contest for another week. It will now officially end at Midnight, Sunday, October 19. There are 19 categories and fantastic prizes from our sponsors. Each prize has a minimum of a $100.00 value. I hope you entered so you can win some of the wonderful prizes our great sponsors donated. The winners will be announced at our Nov.14 event. Please read our Bulletin or go to our web site for all information regarding this contest.

The new Forum Questions & Answers started in October and runs through December. This contest will have 3 different time frames. October through December, January through March, and April through June. Let’s see who can ask and who can answer the most questions. Prizes are at the selection of the winners. We will have a winner for the most amount of questions and another winner for the most amount of answers. Please see our Bulletin or our BAS web site for more information.

Our November event will feature James Fatherree. James always has an interesting and educational presentation. His topic for the evening is entitled “Reef Basics.” You will also be able to purchase James Fatherree’s books “Super Simple Guide to Corals” and “Giant Clams in the Sea and the Aquarium” through our BAS web site. James will be happy to autograph them both for you.

As always, the meetings will be at the NY Aquarium Education Hall. Doors open at 7:30 PM. And, as always, there is Free Parking and Free Refreshments. Be alert to detours to Ed Hall during construction.

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 remarkable. Provided you have given us your email address, you will be getting notifications of club events via email.

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

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

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

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

Dear Aquarist,

Welcome back! After a long and beautiful summer, it is great to be talking fish again. All of us at BAS hope that everyone had a very enjoyable summer. We started our year with a marine guest speaker – Greg Sullivan. Greg’s topic for the evening was “Saltwater For The Squeamish.”  Greg gave his presentation the old fashioned way – he spoke about his topic and took questions and answers from the audience to elaborate or give more detailed information to our members. It was a great talk as evidenced by the multitude of questions from our audience.

We have a couple of new projects going on at BAS. One is the 2014 Photo Contest. There are 19 categories and fantastic prizes from our sponsors. Each prize has a minimum of a $100.00 value. So come on and enter your photos because the contest ends on Sunday, Oct. 13. The winners will be announced at our Nov.14 event. Please read our Bulletin or go to our web site for all information regarding this contest.

The Photo Contest ends in Oct. and our new Forum Questions & Answers section starts in Oct. and runs through Dec. This contest will have 3 different time frames. Oct. through Dec., Jan. through March, and April through June. Let’s see who can ask and who can answer the most questions. Prizes are at the selection of the winners. We will have a winner for the most amount of questions and another winner for the most amount of answers. Please see our Bulletin or our web site for more information.

We had mentioned the possibility of bus trips to the Catfish Convention in Virginia for this October and another bus trip to Ohio for the 20th Anniversary Cichlid & Catfish Convention in Cleveland. However, due to high costs for registration, hotel rates and bus costs, we have had to cancel the bus trips. We will try to have more trips available in the near future.

Our upcoming event is our giant October auction! On Friday, October 10th, we will once again have an auction only meeting with no speaker. Anticipate a couple of hundred items of equipment and livestock in both freshwater and marine fish, plants and invertebrates. It will be an event you don’t want to miss.

As always, the meetings will be at the NY Aquarium Education Hall. Doors open at 7:30 PM. And, as always, there is Free Parking and Free Refreshments.  There is a construction project going on in the usual lot on the right, so we had to park in the Aquarium lot to the left, go up the ramp to the Boardwalk and enter Education Hall directly from the Boardwalk for the September meeting.  We anticipate this might be necessary for the next few months, so watch for signs at the entrance to the Aquarium.

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 remarkable. Provided you have given us your email address, you will be getting notifications of club events via email.

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

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

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

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

Joe Graffagnino
President

Dear Aquarist,

June was our final event of the year and we really ended it with a huge BANG! Our guest speaker was Chuck Davis. Chuck’s topic for the evening was “Gizmos, Gadgets & Other Good Ideas.” Chuck returned to Brooklyn after a long absence – the last time Chuck gave a presentation to our Society was in 1991 (23 years ago). It was great to have him back. Several members from the North Jersey Aquarium Society joined Chuck at our meeting. As always, Chuck’s presentation was educational while also being hysterically funny. Chuck poked fun at many of our members during his Power Point show to great amusement. Chuck demonstrated how little household objects can be converted into useful aquatic contraptions and inexpensive, easy methods to change potential recyclable objects into filters, fry hatcheries and many other useful fishy items.

