Greater Seattle Aquarium Society

Home Show Signup Open

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:25:18 -0800

Home Show registration is now open! If you're interested in being an exhibitor or a judge in the 2012 GSAS Home Show, please fill out the form here. You'll need to be available the weekend of the Home Show visits, March 24 and 25.

The May meeting will feature video and photography from the Home Show visits and prizes for winning exhibitors. This is your opportunity to show off your innovative rock-scaping technique, or to demonstrate how you rack up all of those HAP or BAP points, or to inspire others to try a kind of aquarium that they wouldn't have considered before.

Further details and discussion can be found here.

February: Plant Auction!

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:48:56 -0800

The GSAS Plant Auction is coming!

Been inspired by all the recent Nature Aquarium discussion to set up a new aquascaped tank?
Are you a beginner, looking for some easy plants to start out with?
Advanced aquarist, hoping to find a plant you've never heard of?
Is that new T5 light causing your plants to grow faster than you can trim them?

All of you are welcome!

Where: Falcon Lounge, Royal Brougham Pavilion, SPU (across the street from our usual meeting location)
When: February 14th, 2012. Registration starts 6:30, auction begins at 7.
What: Aquarium Plants, Fish and Invertabrates

Non-members welcome!

If you're a member, you may sell up to 20 items -- please come early to register, or use this handy web interface to enter your items beforehand. Please also read the auction guidelines for more information. Note new requirement: no more than three of the same item!

We have a printable poster to put up in stores. We're also in need of volunteers: baggers, runners, recorders, and general help with setup and tear-down. Contact erik AT thekrib.com to volunteer.

New Members-only Password Scheme

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:19:02 -0800

We've implemented a new password scheme. All members now have their own account and password. Set yours up here.

For more information, see this thread.

February: Plant Auction!

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:48:55 -0800

The GSAS Plant Auction is coming!

All of you are welcome!

Non-members welcome!

If you're a member, you may sell up to 20 items -- please come early to pre-register, or use this handy worksheet to enter your items beforehand. Please also read the auction guidelines for more information.

We have a printable poster to put up in stores. We're also in need of volunteers: baggers, runners, recorders, and general help with setup and tear-down. Contact erik AT thekrib.com to volunteer.

January: Allen Fertuna - Goldfish

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:48:06 -0800

Welcome to 2012! Our January meeting will feature Allen Fertuna, who is driving from Portland to speak to our club on goldfish types, basics, and some breaking news.

Allen has been been raising fish for over 30 years, starting off at the age of 5 selling livebearers to the local petstores. He had the thrill of having his first koi in an outdoor kiddie pool, and the horror of watching them get eaten by a garter snake the next day. Currently he raises, shows, and breeds award-winning Koi and goldfish. Allen is part of a few breeding programs trying to preserve the last of some varieties of goldfish. He is a founder of N.A.V.A (North American Veiltail Association), and a member of the American Goldfish Association, Northwest Koi and Goldfish Club, and the American Ranchu Society.

2012 Spring Meeting Topics Announced

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 12:27:49 -0800

As always, the dates and topics are subject to change:

January 10, 2012: Allen Fertuna - Goldfish
February 14: Plant Auction (7 PM start)
March 13: Dick Au - Raising Fish for Fun and Profit (plus bonus members-only meeting on the 12th)
April 14 (Saturday - date subject to change!): General Auction
May 8: Home Show results
June 12: Matt Kaufman: Killifish

Don't forget to mark your Calendar for Christel Kasselmann, Saturday September 15th 2012!

December: Holiday Potluck and FISHO

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:28:14 -0800

What: GSAS Holiday potluck, white elephant gift exchange, craft and Fish-o
When: WEDNESDAY, December 14th, 2011, doors open at 7pm.
Where: SPU Falcon Lounge (across the street from our usual meeting space)
What to bring: a dish to share, present for the white elephant gift exchange, your family/friend
RSVP: cranegger@msn.com by December 10th, 2011

It’s almost time for our annual Holiday Potluck meeting in December. Please note that the date is WEDNESDAY, December 14th. This is not a typo, the Falcon Lounge was not available on our regular day.

The doors open at 7pm, come early and help set up!!

We will have a potluck dinner, for which the club provides a couple of hams, drinks, paper plates and plastic utensils. PLEASE bring a dish to share, sweet or savory…Your choice.

If you would like to participate in the White Elephant gift exchange, bring a wrapped gift ($15), fish themed item and see what you can take home.

We’ll also play FISHO, a roaring game of fishy themed bingo where you can win great prizes.

Plans for a holiday/fish themed craft activity are also under way.

Oh, and BAP awards will be given out too!

We hope to see you there, and bring the family!!

