President’s Message – January 2014

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