IMPRESSIONS FROM THE 2001 NATIONAL
CONVENTION IN ADELAIDE.
By Dr Bruce Hanson (Day One)
For those of you who couldn’t make it here is my overview of the premier annual event on the native fish-keepers calendar. This year the convention was hosted in Adelaide by the South Australian Native Fish Association (SANFA) Inc. I would like to congratulate Graham Walker and his team, they made a great job of their first conference, and I hope to attend more down there in the future. The venue was "The Haven Inn" at beautiful beachside Glenelg, the facilities were comfortable, and service excellent. The conference room was cosy and comfortable, while two tanks of local freshwater fishes added considerable interest to the entrance. The weather was a little on the "cool" side for me, but I guess we can’t hold SANFA responsible for that.
The convention proper got under-way on Saturday morning after final registration, and the packages of "goodies" were handed out. Included amongst the samples and local tourism information were 2 superb posters on local freshwater fishes. The convention was opened by SANFA’s President, Robert Marshall with a thoughtful, and thought-provoking address.
A spectacular slide-show from Andrew Bock, featuring images of South Australia from urban to outback. This was to set the tone for the next 2 days of an excellent mix of conservation, surveying, and husbandry presentations, all of a very high standard. During each break, the raffle stewards did a brisk trade in tickets and high quality items found new owners.
The first presentation of the program was to be Neil Armstrong, and the full version of his Arafura Swamp expedition. Unfortunately health problems prevented "the Budgie" from being there, but his show went on in the person of Andy Wattam, who spoke to the slides and entertained us all with his impressions of morning activities at the Armstrong household. The slides took me back to that special place where few are privileged to go, and highlighted some of the beauty and unpredictability of such expeditions. One of the slides emphasised the delicate beauty of the Threadfin Rainbowfish from that locality.
Next came Steve Clark and "The Ecological Aquarist". Steve has a background in aquaculture, fish breeding in captivity, sustainable issues in freshwater ecology and ecological wastewater treatment. He used a combination of overheads and slides to illustrate the importance of food chains and the relationships of fish with other organisms in their environment. He stressed the value of research into each species and the value of experimentation by the aquarist to find the "trigger" for each species. His background involvement with Anabantids provided some of the examples, but certainly he sparked a lot of interest also with practical information such as the use of rhubarb extracts, for the treatment of "white spot".
After a short break for refreshments and a quick visit to the trade room, which was well-stocked but initially a little difficult to find we were treated to a "gem" of a presentation by Mike Hammer. Mike is a local researcher, conservationist and native aquarist, and is abundantly qualified and experienced in his field. His talk which concentrated on Pigmy Perches, and Carp Gudgeons opened our eyes to the fascinating genetics and species radiation of these interesting groups, and the current work being done on their systematics. He also gave us some appreciation of the habitats, and conservation challenges ahead.
Ray Leggett, another "Grand Old Man" of ANGFA then took us on a "Cooks Tour" of some of the rivers of Cape York and the Kimberley. This slideshow was a collation from several of Ray’s many excursions and survey trips over a couple of decades. As Ray said in his introduction, he was there to show us the habitats and the regions, and he would leave the pretty fish pictures to others. However he did manage to squeeze in a few "pretty bird pictures, "(the feathered kind)" to show us that fish aren’t his only interest.
After a lunch of tasty sandwiches, a minor change to the program introduced Dr Bruce Hanson and his talk on Australian Blue-eyes. This slide show was aimed at the aquarist rather than the conservationist, and included basic information on keeping and breeding this delightful group as well as illustrating the species, some of the major local variants as well some of their habitats. The excellent fish shots were by Gunther Schmida and Neil Armstrong.
Then came the "entrée" from Heiko Bleher. What can we say about Heiko that hasn’t been said before? We are fortunate that he regularly makes himself available to us for our conventions, and brings hundreds of his slides to show us his travels to exotic places in search of new fishes. Every time we are amazed at his persistence, endurance and single-mindedness as he overcomes a myriad of obstacles before returning with a few precious specimens that are then carefully pampered and multiplied to make them available to the aquarium world. This first presentation was of his trip to find the "true Melanotaenia misoolensis" and his exploration of both major river systems on the island. We shared his difficulties trying to arrange transport in Irian Jaya, and his fascination with and love of the natural environment.
After the break, Heiko brought out the next show - the "main course". His adventures collecting his "fish of the millenium", a new Glossolepis species that he feels will surpass the popularity of such "gems" as M. boesmani (the fish of the decade), and M. praecox (the fish of the century). This spectacular large rainbowfish , the "Zigzag Rainbowfish" combines the beauty of G. multisquamatus with a colour pattern reminiscent of M. rubrostriata but with more intense colour. This amazing fish was collected from Lake Kali Biru not too far from Sentani . This is apparently one of a series of floodplain lakes in the region. Heiko collected a few specimens, this time he included a female for the first time. Apparently he had only been able to collect males on his previous visit and had tried in vain to breed from specimens with short and long first dorsal fins. We also were treated to an array of beautiful habitats and other fishes and progress reports on the breeding successes so far.
That Saturday evening the Convention Dinner was held in the dining room of the Motel, and featured superb local cuisine, I enjoyed my Calamari entrée and Boarfish main. All too soon we were hurrying off to the Annual Convention Auction held in the conference room, and over 250 lots were expertly disposed of by Auctioneers Andy Wattam and Glenn Briggs and their helpers. Many rare and beautiful fishes, plants, live food cultures, and equipment went under the "hammer’’ in a surprisingly short time. From memory top price for fish went to a bag of four Pseudomugil conniae. Even I bought a couple of bags of fish to bring back. After a long and eventful day, as well as few nightcaps , sleep was ever so good.
Sunday