We had our annual elections and the majority of the Board kept their positions. A significant change was that Charles Stein had to step down because of health issues. Charles had been on the Board, in multiple positions, for over 20 years. Most of you remember Charles and Ruth as the charming couple selling shirts and books for us.

We are happy to add David Manuel to our Board as a Board member. He has been helping out as a volunteer for several months and has proven to be hard working and dedicated. David also has helped promote our Facebook pages with fantastic results.

Several of us went to the celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Burlington, VT Aquarium Society, sharing the bus trip with the North Jersey AS people; members of the Jersey Shore and Lancaster, PA AS clubs joined us on the trip. We all had a great time. David and Janine Banks put on a wonderful weekend of events for fish and for non-fish people, which included a dinner cruise around Lake Champlain. Presenters such as Eric Bodrock and Rachel O’Leary gave informative talks that all enjoyed.

We had such a good time on the trip we want to do it again. We are contemplating going to the Catfish Convention in Herndon, VA on Friday, Oct. 17, returning on Sunday, Oct. 19. Guest speakers include Hans Evers, Editor-In-Chief of Amazonas magazine, Julian Dignall, PlanetCatfish.com, Ian Fuller and many more.

Also we are looking into attending, by bus, the Ohio Cichlid Association’s 20 Years of Cichlids and Catfish. Presenters will be Ad Konings, Wayne Leibel and many others, from Nov. 21- 23, 2014.

Anyone interested in going on either trip, please let me know. You must register for the hotels and convention registration. Cost for the bus depends on number of attendees.

We will take our needed rest, closing down for July and August. When we return on September 12, we shall have Greg Sullivan as our guest speaker. Greg’s topic for the evening will be “Saltwater For The Squeamish.” As always, the meetings will be at the NY Aquarium Education Hall. Doors open at 7:30 PM. And, as always, there is Free Parking and Free Refreshments.

Please visit our 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, September through June, please notify me at (718) 238-1792 by the Tuesday previous to the meeting.

Joe Graffagnino
President

Dear Aquarist,

Our Spring Giant Auction was a huge success. We had aquarium products such as lighting, filters, canopies and aquariums. We also had rock backgrounds, gravel, pumps and the list goes on. The plants were beautiful and varied from aquarium plants to pond plants. The live stock selection was varied and contained such a variety of invertebrates for both marine and freshwater species. The fish were beautiful such as a red flame angel (marine) and betta ocellata and betta smaragdina (rare freshwater). Everyone had a great time and enjoyed the cake and cookies that our auctioneer Dennis Alestra brought.

Our next, and final event of the season brings in Chuck Davis. Chuck is a personal favorite of mine as he has helped and advised me over the decades in the proper care and maintenance of aquariums and the varied live stock that they could contain. Chucks topic for the evening will be “Gizmos, gadgets and other good ideas.” Chuck Davis is a sought after speaker and an excellent banquet speaker with his hilarious sense of humor. His sharp wit spares no one so be careful or you will be on the receiving end of his puns and jokes.

If you want a fun time with an enjoyable group then come on over. June is also our election of officers and Board members for the coming year. If anyone wants to run for a position on the Board please let me know. The only requirement is that you are a member in good standing (paid your dues) and have at least 6 months as a club member. We hope to see you on June 13. As always the meetings will be at the NY Aquarium Education Hall. Doors open 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,

April brought our flower to the club event – Rachel O’Leary! Rachel brought in Rapashy foods as donations to our meeting. Rachel put on a great presentation on “Freshwater Nano Diversity – The Ins, Outs & In-betweens” because she mentioned not only what fish, invertebrates and plants would work well in a small aquarium, but also the foods, pH, temperature and other considerations for a successful eco-system. Her topic covered micro-crabs, goby’s, micro-rasboras, tetras, snails, shrimps and corydoras catfish.

The auction was super great, mainly because we had a 50/50 on livestock for our members. Some beautiful and expensive freshwater fish, marine corals and marine fish and the beautiful plants were a sight to see. I saw some huge African cichlids and there were nano tanks donated by our sponsors.
May brings our Giant auction and as always it will be spectacular! No speaker just a wild and crazy auction of livestock, aquariums, lights, filters, books, shirts and a plethora of aquarium equipment and products. So plan on attending this great event on May 9. As always it will be at the NY Aquarium Education Hall. Doors open 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,

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