In April 2007 we started out the year by hosting a visiting speaker. Francine Bethea gave an interesting presentation on the use of digital cameras to take photographs of fish and aquaria. It was Francine’s first visit to Bermuda and she reported on how much she enjoyed her trip. Our May meeting was a social gathering at Nyon’s house that included a barbecue and a few drinks. Nyon and Howard had recently returned from their trip to Honduras so they were able to regale us with stories of their exploits. The meeting also provided an opportunity for members to visit Nyon’s new fish room and to see his various Central American cichlids. On 15th June, we welcomed Larry Lampert from Texas to speak on planted aquaria. Larry’s presentation explained some of the do’s and don’ts for planted aquaria and provided good information for members who already have a planted tank or are thinking of starting one. Larry had brought an assortment of fish for auction but the two boxes of fish didn’t arrive with his luggage. Somehow they missed the connecting flight. The boxes of fish were not delivered to my house until after midnight. Fortunately, most of the members had hung around in the expectation of a good auction and a few bargains – they got both. Whilst he was here, we utilized Larry to judge the Home Show the following day, Saturday 16th June. We only had four tanks entered this year but they were all live-planted aquariums. Scott Burns took first place honours.

July’s meeting was held on Friday 6th so that we could take advantage of a visit by Mark Soberman who was taking a trip here with his wife, Robin. Due to ongoing work at the Aquarium classrooms, we were moved into the main display hall that provided a nice setting for the meeting. Mark gave an interesting presentation on the various families of African catfishes.

Mark had donated several bags of fish for the auction which had been sent ahead a week before, courtesy of Noah’s Ark. We owe a great vote of thanks to Carol for facilitating the shipment of Mark’s fish and to Stephen for taking care of them for a week. The level of support that Noah’s Ark provides to our club is outstanding. In this instance, the store arranged for Mark’s fish to be included in their own shipment of fish, covering the cost of shipping themselves. Then, the store kept the fish for over a week in their quarantine tanks until the day of the meeting. I hope that our members repay this level of support by shopping at Noah’s Ark.

Our August meeting was a social gathering at Peter’s home that enabled members to talk about their aquariums and to share tips. Planted aquariums were high on the discussion list and members who attended were also treated to some free aquatic plants that were donated by Neil Cattel.

In September we were fortunate to host world-renowned cichlid expert Ad Konings as our guest speaker. Ad gave an excellent programme on the feeding habits of Lake Malawi cichlids. Several of the members who were present for the meeting described the presentation as the best they have ever seen. We therefore hope to be able to bring Ad back for another talk in the next year or two. Ad donated some books for auction at the meeting and autographed them for the winners. He has since sent some more books to the club. The meeting also included an auction of live aquatic plants that were provided by members.

Our October meeting was held at the home of Scott Burns but, due to other commitments and bad weather on the night, turnout was quite low.

November brought our Annual Tropical Fish Show. We were pleased to welcome our good friend Rusty Wessel back to Bermuda as the judge for this year’s show. Once again, Rusty donated a nice variety of fish for auction and the members agreed to donate the profits from the auction to the Paul Loiselle Conservation Fund. The auction income was boosted by fish and plants that were donated by members. When the dust settled and Rusty’s travel costs had been covered, we still had $1,100 to donate to the charity. Well done to everyone who purchased something at the auction and made this donation possible. Nyon returned to his winning ways by taking the Best in Show trophy with his pearsei and has bragging rights for another year. I was able to take Reserve Best in Show with a lowly Swordtail purchased from Noah’s Ark, proving that expensive fish are not necessary to do well in the show.

We took a break in December as everyone seemed to have parties and other festive commitments taking up their time.

We started the New Year off with a bang by importing an order of plants especially for an aquatic plant auction. The meeting was initially set for Wednesday 16th January but, due to a delay in the arrival of the plants, the meeting was put back a day to Thursday 17th. We imported a total of 140 bunches of live plants from 13 species. These were then divided into 42 bag lots for the auction. Former member Chris Doe rejoined at the meeting and kindly donated a few plants to the auction, including an Amazon Sword plant. As expected, bidding was frantic with several bags being in the $80 range. The Amazon Sword donated by Chris raised $110! When the dust settled, the auction raised about $1,500 profit for the club that will certainly help us to bring in more speakers and to run more events for our members.

Our February meeting featured a presentation by Chuck Rambo from California. Chuck gave a humorous presentation on how he became involved in the fish hobby and the mistakes that he made along the way. He also donated fish for auction, including a number of species that we haven’t seen before in our auctions. Chuck and his wife, Carol, had opted to stay at the Fairmont Southampton Resort during their stay and thoroughly enjoyed their first visit to Bermuda. Chuck and Carol have expressed their thanks to club members for the great hospitality that was shown to them and are hoping to be invited back in the future.

We had a total of six overseas speakers and five of them brought fish for auction whilst the sixth donated books. We also had a successful plant auction. We donated $1,100 to charity and probably still made a profit on the year. All in all, I’d say it was a pretty good year.

I’d like to thank those members who helped to make it a successful year, whether you did it by working on the committee, hosting visiting speakers, entering the Home Show or the Fish Show, or even by just buying fish at our auctions. Without all of you, the club wouldn’t be what it is today.

I’ve already made a start on organizing the next financial year and have a number of overseas speakers lined up, including three in a row to get the year off to a great start: • Friday 18th April - Brian Revennaugh who will give a talk on aquatic plants.

• Sunday 20th April - Annual Home Show.
• Friday 16th May - Spencer Jack on fish collecting exploits. He will also be donating some interesting fish for an auction.
• Friday 20th June - Francine Bethea speaking on Pike Cichlids and, if we’re lucky, she may even donate some for auction.
• July – to be decided
• August – to be decided (possibly a sailboat cruise)
• September – overseas speaker to be booked
• October – Show planning
• November – Annual Fish Show
• December – Party (to be determined)
• January – to be decided
• February – Overseas speaker (to be determined)