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A REPORT ON THE RYEDALE AQUARIST SOCIETY
FUN DAY 2013 Report by David
Marshall Photographs, unless otherwise credited, by Paul Barrow of Caer
Urfa (South Shields) Aquarist Society On Sunday 8th September, 2013 the
Ryedale Aquarist Society held their annual 'Fun Day' at the tranquil, and very
appropriate venue of Middleton Memorial Hall, Pickering, North Yorkshire.
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Middleton Village Hall | The beauty
of the Middleton village pond fit in nicely with a fishkeeping theme. Photograph
by David Marshall |
The aim of 'Fun Day' is
to create a friendly atmosphere so that everyone present has a very enjoyable
time.
| Our
guests begin to arrive |
One of the highlights
of the day is that experts in various fields are invited to join us and give talks
on different aspects of the aquarium hobby.
| Martin
giving his talk. Photograph by David Marshall |
Our
first guest speaker today was reptile and amphibian expert Mr. Martin Lees. Martin
talked on the subject of creating decorations for vivarium use, telling his audience,
step-by-step, exactly how to obtain and prepare the various items used. He brought
along some newly created backgrounds so that the audience could see the finished
articles. Martin then gave advice on the best and easiest amphibians and reptiles
to keep for those of us not yet into this side of the hobby. He also had a wonderful
surprise for us as he brought along a selection of his favourite 'pets' and as
our photographs show, the members of our audience were able to hold some of these
adorable creatures.
| | Two
of Martin's 'pets' are much admired |
|
David prepares to start his talk |
Our second
guest speaker was Aquarium Gazette magazine Editor Mr. David Marshall. When several
local non-fishkeeping groups asked David if he would go along and do a presentation
on how to keep tropical freshwater fish, the talk 'The wonderful world of tropical
freshwater fishes' was put together. This was the first time the talk had been
given to people already involved in the hobby and David was really pleased with
the reaction from the audience.
| Andrew
prepares his PowerPoint presentation. Photograph by
David Marshall |
Our
third guest speaker was Andrew Mcleod. Andrew is the Fish Curator at The Deep
Public Aquarium at Hull. Andrew took us through the reasons why Hull was chosen
as the 'host City' for The Deep; the creation of the Aquarium building and exhibits;
the educational resources on offer; the challenges of moving forward; the problems
of helping local people find homes for large fish they no longer want and the
various aquatic conservation programmes that The Deep are involved with. I think
that it was the latter that had me the most amazed as I had never realised the
amount of aquatic conservation work that Andrew and fellow staff members are involved
with. As always, the Mini-Open Show part of 'Fun Day' caused much interest
and our thanks go to YAAS 'A' Class Judge Mick Price for his sterling work in
judging the nine fish classes and the 'eggshibit'. The following photographs show
a small variety of the various egglaying and livebearing species that were entered
in the Show.
For
'eggshibit', the competitors take a boiled egg and then use all of their artistic
flare to build a 'fun fish' around it. Our photographs show the first three placed
'eggshibits'.
| | Janice
Barrow's Egg and tomato Clownfish took first place | Frank
Tolomeo's Butterflyfish took second place. |
| Sue
Marshall's Flowerhorn cichlid took third place |
Although
Ryedale A.S. is not an actual showing Society, our members have had great success
on the showing benches throughout Northern England in 2013. This continued today
with Frank Tolomeo winning the 'Fun Day' trophy for the person gaining the most
points from fish shown at the event.
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Frank receives the 'Fun Day' trophy from '
Fun Day' Secretary David Marshall |
Here
we see some of our other prize winners.
| | Sue
Marshall | Janice Barrow. Photograph
by Sue Marshall |
| Paul
Barrow. Photograph by Sue Marshall |
p Frank
Tolomeo was also busy manning the sales table and here we had an excellent selection
of livebearing fishes, 'L' numbered loricarins, aquarium plants, variously sized
aquariums and blackwater tonics for sale.
| Frank
early in the day preparing the sales table
Photograph by David Marshall. |
This
year Sue Marshall chose to do her 'fun quiz' on the subject of places. The 30
questions were a mixture of aquarium fish, natural world, sport, entertainment
and general knowledge with the answer to each a place e.g. name a member of the
Corydoras elegans grouping --- (3) ----- (4) with the answer San Juan. Well done
to the husband and wife team of Pauline and Les Barker from Hull A.S. who got
the most correct answers.
| Pauline
and Les Barker won the 'fun quiz
Photograph by David Marshall |
Of
course 'Fun Day' would not be complete without its legendary shared lunch and
we thank all those present for all of the sweet and savoury food items brought
along. Andrew Mcleod said, 'David, I have never been so well fed when invited
to do a talk'.
Finally, I wish to thank everyone
who came along for their friendship on the day, our guest speakers for keeping
us well entertained, all those who brought along fish for the show and food for
our feast and to our sponsors for providing a wonderful array of show and raffle
prizes. Please support our 'Fun Day' sponsors:- Aquarium Munster Aquarium
Products Dr. Bassleer Aquarium Fish Foods Aqua One Aquarium Fish Foods Fishphilosophy Aquarium
Gazette CD Magazine
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