If you could drop me a line at cranegger at msn.com to let me know you are coming and how many will be in your party, that would be very much appreciated! We want to make sure to have enough utensils, drinks and ham for all!

Fall Meeting Topics Announced

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 10:58:34 -0800

As always, the dates and topics are subject to change:

September 13: Karen Randall on Nano Aquariums (plus members-only second talk TBA)
October 11: Oliver Lucanus - The Amazon Below Water
November 8: Chuck Rambo - Rare and Unusual Dwarf Cichlids (plus members-only talk TBA)
December 14: Christmas Party (Wednesday! - Note date change!!)

November: Chuck Rambo

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:31:04 -0700

Chuck Rambo will be speaking on Rare and Unusual Dwarf Cichlids at our next meeting, November 8th, 7:30 PM, Chuck has been keeping tropical fish as pets since 1967. His interest in fish got him started working in pets shops and fish stores while in high school to directly importing fish from South America and Asia, while attending college. After graduation he got a real job as a geotechnical field engineer and is still currently working as one today. When Rift Lake cichlids were first introduced into the hobby he was immediately taken by them and had a strong interest in all cichlids ever since. He is a past Chairman and current Fellow of the American Cichlid Association. He is also the past president of his local club, the Pacific Coast Cichlid Association. He has been diving in Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika with Ad Konings. In 2009 he led a group of local club members to Florida to collect feral cichlids and visit tropical fish farms. His other interests include collecting antique aquariums and maintaining his collection of carnivorous plants. This will be Chuck’s first visit to Seattle and is looking forward meeting new aquarists and making new friends.

We are grateful to Zoo Med, who has sponsored Chuck's talk.

Chuck will also be giving a second, members-only, presentation on Lake Victoria and its Cichlids on Saturday night 6:00 PM, at a secret undisclosed location.

October: Oliver Lucanus

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 08:42:52 -0700

Our next meeting is October 11th, 7:30 PM, and features Oliver Lucanus as our guest speaker. Oliver lives in Monteal, and is a collector, photographer, speaker and author. He recently published a book, The Amazon: Below Water, from his 18 years of exploring and photographing the Amazon basin.

Ever since seeing his amazing videos of Discus and Apistogramma spawning in the wild, we've been trying to book Oliver to speak at GSAS for ten years now, and it always seems that he's off on some adventure on the second Tuesday of any given month.

Until now.

[more info from our Speaker coordinator]

GSAS / Pet Expo Equipment Sale

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 01:41:38 -0700

Thanks to the efforts of Phil and a host of GSAS member volunteers that manned the booth and did docent duties at the Pet Expo last month GSAS was given a treasure trove of new and ‘lightly used’ equipment that we are making available to our GSAS Members in good standing.

Your GSAS Board has decided to offer this equipment at drastically reduced (CRAZY LOW!!) prices to help offset the costs of participating in the Pet Expo and SEAMAX events and more importantly to improve our club’s financial position so we can bring in even more awesome speakers, pay for existing and possibly new programs, and fund Philanthropic activities. You get a good deal and your club benefits as well.

For more details, download the item and pricelist or view the slide show of loot.

September: Karen Randall

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 13:33:47 -0700

Ever since Karen Randall spoke at GSAS a year and a half ago, members have been eagerly requesting we have her back, and we are delighted to oblige!

For those not familiar with Karen, she is one of the most famous names in the US aquarium plant hobby: a well-known speaker, leader, author, editor, judge, kids aquarium advocate, and world-travelling plant collector (Read Karen's full bio here).

Karen will present on the increasingly-popular topic of Nano Aquariums as our September 13th meeting. Meeting starts at the usual 7:30, and will have a small auction afterwards.

Karen will also be at a special Members-only gathering Sunday, September 11th, when she will show a new presentation on her recent trip to Taiwan.

Fall Meeting Topics Announced

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 01:03:56 -0700

As always, the dates and topics are subject to change:

September 13: Karen Randall on Nano Aquariums (plus members-only second talk TBA)
October 11: Oliver Lucanus - The Amazon Below Water
November 8: Chuck Rambo - Rare and Unusual Dwarf Cichlids (plus members-only talk TBA)
December 13: Christmas Party

Fall Meeting Topics Announced

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 13:31:45 -0700

As always, the dates and topics are subject to change:

September 13: Karen Randall on Aquatic Plants
October 11: Oliver Lucanus
November 8: Chuck Rambo on Lake Victorian Cichlids
December 13: Christmas Party

Summer Vacation and Picnic

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 13:48:39 -0700

GSAS is on its traditional summer break now (no meetings July or August). However, we will more than make up for this at our annual picnic on July 30th. For more information, see this post by Picnic Director Shango.

Regular meetings resume in September.