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: 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

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

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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.

March 23rd, 2012: Mike Wise - 'Breeding Apistogramma for fun ... and profit?' … and anything else you want to talk about!

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Mike Wise - "Breeding Apistogramma for fun ... and profit?" … and anything else you want to talk about!

Mike has been in the hobby for over 35 years and has kept dwarf cichlids almost from the beginning. He's been a member of the Colorado Aquarium Society since 1977 and the American Cichlid Association since 1982. In the past, Mike was technical editor for The Apisto-gramm, the newsletter of the late Apistogramma Study Group. Presently, he is curator for Apistogramma at the Cichlid Room Companion web site. He has had articles published in several magazines and received writing awards from the ACA and FAAS. Mike has also translated into English three German language books on dwarf cichlids, as well as many scientific and hobby related papers. He is one of the contributors to the German/English book South American Dwarf Cichlids a "Special Publication" (Sonderheft) published by the German magazine DATZ. Among his many experiences is a four week trip in which he of lived, ate, and collected fish with native collectors in Peru and Colombia. Mike has presented programs at ACA conventions, as well as at local, regional, and international fish clubs on the various aspects of collecting, identifying, keeping, and breeding dwarf cichlids.

April 27th, 2012: Les Wilson - "Cobalt Fish Health 101" - Basics of Fish Stress, How to Alleviate Stress, Fish Nutrition and Review of Cobalt Foods.

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Les Wilson - "Cobalt Fish Health 101" - Basics of Fish Stress, How to Alleviate Stress, Fish Nutrition and Review of Cobalt Foods.

Les Wilson is one of the founding partners of Cobalt International, parent company of Cobalt Aquatics and Cobalt Pond, overseeing Marketing, Product Development, and Sourcing for Cobalt. Prior to founding Cobalt, Les spent 17 years with United Pet Group aquatics. Wilson began his career with Marineland as an aquatic biologist, working in and then managing the aquatics lab. After eight years, he joined the marketing department as the product development manager. His final position was the Director of Marketing for the Equipment and Consumables group, responsible for the Marineland, Tetra, Instant Ocean, and Jungle brands and private label projects in those categories. Les personally spearheaded many of the projects you know today, including his favorites Marineland LED lighting, Bio-Spira Nitrifying bacteria, Corner flow tanks, and the Marineland Deep dimension aquariums. In May of 2011 he left UPG to start Cobalt International with the goal to get back to his roots as a fish geek and give back to the hobby the lessons he learned.

June 29th, 2012: Ian Fuller – 'Corydoras' – World's Top Corydoradine Catfish Breeder from the UK.

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Ian Fuller – "Corydoras" – World's Top Corydoradine Catfish Breeder from the UK.

Born in Birmingham in 1946. A toolmaker by trade, and self confessed Corydoras nut by admission. I started keeping tropical fish in 1970 in a small 18 inch aquarium, it was not very long before I had two, four foots and two three foots set up in the spare room. Over the first two or three years I kept and bred many of the popular fish groups. Starting with South American Cichlids, graduating through Barbs, Anabantids and Characins. Although I had kept several species of catfish during this period it wasn't until early in 1973 that I took an active interest in them. From when I bred my first species of Corydoras in 1974 I have been well and truly hooked. My first fish house took shape in 1977 and was a sectioned off part of my garage, which housed 36 - 18 x 18 x 12 inch tanks. It was then that I started seriously breeding Corydoras a project which still continues to this day in what is now my third fish house.

Visit Ian's website for more information: http://corydorasworld.com/

September 28th, 2012: Justin Meyer "Why are African cichlids so special? Understanding their evolution in East Africa"

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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: 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

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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 .