Tanks, heaters, air valves, oh my! SFAS received another generous donation of fish room equipment. What perfect timing, since the subject is about building a fish room! Whether you are in need of spare equipment to breeding, there is potentially something for everyone. Did you see all those auction items take a full size pickup truck to transport them! So ooh and ah at the photos above and below, and get a preview of what will be up for auction June 1st!

Like umm… how is that possible? Currently showing at the Landmark Opera Plaza Cinemas (aka Opera Plaza Theatres) on Van Ness. For anybody into semi-sappy indie flicks, feel-good British comedies, or is a fan of motorcycle-riding light saber-wielding Ewan McGregor, or the sport of fly-fishing - maybe all of the above? Well is there a movie for you. 

Synopsis of the plot from the web: From the beloved director of ‘Chocolat’ and the Oscar-winning screenwriter of ‘Slumdog Millionaire comes the inspirational comedy ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’. A visionary sheik (Amr Waked) has a big dream — to bring salmon fishing to the desert. Willing to spare no expense, he instructs his representative (Emily Blunt) to turn his dream into reality, an extraordinary feat that will require the involvement of Britain’s leading fisheries expert (Ewan McGregor) who happens to think the project both absurd and unachievable. That is, until the Prime Minister’s overzealous press secretary (Kristin Scott Thomas) latches on for its potential as a “good will” story. Now, this unlikely team will put it all on the line and embark on an upstream journey of faith and fish to prove the impossible, possible.

Trailer is here. Pass the popcorn, please.

We were moving a lot of great merchandise and quality livestock last Friday and it was good to see a healthy turnout for our Spring mega event. One of the Board members brought in a few decades’ worth of vintage journals and magazines from the SFAS library and some members were generous with their time before the kick-off to wade in and sort through roughly 35 years’ worth of aquatic literature. Thanks for the helping hand, Maddie and Andrew!

A deep bow once again in the direction of our gracious sponsors for providing much of the product seen on our raffle table. Did you know that those exotic flowers on display were real and that they came from Steve Lee’s back yard?

And to the victors go the spoils - well done Glen and Linda. Wonder what their powerball numbers were for the $630 million SuperLotto we just had, lol

More stuff is trickling in by the day for our mega-auction and here’s a small sampling of what we plan to offer this coming Friday. See you there!

SFAS would like to thank again the Steinhart Aquarium for their gracious hospitality last weekend on putting together for our club such a wonderful event. All of our members were delighted by the refreshments laid out in the reception area and the wonderfully informative presentations given by their staff, led by Steinhart Director Bart Shepherd.

After taking in the powerpoint presentations, we were given a guided tour behind the scenes to see the fascinating infrastructure built to support the exotic livestock housed at the aquarium. Once again we were able to re-discover what a special place the Steinhart Aquarium is and all the members attending felt grateful for the chance to share in this experience.

and check this beauty out, what a cuttlefish!

Check out the online deal for this ‘Small Pod EcoSphere Closed Aquatic Ecosystem.’ These come in various sizes as small as a mason jar to holding one or two gallons and unsure of the size for this particular unit but they seem to be selling well. They are self-sustaining because they have all the components required for a living ecosystem in the container. Not often are these seen on groupon so check it out. The deal is still good for a few more days with already over 1,000 sold. 

If not already a member, a link to sign up for groupon is here <

For those pondering whether a nano-system like this could work for you, here’s a quick primer found online discussing its merits, link is here <

For anyone unemployed or looking to try a job more aquatically friendly, check out this recent job posting from the good folks at our Department of Fish & Game. And no mountain lion hunting experience needed!

link to the application is here <

A new exhibit is about to unfold at the California Academy of Sciences called “Animal Attraction” which will set up 18 special tanks and habitats to give the public a bird’s-eye view of strategies animals employ to do their thing in the interest of evolution. It will cover the gamut of specimens from reptiles to mammals and of course fish, for which they had this to say: “Sex can be a cooperative venture, as demonstrated by the splashing tetras of the Amazon. In cool, shallow water, male and female swim together body to body ready to spawn and then leap from the water simultaneously attaching themselves to an overhead leaf. There they produce and fertilize a half dozen eggs on the leaf’s underside. The female swims away while the male alone remains on duty, splashing the overhead eggs with his tail to keep them moist until they hatch and fall from the leaf, and swim away.”

The rest of the sfgate.com article is here.

And the Academy exhibit page is here.

Please stay tuned for more news regarding the Steinhart as we hash out the final details which will allow our club members to explore this exhibit along with other fascinating events at the Academy as part of the perks granted members with paid-up membership. 

Did you all know that there’s an ongoing aquatic exhibit at the Exploratorium? Doesn’t seem to be advertised much and it’s a shame since it’s a fine set of exhibits. Displayed for public viewing include tanks set up to show where the staff are raising sea urchins, an interactive station where one can explore the plankton of San Francisco bay, and an aquarium of goldfish to demonstrate artificially enhanced breeding for emphasizing specific characteristics. Find a chance to go before they move down to the more touristy part of town by the Embarcadero.

If Eisenhower were a vet instead of the President, he may have given a speech about this instead. Did you guys know about the enormity of the pet industry, our wet friends being included among the furry ones? And for those out of work, I think I may have found you new careers as either a canine massage therapist or a fake testicle implanter. Graphic courtesy frugaldad.com

With the 2011 crabbing season underway, one may wonder what to do with the excess surplus of fresh dungeness (cancer magister) caught, and there’s bound to be lots even after most are given away to friends and relatives and neighbors. We came up with this idea of turning one of our spare aquariums which was currently inactive in its primary role as a hospital treatment tank into a temporary crustacean holding pen for delayed consumption. Equipment needs are modest - a power head for water movement, a protein skimmer to yank out excess detritus and no heater needed of course. This particular specimen was caught about 4 miles out from the coast and measures to a tick over 9 inches across the back. Granted there’s not much room in there for the poor guy to move around and the hex design surely doesn’t help but he prolly already knows he’s on death row anyway - just look at his face, lol

So what do you need to hit the daily 10-crab catch limit? Not much really other than the requisite CA dept of fish and game sport fishing license if planning to get your haul off a boat versus from Pacifica pier for example (no need for the oceangoing enhancement validation for us NorCal guys) but from a cheapskate point of view the year’s almost over so perhaps it’s worth waiting it out till January to throw down the $44.85 for the annual license. Catching the critters will require baiting either a traditional crab net or one of these newer inventions seen below. Some find it more fun gaming the crabs using these because it combines elements of fishing into crabbing, where instead of setting the hook, a swift tug will set the snare around their legs and pincers. Crab cakes anyone? 

SFAS was fortunate to have our November speaker Gary Lange bring over from his hatchery a wide assortment of his rainbowfish eggs, from the not-so-common to some which were exotically rare, and all pure strains at that. We were also happy to have in attendance a couple of board members from the Sacramento Aquarium Society join us on Friday. SAS’ Rich Bierly got in his jabs at Gary early and often - thanks for livening up the joint guys!

Gary’s top-notch presentation included footage of his journey into the hinterlands of Papua New Guinea in addition to his recent findings, introducing 7 new species into the hobby never before discovered. It was evident from the slideshow’s travelogue portion that it took an Indiana Jones’ level of effort to even reach some of these locations let alone knowing where to look to obtain specimens. 

Our SFAS refreshments committee did their usual awesome job in being sherpas of snacks and drinks. Kristina also made a special batch of homemade meringues to top off the assortment of goodies, so next time if you’re appreciative of their efforts to provide munchies and libations, please give them a quick thanks, especially Kip Chen (aka the Tireless One)