April was a terrific meeting with the help of our long time friend and speaker for the night, Joe Yaiullo. Joe always gives a great presentation for us. He spoke on his 38 years of creating of the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead. We got to see his early drawings and watch the installation of the shark tank panels. It was sensational! We enjoyed his talk so much that we’ve setup a day to go visit the his aquarium. BAS is going to the L.I Aquarium on Saturday, August 16th, and everyone is invited. All members, family, and friends are welcome.
We will be collecting money at the next two meetings. The price is as follows: for the aquarium only is $22.00, the boat tour with the aquarium is $40.00 and the butterfly exhibit adds $2.00 to any package. All three total $42.00. Please pay by the June meeting. Please note that these are club discount prices. Anyone not paying before, will not get the discount the day of the trip. We will meet at the aquarium at noon on the 16th.
Hopefully the frigid months are behind us. The older I get, the more I hate the cold. February was COLD, but our members are hearty and came out to hear Bob Likins of Pet Advocacy Network speak on important issues facing the hobby both here and abroad. Since there was a storm in the forecast, we featured him virtually. He answered a lot of questions at the end of his presentation.
Pet Advocacy Network is a great organization who fights for the fish trade and keeping us up to date. We thank Bob for taking time to enlighten us on the work his of organization.
Renowned for his expertise with all tropical fish, Harry Faustmann’s major focus is on killifish, of which he has written numerous articles, as well as competed in many shows, winning top honors across the country since 1977.
They include Best of Show at the AKA annual show. Celebrated breeder, Harry has been active in the hobby since 1967 and keeping killifish since 1973.
We invite you all to take part in the Brooklyn Aquarium Society Holiday Party at Dolce Vita Italian Restaurant. It is located at 5811 Avenue N, Brooklyn NY 11234 taking place on Friday December 13th at 7pm. Reservations are $70 per person which includes Choice of Anti Pasta, Entrée and Dessert as well as Coffee, soda or tea.
For our November 8th event we introduce to you Tia Davis
TOPIC: Planted saltwater tanks, and the macroalgae farm.
Tia Davis is a marine biologist and a lifelong scientist with her current projects including 76 fully aquacultured species of macroalgae, trace element dosing live rock, captive breeding seahorses and invertebrates, culturing phytoplankton using AI, feeder insects for reptiles and fish, macroalgae as a food source for humans and more. All three of her degrees are focused in the reef keeping hobby and nutrition, fueling her deep love of proper food with husbandry. For the “farm” currently under construction there are over 3300 gallons and over a hundred tanks being fueled by the Early Carboniferous and Ordovician-made “Lost sea” underground aquifer in Tennessee. Having been on several sides of the hobby – from stopping cyanide collection on the ground in Indonesia, working as a collector in the Gulf of Mexico, working in one of the world’s largest clownfish hatcheries, being a veterinary technician for exotics and aquatics, renovating aquarium exhibits, and an academic researcher for climate change with corals – she loves to show multifaceted and intersectional views of the industry and exotic pet trade as a whole
Until further notice, we will be having a 50/50 split on donated livestock only (corals, fish and plants in good health) for members only. There is a 10 bag limit per event.
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.
Not a member yet? No problem, become one at the event. Join Now
In business for over 20 years, Absolutely Fish is one of the largest retail fish stores in the state of New Jersey. They house over 9,000 gallons of marine fish and invertebrates, as well as 5,000 gallons of freshwater fish from around the world. They are exclusively an aquarium center, carrying no other live animals except fish and is viewed by many as one of New Jersey’s premiere fish stores.
February the club featured Joe Yaiullo from Long Island Aquarium who came to speak to us. Joe never lets us down! His talk was on “A Hard Reboot of a 20,000 Gallon Reef Tank and Combating a New Coral Parasite Known Only as THEM.” It was a riveting tale on how he got his showcase tank emptied out and then ready for prime time again. He battled creatures both big and microscopic. In fact prior to the talk, he’d just gotten stitches removed from his hand and arm due to the potent and mysterious mytobacteria. What an incredible story! Joe is the curator of the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead, and if you haven’t been there yet, it is worth the trip!!
It takes a lot of effort from many people like our board members who continue to work hard to bring a great show every month. I want to thank them for their dedication, drive and loyalty. Anyone wishing to help out, we will gladly give you something to do! Please ask.
Pop Corals, aka “The Candy Shop“, is a Brooklyn, NY based company that was started by a few dedicated hobbyists. As hobbyists, we believe individuals should not have to pay crazy prices for quality livestock. Pop Corals has the ability to keep costs low because we own our own facilities and work directly with importers.
Pop Corals offers various products including corals, fish and dry goods.
Our October Giant Auction event was a great success! We had many donations from stores, manufacturers and our own members. The 50/50 model is bringing in a lot of bags of donations each month. What is a 50/50? Whatever livestock our members bring in, they split the winning bid with the club, 50/50. This is for livestock only. We are going to continue to do a 50/50 every month except during our next Giant Auction which is in May.
We had a very good turnout in March to see our own David Manuel speak on starting a saltwater tank. This was David’s first time speaking at any club, and he did a great job! This is a topic that many of our members are interested in. Thank you David for once again stepping up for us! Since the pandemic, it has been hard to get speakers to make the trip to Brooklyn to speak. We will continue to do our best to bring you engaging speakers.
Our March event was a big success thanks to our faithful board members. I can’t begin to thank them enough because without our volunteers, we would not exist! Our board members and volunteers help put our meetings together while making sure they run to smoothly. I don’t think our membership realizes what’s involved in structuring our meetings: from picking up donations, to bringing merchandise to our meeting location and back to our storage at the end of the night. Then we have our publications, advertising, website, bookkeeping, board meetings, sponsors and the arranging of speakers. This is work done throughout the month and year, not just the day of the show. With that said, I thank all the volunteers for their dedication!
We are finally back in the NY Aquarium!! In February, we had our first meeting since Covid shut us out in 2020. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we are very glad to be back. Our February meeting was a big hit! We had our own Don Lang speaking on breeding fish. Don did a great job filling in as speaker at the last moment. His presentation was well received. He not only delivered his first BAS talk, but he is always there to help where needed, and we’re thankful for his dedication.
To kick off 2023 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.
Not a member yet? No problem, become one at the event. Join Now
We are happy to announce that The New York Aquarium has once again granted us use of the Education Hall for our monthly meetings. (Thank you!)
BASNY 50/50 Auction
We are going back to our normal schedule! Regular meetings every second Friday of the month at the New York Aquarium Education Hall at 7:30pm. We are very excited!
Schedules, topics and speakers to be posted soon so make sure you check back.
Also, Follow us on Facebook for regular postings and updates
The board members meet once a month to discuss club business, and we can use your help! There are four board positions currently available: corresponding secretary, treasurer, webmaster and recording secretary. If you’d like to attend a meeting which are held the 1st Friday of the month, September through June, please notify Steve Matassa at (347) 277-4793 by the Tuesday before the meeting.
We are back to start another year at BAS, the 112th. That’s pretty amazing even for a fish club. We resumed by bringing you a speaker all the way from Germany, Andreas Tanke. Andreas gave a great talk on Plecos. We will continue to bring you great speakers in the future.
