Greater Pittsburgh Aquarium Society

General Monthly Meetings are held at the Phipps Garden Center in Mellon Park at the corner of 5th and Shady Avenues. DOORS OPEN AT 6:30PM for those who want to get there a little early to socialize; Meeting starts at 7:30 SHARP!

Board of Directors meetings are held at 7pm at the ALCOSAN Customer Service & Training Building at 3300 Preble Ave. Pittsburgh. All members are welcome to attend. Dates are:

Dates of regular meetings in 2012: Jan 8th xmas party @ garden center, Jan 27th, Feb 24th, Mar 23, Apr 27th, May 6th Spring Auction, May 18th, Jun 29th, Jul 27, Aug 31st, Sept 23 Fall Auction, Sept 28th, Oct 26th, Dec 7th.
BOD meeting Dates: Feb. 6, Mar. 5, Apr. 2, May 7, June 4, July 9, Aug. 6, Sept. 10, Oct. 8, Nov. 5.

If you are a sponsor and have a banner between 400-600 wide (left to right) and up to 150 tall (top to bottom) please send it to

Elections, make sure your dues are paid up to vote! Be sure to receive your membership folder with new 2012 BAP Rules, Revised GPASI Constitution, Membership Number and custom made GPASI Lanyard & Monthly Meeting Magnet. Regular raffle, auction and refreshments. There may also be a few short BAP presentations.

The Bap rules will be revised around the beginning of July. Until the rules are revised, you should be aware of some current inaccuracies in the current rules. A number of livebearing fish are listed as 20 point fish and are being given less than 20 points when spawns of these fish are turned in. The fish were just to easy to breed and weren?t worth 20 points.
This has been done since the last rules revision in 1996. They are Ataeniobius toweri, Skiffia lermae, Skiffia multipunctata, Brachyrhaphus holdridgei, Poeciliiopsis prolifica, Gambusia alvarezi, Poecilia melanazona, Poecilia turraburensis, Potamotrygon magalalenae, Allodontichthys tamazulae and Pocilia schroederi. Some of these fish have never been spawned by anyone in GPASI and their actual point value will be determined when someone does spawn them and we can see how difficult they actually are to breed.
Livebearers with published brood records of less than 10 will still be considered as 20 point fish. To get 20 points for a first time livebearer spawn, the breeder needs to provide the brood record information and its? source when the spawn is turned in. The ALA would probably be the best place to get brood record information.
For other first time spawns, if you look in the Bap rules and think the fish should be worth more or fewer points, make a case for it when you turn in the spawning report. Our Bap rules were set up as general guidelines in many areas and lots of exceptions have been made over the years ? where warranted.
Some livebearers that will probably be made 20 point fish when the rules are revised are: Skiffia francesae, Poecilliopsis turneri and Allotoca goslenei.
- Chuck Bialon

GPASI Holiday Party
Sunday, January 8, 2012, Noon till 4 at the Garden Center
(Set up can begin at 10:30)
Turkey & ham will be provided, members are asked to bring a side dish if possible, check with Scott
Graner at sgraner@comcast.net or (412) 921-4251 to see what others are bringing.

“GPASI Holiday Raffle”
We will be having a fish only raffle at the Holiday party this year. Members can donate
one or two bags of good fish if they want to. (Donations should be higher value fish that
people will want to buy tickets for – at least a $5 auction value) Each donated bag of
fish will be assigned a number and have an empty cup placed next to it. People buy
tickets and place them into the cup(s) by the fish that they want. A ticket will be drawn
from each cup to see who gets the fish associated with it.

“GPASI Holiday Gift Swap”
Rules of Play for the Holiday Party Game
All Holiday Party attendees: members and their immediate families,
Please bring a wrapped gift that is aquatic related having no less than $5 in
value. Gift should be NEW and something worthwhile, something you would be
proud to say you wrapped….please do not bring a junk item.
*A ticket will be given as gifts are dropped off at the Gift Exchange table. The
ticket will be drawn when the game is played later in the day.
*The first person will pick a gift from the Gift table.
*The second person will either pick a previously picked gift, or pick a new gift
from the table.
*The third person will either pick a previously picked gift, or pick a new gift
from the table, etc. till all gifts are picked.
*If someone has their gift picked by someone else, that person can either pick a
previously picked gift, or pick a new gift from the table.
*Gifts cannot be picked more than 3 times.
*No one is permitted to open his or her gift until the game ends.
*Should be lots of fun for everyone - how will you wrap your gift?

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Regina Spotti Girls, pantyhose and fishkeeping.

