Well another year is in the books, and what a year it has been. Back in February, at the GCAS swap meet, my good friend Stephan Tanner and I began talking about a website make-over for his http://www.swisstropicals.com website. Ta da….. the new site when live today! While I may be a bit jaded, I think it’s beautiful. The site is loaded with tons of great information, links to some of the best hobby related websites, and Stephan’s great line of products.
Another great friend, Bob Townsend, had his auction debut at the C.A.F.E. spring auction this year. Bob had spoken of how he had always wanted to try his hand at being an auctioneer, but like most of us, was still a bit nervous about doing it for the first time. All I can say is, he shouldn’t have been, as he did a splendid job. He was so good in fact, that after it was all over, I accused him of sand-bagging us all.
The fishy gods were smiling on me again this year. I had some fantastic luck in spawning some fish for the first time.
Getting my PetSmart $1.00 Otocinclus catfish to spawn was definitely a high point. Otocinclus have been on my “want-to-spawn” list for several years now.
Spawning Devario xyrops was also a very pleasant surprise for me. I was lucky enough to get four of these fish from Stephan when he was stream-lining for his move to Minnesota.
With only the four fish, I was very worried that something would happen to them before I could coax them into spawning. Cha-ching!!!
While not one of my spawns, these Devario assamensis were a very pleasant gift from my friend Bill Trevarrow at Eugene Research Aquatics.
I lost my group of Devario assamensis to high temperatures a few summers ago, and was delighted when Bill contacted me about some extras that he had. They are growing like weeds and at 8 weeks old are around 1.5 inches in length.
Oh, least I forget my silent auction winnings at the C.A.F.E. swap meet last spring. The club president Jeremy Basch, turned in a group of 4 Hypancistrus zebra for the silent auction.
Needless to say, I was very pleased to win these.
What can I say? I can only hope next year will be as great as thiss year has been. Happy New Year folks! See you in 2014…..