We started out the 2010-2011 year with a meeting on Saturday 24th April that featured two speakers – Spencer Jack and John Sabo from Canada. They also donated a sizeable number of fish for auction that they brought with them from Florida fish farms. John volunteered to be the auctioneer and turned up in a skin-tight Elvis costume! Our auctions are renowned for pulling in large bids but this one was different. With a large number of bags available and only a handful of bidders, prices stayed fairly low, with several bags going for the opening bid price. We even had two bags that failed to reach the minimum bid but we were able to sell them the next day via e-mail to members who didn’t attend the meeting. We had agreed to donate the proceeds of this auction to the Stuart M. Grant Cichlid Conservation Fund which is responsible for the placement of anti-netting devices around the Maleri Islands in Lake Malawi. Despite the low bidding, we still committed to donate $1,000 to the fund.

On the following day, Sunday 25th April, we held the Annual Home Show with Spencer and John doing the judging. There were only four entrants in the show – Robert Wheatley, Claire Wheatley, David Patterson and Peter Marsh – but the quality of the displays was very good. Robert emerged as the winner for his beautiful planted aquarium.

In May, we said goodbye to a good friend and valuable member. Klaus Gebhardt and his lovely wife Joy left Bermuda to enjoy retirement after spending two periods of residence in Bermuda. Klaus and Joy had generously hosted many speakers at their home over the years and were a huge loss to the club when they left. Rather than holding a meeting in May, we had a club dinner at the Little Venice restaurant so that we could say farewell to Klaus and Joy. A small group of members also contributed to a farewell gift for Klaus – a cartoon depicting him and his aquarium drawn by cartoonist Peter Woolcock.

Our June meeting featured a visiting speaker, as my friend Warren Feuer travelled from New York to speak on shell-dwellers from Lake Tanganyika. Attendance at the meeting was sparse, despite having a speaker and a fish auction. Following the low turnout and bidding for the April meeting, this began to cause some concern and was one of the factors that caused us to develop a members survey. We wanted to check-in with members to determine what they wanted from the club and to see whether we could do things better.

We did not hold a meeting in July, as several members traveled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the American Cichlid Association (ACA) Convention. ACA members seemed happy to have a sizeable Bermuda contingent at the convention again – particularly when we served free Dark & Stormys throughout the Babes Auction! The Babes appreciated our presence too, as several high bids seemed to be fuelled by too much rum, with one person frequently bidding against himself!

The membership survey was conducted during July and eleven members participated. I don’t think the survey raised many surprises. It showed that visiting speakers and fish auctions were still important issues for the members. There was huge support for the newsletter, but only half of those who responded would be satisfied with an online version rather than a printed copy. The survey did show that there was no ideal day of the week for meetings, with preferences being expressed for a variety of days. Fridays and Saturdays seemed to get the most votes so we’ll try to mix up meeting days rather than always having them on Fridays.

We intended to hold a ‘Beer and Brats’ meeting in August but many members indicated that they had other commitments, so it was cancelled. We rescheduled and held the ‘Beer and Brats’ meeting on 24th September.

I was traveling through Europe in October, so no meeting was held. Our next gathering was for the Annual Tropical Fish Show in November. Jeff Sousa stepped forward to fill the void that was created by the departure of Klaus, offering to host the judge/speaker, Dave Smith from Louisville, Kentucky. We are lucky to have members like Jeff, as we wouldn’t be able to bring in many speakers if we had to pay for hotel rooms. Dave did a good job with the judging and also donated fish that we auctioned at the awards night.
We had a total of 69 entries in the show. Of those, over half were cichlids (36 entries). Participation by juniors was up over previous years, with 19 entries being entered by those under 16 years of age. I was really pleased to see the increased level of juniors participation and hope we can continue to improve in this area.

Once again, Wendy and Stephen Corrado did very well in the show, cleaning up seven of the fifteen trophies that were up for grabs from the 19 fish that they entered between them. But youngster Andre Lambe showed that it wasn’t necessary to enter lots of fish to land a big prize. Andre only entered a single fish, a Green Terror that won him two trophies – Best Cichlid by a Junior and Best in Show by a Junior. Howard Paynter’s Geophagus brasiliensis came very close to winning Best in Show for two successive years – the fish was in the running but lost out by a whisker to Wendy’s beautiful Vieja bifasciatus. Whilst they didn’t win any trophies, it was good to see the enthusiasm displayed by Toronte and Torleair Caines.

With our younger members in mind, we planned a December event for a Saturday evening and an hour earlier (7.00pm). It was to have been a social event with a barbeque and the chance to see Nyon’s fish room. We were also going to give away cichlid fry for the Grow-Out Competition. As often proves to be the case in December, most members had conflicting appointments and were unable to commit to the meeting. As a result, we cancelled the meeting.

We got 2011 off with a bang by bringing a speaker all the way from Europe. Anton Lamboj is one of the foremost authorities in the world on West African cichlids so it was great to be able to bring him over from Austria. We scheduled two different meetings during Anton’s visit. The first meeting was on Friday 21st January at the Bermuda Aquarium. The meeting featured a presentation by Anton that gave an overview of the various cichlids from West Africa. Anton had also donated a very nice selection of fish for auction and our members responded with some strong bidding. We also had a number of Anton’s books for sale that he graciously autographed. It was nice to see our auctions back in full swing!

We followed up with another meeting the following night, at Nyon’s home. Anton gave a presentation on collecting fish in West Africa that complimented the presentation from the previous night. We enjoyed pizza, snacks and beers whilst getting to spend some social time with Anton. Members also got to see Nyon’s fish room.

Anton’s visit was made possible by Jeff who played host for a week. Thanks Jeff!

We had hoped to hold a plant auction for the February meeting. An order was placed but the application process was delayed so the meeting was cancelled. It was then hoped that the application process could be completed in time to have the plants here in time for the AGM, so that we could have a plant auction at the same meeting. That was not to be. The Plant Lab now appears to be scrutinizing aquatic plant orders more closely. The lab has reported that some aquatic plants have invaded local habitats and may not be allowed in further imports. Further, any plant that produces seed may only be imported as seeds. It remains to be seen which species will be allowed in and when we might actually get the order.

I had intended to schedule the Home Show for about two months after the February plant auction, but the delayed order now throws that schedule out. Currently, we have no speakers planned for 2011. Plans will be made once we know whether (and when) anyone can host the speakers.