Dear Aquarist,

Our May meeting is traditionally one of BAS’s largest events. This year we had to take the Giant Auction off site to Saint Mark’s school auditorium, East 18th Street and Ave. Z, because of a temporary problem at Education Hall. I want to personally thank Messrs. George Donnelly and William Bunch and also Rafino for working with us to make this event a huge success. Because there were costs involved with this relocation for our event, new member Shane Klein, owner of Classic Home Sales, stepped up and became our sponsor. We offer a huge Brooklyn Aquarium Society thank you to this very generous individual. Shane also obtained many marine corals and fish at our auction. As a special treat for our audience, we had ProSalt one pound frozen flats of bloodworms at the ridiculous price of $6.00 a pack and we will have some to offer at our next meeting. We had many rare and interesting species at this meeting; one in particular stood out – a freshwater African pipe fish! Over 200 items were up for auction and our raffle bags had many interesting and valuable prizes in store for the lucky winners.

June will have Lou Ekus of Tropic Marine USA as our guest speaker. Lou’s topic for the night will be “Basics of Reef Chemistry.” This will be the final month for the BAS Forum Question & Answer section. Our last quarter winners (Jan. – March) were for Questions – Abduraffi U. Abangon from Daveo City, Philippines; for Answers, our own Dr. Robert Price. The election of our officers and Board members are in June. There are expected to be many changes this year. I am stepping down as President after 8 years to pursue my new writing career. Our 1st Vice President Steve Matassa said that he will try to fill the role as President and I know that all of our BAS members will support him, as I do, as he seeks election for this very important position. Also Membership will be open since Tina Cingari must give up the office for personal reasons. Two Board positions will become vacant with John Fox and Dr. Robert Price stepping down for health concerns. With all these changes happening, we will need you, our BAS members, to step up to help out. We cannot do it alone. As of this year, we are no longer accepting NYC and Neighborhood Watch grants since it is a financial nightmare and it is physically wearing on the seniors who have installed aquariums in the past.
As always, the meetings will be at the NY Aquarium Education Hall. Doors open at 7:30 PM, and there is Free Parking and Free Refreshments.

Please visit our 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 again for your help and support. If you want to see different speakers or try different things, please let us know. The elected officials of the Brooklyn Aquarium Society are here to serve YOU! Please tell us what you want and why. It would be helpful for 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 Education Hall 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,

We had beautiful weather for our April event and our members packed the house for our guest speaker Todd LaJeunesse. Todd is a professor at Pennsylvania State University and his topic for the evening was “Coral Physiology, Ecology, Symbiosis & Evolution.” We had a great turnout for Todd’s talk on corals and our attendees appreciated his presentation. We thank him for taking the time from his busy schedule to visit us.

Also on hand was Lance Reyneirs from Python Products to discuss his new product, an attachment that will dechlorinate water as it is put back into the tank — meaning no longer a need for added chemicals.

With over 200 bags of fish and plants donated from local fish store sponsors and members, the night was a real success. April was a 50/50 auction, meaning anyone donating livestock received 50% of the sale back. We do this twice a year to show appreciation to our members for their support.

Remember, if it was not for our local pet store sponsors, BAS would not be able to survive, so please patronize our loyal sponsor stores because they keep us up and running.

In May, we will have our giant auction, so no speaker — just lots of great aquarium products and livestock. We will also make an announcement about our annual photo contest which will start in June. As always, we will have lots of great prizes, so clean up those tanks and get your photos ready. We always have free parking and free refreshments, so mark your calendar, and bring money. See you next month.

If any of our members have a topic they want to hear speakers talk about or have ideas about our events; we want to hear them. We need your feedback to keep our club going strong. Members can contact us at our hotline (718) 837-4455 or visit our web site www.brooklynaquariumsociety.org where you can find out about upcoming events or join our new BAS forum. The forum is a great place for your questions and answers, and to buy or sell aquarium items.

Members can also bring up new ideas at our Board meetings, held on the first Friday of the month in the NY Aquarium Education Hall. If you want to attend a Board meeting to help out or just to bring us your thoughts; you are always welcome. Please call Joe Graffagnino (718) 238-1792. You must call by the Tuesday previous to the meeting. The next Board meeting is May 1, 2015. Hope to see you there.

Steven Matassa
First Vice President

Dear Aquarist,

The winds of March blew strong enough to deliver Discus Hans as our guest speaker. He came from Baltimore, Maryland to talk about his love for the discus. He was kind enough to bring and donate many bags of his world renowned Stendker Discus, which were created in Germany. Discus Hans and his wife have one of the largest discus facilities in the United States. He has won many awards over the years at discus shows all over the world. It was great to have him as our guest speaker. I was able to bid and win a pair of his prize Marlboro discus. We had a fantastic turnout with a standing room only crowd. It was a wonderful evening for everyone.

Next month is our April event and we will have Todd C. LaJeunesse as our guest speaker. Todd’s topic for the evening will be “Coral Physiology, Ecology, Symbiosis and Evolution.”  For anyone who wants to know about corals, this is the meeting to attend. 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 remarkable. Provided you have given us your email address, you will be getting notifications of club events via email.

I am asking again 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 Education Hall 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.

Hopefully, Spring will be here soon!

Joe Graffagnino
President

Dear Aquarist,

February event had the great Joe Yaiullo as our guest speaker. It may have been freezing cold outside, but Joe brought the heat with him as he discussed his topic, “Reef Water Flow – How Much Is Too Much.” Joe provided a very interesting and educational talk on the raising and growing of corals. One main idea he mentioned was that as corals grow, the water movement around them needs to be adjusted as time goes by. What was good water flow a year ago may be bad now because of coral growth, added corals and other changes in the aquarium. Joe was kind enough to bring in coral frags to the meeting to donate to our Society.
March winds will bring in none other than the great Discus Hans. Hans’ topic for the evening will be “Raising Discus.” If you want to see some truly beautiful and large discus, please visit Hans’ web site (http://discus-hans-usa.com). His fish are truly spectacular! His discus location is near Baltimore, MD and is the only outlet for the Stendker discus. These fabulous fish are all bred in Germany and are famous for their high quality.

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 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 again 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 Education Hall 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.

May everyone stay warm and healthy through these cold winter months!

Joe Graffagnino
President

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