Since there are so few women involved in the hobby, I will provide my point of view with regards to fish keeping as seen from the female perspective. I will be discussing some of my "secrets" on spawning some of the less frequently seen species of fish and why I chose to work with them. A few of the various species of rasbora and tetras, along with my favorite corydoras species are some of the fish I hope to provide spawning information on.

Regina Spotti has been keenly interested in nature since childhood. Aeons ago she persuaded her mother to allow her to bring some goldfish home from, of all places, a grocery store. These "promotional items" quickly led to an interest in the tropical fish hobby which has lasted over forty years. She enjoys keeping and breeding various tropical fish from all corners of the world. Whether it's a "lovely" betta, an "awesome" cichlid, a "boring rivulus", "a plain rasbora", or an "ugly catfish", Regina will make room for it on her side of the fish room. She currently maintains about 50 aquariums not including the fry tanks, all of which are filled with a wide array of species from cory cats to characins. An active member in the Greater Pittsburgh Aquarium Society, she quickly attained the status of Master Breeder and enjoys writing articles on species of fish she has worked with. While her hobby may be described as out of control by some of her peers, Regina finds the fish keeping hobby relaxing and rewarding. One of her favorite things about the hobby, other than the fantastic people she meets-watching the expressions on people's faces when she tells them her hobby is keeping and breeding tropical fish.

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Why are African cichlids so special? Understanding their evolution in East Africa.

Every aquarist understands that African cichlids are not like other fish. Cichlidae is one of the most diverse vertebrate families, they are beautifully colored, have charismatic mating and territorial behaviors, and they even require a unique water chemistry. To many they seem more like marine fish rather than their freshwater counterparts. For this talk I will begin to answer why these fish are so unique. To do this I will give first-hand accounts of field-based research on Tanganyikan cichlids and explore the science of these fish. I will attempt to answer a series of questions, such as; why are there so many cichlid species, why are they so colorful, how did their unique behaviors and morphologies evolve, why are the rift lakes so special, and how can we conserve these threatened species. In the end I hope to connect hobbyists' intuitions for why these fish are so special with the scientific data that demonstrates it.

Justin Meyer – For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by nature and the incredible diversity of living things. Growing up in the inner-city of Pittsburgh the best way to satisfy this early curiosity was to visit local pet stores like Elmer's, Pet Habitat, and Tiny's. I always loved the incredible diversity of fish displayed in their tanks and have spent most of my life tending to aquariums. This early obsession led me to a career in biology. I began my studies at Cornell University majoring in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and then earned an MSc at the University of Ottawa, and a PhD at Michigan State. As of June 2012 I will continue my research as a Departmental Fellow in Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. My research interests vary and I have studied everything from viruses living in the lab to cichlids living in Lake Tanganyika. Despite the wide-range of organisms I have studied, my research is focused on answering a single, fundamental question: Why are there so many species?

Dates of regular meetings in 2011: Jan 8th xmas party @ garden center, Jan 27th, Feb 24th, Mar 23, Apr 27th, May 6th Spring Auction, May 18th, Jun 29th, Jul 27, Aug 31st, Sept 23 Fall Auction, Sept 28th, Oct 26th, Dec 7th.

Benefits of Membership

Regular Meeting Auctions and Sellers Information

Click for information on our regular meetings

Auctions

We have an auction every month at our regular meeting. We also have a big public auction each fall and spring.

Members--and guests who have signed in--are welcome to participate as buyers or sellers.

Sellers

Double bag your fish in proper fish bags (not Ziplock bags or Baggies): You can buy bags from your local fish store or from GPASI members. Air should fill and inflate about 2/3 of the bag. The first bag should be inverted and then placed in the outer bag. This will prevent fish from getting trapped in a corner since the second bag will bend over the corners of the inner bag. Secure each of the bags with a rubber band or knot.

It's always a good idea to bring a few extra bags in case one leaks.

Please mark your bags clearly in waterproof ink with this information: name, phone number, scientific name of fish, and common name (if applicable), number of fish in bag, and your seller's code (your three initials plus the number of the bag--starting at one and proceeding sequentially). You may also note any other relevant information (for example, gender). Equipment must state whether it is in good working order or if it needs repair.

You must also submit a seller's form (see below) that lists your contact information, your bags, their codes, and the contents.

Download a seller's form for a GPASI auction (either our regular meeting auctions or our big Fall and Spring auctions). You can type your information directly into this form or print it out and complete it by hand.

Please note that the program that made the original form into a typable form also altered the GPASI logo. A small price to pay for legibility and convenience!

Questions or Problems? Contact .