Jealous for news

[GaryofMontreal]

For me, the two most intriguing organized fish events of the year are the American Livebearer Association convention, ending today, and the American Killifish Association convention in May. This year, I have to miss both, and I am not happy.
I like 'single group' conventions because of the focus in the talks. Meetings like the CAOAC in Brant, or the NEC in Hartford Ct are great fun, but I like the combination of workshops, show, beer and auction involved in the narrow focus conventions.

This year, I'm lucky if I can get to my local club meetings, let alone to the out of town ones. I'm hoping to get to the Northeast Weekend, a regional killie show, in the Fall, but that will be it.

So those of you who got to the ALA, you wouldn't have reviews to offer for those of us stuck in the melting snow, would you?

[Melody]

This probably won't help the fin envy, but here's two of the 10+ ALA auction tables.

[Melody]

Oooooo the big boys are playing... $200 for a pair of Xiphophorus monticolous, donated by the Xiph Stock Center :swoon:.

[mack777]

This probably won't help the fin envy, but here's two of the 10+ ALA auction tables.

Ooooooooh! Now THAT was just cruel!

LOL

[CACAdmin]

Oooooo the big boys are playing... $200 for a pair of Xiphophorus monticolous, donated by the Xiph Stock Center :swoon:.
:wideeyed: :swoon:

[Melody]

Tons of great feedback - they did a fabulous job.

It looks like the next ALA convention will be in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida! I best dig out my bikini... and when I'm done laughing at the notion of wearing one of those again, I'll go buy a decent bathing suit for swimming with the fishies. Should be some good collecting trips!

In the meantime, I know some very generous fishkeepers who have offered to send me some convention species. The ALA members have always been good to me. I'll have to start thinking about what to send them in return, which is always part of the fun.

[OldMan]

I look forward to seeing you there Mel. So far I have missed you at 3 ALA conventions in a row.
The auction tables this year were not set up in a typical 10 table arrangement. Instead they gave each of us a percentage of our fish bags in the form of colored stickers. There were in essence 3 groupings. There were orange/yellow stickers, then red stickers then no stickers. The first 15% and second 15% came from the colored stickers. The last 70% or so came from the rest. As a runner, I kept trying to mix fish with plants and other items that I picked up off the tables but it meant poor prices for a large percentage of the things that I myself sold. By the time the first 2 tables with stickers had been sold, the remaining lots were going at low prices because much of the crowd of buyers had left. I did get some great buys off those tables but had to accept terrible prices for my own goods. The size of the auction crowd was disappointing this year compared to previous years and it showed in the prices of items sold.
I did get lucky that prices were restrained and got the grand prize winning goodeid at less than the price of a single pair of those same fish. The pairs were sold in a silent auction for the SMP but Rit combined his prize winning female with another pair and for some reason they went for less than the 3 pairs I had already bought at silent auction. Now my SMP breeding tank, a 55 gallon, is set up with all of those fish and the big prize winning female dominates the whole tank.