Martin was sadly missed this time, but he assures me that he was going for a McDonalds this afternoon in order to get in the mood of the day! 
(Graeme and Mark know what I mean! 
).It was great to see everyone again and much time was spent talking about all things loachy. Poor Adam was feeling rather delicate as yesterday evening was his works Xmas do, so three cheers to him for actually making it!
Les was kind enough to bring some young Pseudogastromyzon cheni over with him - some for Graeme, and some for the shop. I must say I'm quite tempted by these little chaps, if only I could persuade a certain someone that there is room to squeeze another River Tank in!
Mark bought a good amount of his young tank-bred Ancistrus with him in exchange for credit towards some other fish. These were both the standard and albino types and looked in great shape.
After a time spent catching up with each others news and much drooling over certain species, we headed back to my house to see Marge & co and to catch Graeme his 3 young Sewellia lineolata from my fry tank. I didn't feed the clowns last night in the hope they would all come out to greet their guests, and after dropping in some of the pellet food Mark very kindly bought with him for us to try, most of them ventured out. Marge took a bit of persuasion, but eventually put in an appearance. She'll get rewarded with a good amount of her favourite prawns later.
This was the first time Adam had seen her, and although he was a little the worse for wear (!) I hope that he enjoyed being able to come and see her.It's Graeme's birthday on Sunday, so I had got him a suprise birthday cake. Not any old cake I may add, but a 'Loach Cake'!
It was a jam sandwich cake covered in icing, and onto the icing, they had printed (in edible ink) the picture of my choice, which in this case was a shoal of Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki:
(note it even says 'Loaches Online' on it!)
Graeme, I hope you liked the surprise and that you didn't eat all the remaining half a cake on the way home!
After we'd all made ourselves feel quite sick (the icing was rather thick), it was time to catch the baby Sewellia out of the fry tank and bag them up for Graeme to take back up North with him. After nurturing them for so long, I must admit that I felt quite sad seeing them go, but I know Graeme will look after them 'superbly'.
Here's a pic of me handing them over:
Then it was back to the shop to start catching fish out for Mark and Graeme. The meeting was not as long as last time because of the fact it gets dark so early now and it's not nice for those who live further away to have to drive all that way back in the dark.
Anyway it was lucky that I had Steve to help with catching and bagging up and oxygenating the fish, as between them Mark and Graeme bought quite a number of different species! I hope they don't get in too much trouble with their other halves on their return.
(the doghouse beckons....)I'll let them tell you all what fish they came home with, and of course we'll all expect pics once settled in.
Here are some group shots of us all at the end of the meeting. Note the trolley full of boxes of fish that Mark and Graeme were taking back with them!
Good job Steve took more than one pic, as Mark is already wishing he was back home and asleep in the first one
:
Left to right: Emma, Graeme, Les, Mark, Adam, Helen.
Another shot:
And one more for the road:
After Mark, Graeme, Les and Adam had left, Helen and I had a good natter for an hour or so (I don't know where the time went) before heading off. It all went too quickly once again and am already looking forward to the next meeting with this fantastic group of people.
Emma
Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.
