Pictures of the TBAS Annual Fish Auction 10.15.2011

[starsplitter7]

I just wanted to let people know that the TampaBay Aquarium Society is having our annual fish auction. This is well worth a visit by anyone who lives in Florida or is visiting. We have people coming from as far as Jacksonville, Miami and Ft. Myers -- about 2-5 hours distant.

In January we had over 400 bags of fish. There are door prizes, goodie bags and a raffle, as well as a silent auction. Last year there were some amazing products available through the silent auction including LED lights and incredible filters. In the regular auction I picked up a huge bottle of Levamisole for $5. There were rocket filters, which are great air driven filters. Also anyone living in Florida knows we have a darth of interesting fish and at this auction there were 3 species of shrimp, garras, dwarf synodontis catfish, rare livebearers and cichlids, fascinating catifsh, but just a few interesting loaches. Lots of clowns at auction that went for $2 or $1. There were interesting snails. And lots of regular fish at amazing prices. You can also sell your surplus stock of fish, snails and shrimp for a 70/30 split as long as you register in advance. 50/50 split if you do not register in advance. Let me know if you have any questions.

Info
http://tbas1.com/TBASpages/TBAS_Annual_ ... _2011.html

Flyer
http://tbas1.com/TBASpdf/TBAS_Auction%2 ... 11_oct.pdf

[starsplitter7]

If anyone in Florida is interested in attending, today is the last day to register if you want to auction fish for the rate of a 70/30 split.

[starsplitter7]

I spent the afternoon bagging up 200 bags of fish which were donations from our local fish farms to put into our auction. Pretty cool!

Now I need to catch and bag the fish I want to put in the auction.

[zenins]

How did the auction go ?

Any photos ?

[starsplitter7]

I completely forgot my camera (I was up at 6:30 AM fishing out shrimp and BN for auction), but I am sure that Mike will post pictures on our website, and I will link it here.

It was a lot of fun. There were over 1000 bags of fish. A little overwhelming. 12 tables packed with fish.

I got a fabulous Dragon Goby. I used to own them and now I own one again. Yea! He is in my 75 getting used to his new home. Normally I quarantine all my fish, but I know his owner and his tanks are immaculate. He has won almost every breeder award offered by the club.

I picked up 8 Pea Puffers. If you've never had these before, you have to try them once probably in a species only tank. They are freshwater, nosey and always want to know what you are doing. They are snail hunters. And it is fun to watch them. Really great little fish. Only grow to an inch. I have three at about 3/4 an inch and 5 are about 1/2 an inch. They are in quarantine, and I am thinking of creating a biotope for them.

Got some Siamese algae eaters, I hope (the ones that eat hair algae), a little group of Garras (cutest fish on the planet) and adorable Synodontis Petricola. Oh my goodness are these enchanting. Out of the group, the only fish I have never owned. I do have two montrous S. euruptus. All of them are in quaratine, and the SAEs, garras and my new B. histrionicas are schooling together. Adorable. The little Pets are all over a little piece of driftwood. They are the cutest catfish I ahve ever had. They are about 1 ". I have a friend with a duo of Pets, and they have grown from 1" to 3" in 9 months. I was very happy to find some unusual fish. I had to sit through about 600 bags of cichlids and livebearers to get them. We also had a great raffle and the silent auction table had canister filters and LED lights (2 tables worth), and all sorts of amazing things. I won a goodie bag with a club Tshirt, 2 packs of algae wafers!, a pack of Krill and ick meds. Very nice.

They had a clown for auction. I have never seen such a big clown in real life. At least 12" and about 4" tank Huge. Incredible. And then three bags of 6" clowns. Then there were a few yoyos, and that was it for the loaches. Lots of cool catfish, oddballs, shrimp, killies, some extremely rare livebearers, cichlids, Bettas (not just splendids -- about three other species I have never seen before).

Good day all in all. The auction went about 6 hours without a break. There was free food.

[starsplitter7]

Slide Show of the auction from set up through the auction.

http://tbas1.com/TBASimages/TBAS_Auctio ... index.html

[zenins]

Slide Show of the auction from set up through the auction.

Thanks for sharing.

I always like to see how other clubs set up their actions, and it looked like lots of people had a good time

[starsplitter7]

It was a lot of fun. A lot of work up front. And I only helped a little (10 hours or so). Lots of people put in many hours to bring this off.

I was up at 6:30 AM to catch fish and shrimp for auction and to feed, water and clean my cats, ferrets, and ducks!

I was at the auction at 8 AM to hang signs, and put fish on tables and to help set up and ran solid til it started at 11. I don't even know when it ended, but I think around 5 PM.

I was acclimating fish til 10 PM.

You need to plan a trip to Florida during out auction.

A lot of our members travel for conventions and attend auctions, adn we try to incorporate what we have seen work, and every year it gets better.

We are very lucky we are within a half hour radius of some of the biggest fish farms in the US including Seagrest (sp?). A lot of the farms donate fish.

[ClownLoachSharky]

Cool stuff. Wish they had clubs like that round where I live

[starsplitter7]

They are doing a collecting trip at the end of this month too. We have a weird environment. Native fish, established exotics, and then the fish farms flood too, so we get seasonal unusual fish washed into the local rivers.