British Cichlid Association Convention..

[ste12000]

Although there a few members of the BCA on here i am suprised no one has mentioned the convention!!, i had a great day out and thought i would share it with you guys, this post is copied from one a posted last night on another forum...

The Convention was a huge success and i really enjoyed myself, i went with my cousin Richard and we arrived at around 10am..I was up from 6.30 bagging the fish that i entered into the auction, i entered 10 lots and they proved to be very popular and everything was sold. The fish were booked in on arrival and we found a seat and waited for the first talk by Paul Loiselle, this was an hour long presentation about the Cichlids found in Central America, although it is not my area of expertise (I keep soft water Dwarf cichlids from S.America) it was an entertaining and very interesting talk in which the speaker had a huge knowledge of his subject and has actually collected from the areas he was talking about..

After this talk we had a quick brew and the first auction section started, I knew what i wanted and had taken the relevent money with me..No way was i getting out bid on certain fish...The auction contained many species of cichlid from all over the world, i think the only place not covered were the rare fish from Madagascar..S.American, C.American, W.African, African lakes were all covered and from each continent rare and beautiful fish were offered...Prices for buyers were not that cheap and the sellers did a brisk trade..Only fair i think, after raising fish for over 4 months they should get a good return..

Dinner followed the first auction session and being in a hotel i tested the chefs skills and found the carvery to be delicious..The company on my table was good and i made some very good friends on the day...

Back into the convention room and Paul held his second talk, once again this was not my subject but i found the talk on the conservation of the cichlids from Madagascar to be very entertaining...Paul is heavily involved in this conservation project and obviously holds it close to his heart..His passion shone through and i think everyone in the room learnt something new about a group of fish rarely mentioned..I certainly did..

The second auction session was started after Pauls talk and i managed to fend of other bidders and bag the fish i came for..I got some strange looks when my hand was up for every lot but hey ive got 26 tanks and a good deal of them were emptied in anticipation of buying new fish...In order i bought...

Apistogramma Atahualpa (wild)
A. Bitaeniata (wild)
A. Gibbiceps (wild)
A. Regani (6 F1 juveniles)
Dicrossus Filamentosus (2 Pairs)
Microgeophagus Altispinosa (F1 pair)
Nannostomus cf Marginatus (red pencil) wild
Nannostomus Nitidus (very rare wild pencilfish)
Scleromystax barbatus (group of 5 semi adults)

While i am here i will list a few more new additions, not from the auction but still bought the same week..
Apistogramma "Algodon"?? most likely to be A. sp 'Pebas' (wild)
Apistogramma Nijsseni (wild)
Taeniacara Candidi (FI trio) - I have had these for two weeks and have managed to spawn them already


GIBBICEPS

ATAHUALPA

MICROGEOPHAGUS

NANNOSTOMUS

BITAENIATA

 

[cageman]

That's quite a list!
I kept the purple marginatus once. Unfortunately I wasn't able to breed them. Beautiful fish, if you ask me!

 

[ste12000]

Thanks, they have all settled in and are doing well..I am anticipating a spawn from the Bitaeniata first because they are already showing really strong colour and are non stop displaying...Fingers crossed.

At the minute i dont have a spare spawning tank but the Marginatus are one fish i am desperate to breed..i think low PH and 0 hardness might just do the trick..