I saw this online and thought it was interesting
I'm thinking of going

[color=red]The Greater Seattle Aquarium Society (GSAS) is pleased to sponsor a free lecture on Lake Tanganyika sand-dwelling cichlids by Ad Konings, author and producer of over 30 books on Tanganyikan, Malawi, Central American, South American, and Lake Victorian cichlids.

The lecture will be tomorrow Tuesday May 11th, 2010 at 7:30PM at Seattle Pacific University; Otto Miller Hall; Room 109; West Nickerson Street and 3rd Avenue West

Doors will open around 7:10PM; the meeting will start at about 7:30PM

The lecture will be followed by a short auction

Open to the public, no entrance fee
Family friendly but no childcare provided
Free parking, accessible building, no furry or feathered pets
Go to GSAS.ORG for more information and directions

If I can find someone to teach my cub scouts for me I will go for sure. I hear these are really cool and full of info including a lot of up to date classifications as well as current scientists that are working on specific locations and fish.

That is awesome!!!! I wish I knew about it earlier.... bummer! I dont think I can make it.... BUt thank you so much for posting that.... I will do my best to get there.

My wife is going to cover for me for scouts so I can go. If there is anyone between tacoma and seattle that needs a ride or want s to carpool let me know?

Last time I went and checked out the GSAS auction, People were nice but Auction they had was a serious let down. Just a couple fish and a few hikari food selections and a ton of Brochures. Unless of course you went there for the GSAS T-shirts they had alot of those.. I guess I assumed it would have been more as they stated that it had a ton of sponsers from Local stores and Hikari, aga aquariums etc... I went, I saw, I left and will never go again...Just my opinon

I'm going for the lecture. Konings has done a lot of field work, I like to hear from people that have been to the wild collecting site and have collected and studied aqaurium fish in there natural habitat. Kingstature was there a lecture when you went? If so how was it. I don't want to waist my time but I would really like to go and see what is going on. Further more I can tell people that I heard about it from our forum and hopefully draw more numbers to swap livestock, equipment and experiance with.

I just got off the phone with kevin (1/2 owner of a place for pets) and he said "ad konings is a very good speaker, he spends a lot of time taking photos and putting together his lectures." He told me about 8 times that he was a very good speaker and made it sound like it was something not to miss. I'm stoked I'm counting down the hours. My offer still stands for anyone who needs a ride.

I'm really excite for this event, I really hope I can learn a thing or two since I'am fairly new to aquarium keeping
plus all the other lectures I've been to have, been for work and extremely boring lol

I just found out I cant make it! NOOOOOOOOO , man, i am seriously bummed out.... please let us know if tere is ever anoter event anytime soon.

Well I wasent disapointed at all. I enjoyed a lot. There was loads of specifics on a lot of the sand dwellers of lake taganika. the auction was good. There were a lot of plants, quit a few fish, and some random odd things.

I will give a short overview: I was one of the first ones there, as people started to arrive I realized I was a bit younger then everyone, but then came sidekicking and his girl to save the awkwardness. Everyone I talked to while I was on my own there was really nice. And they had questions about what I keep at home and stuff. Typical fish people just an older generation

The lecture was long and informative, there where hundreds of great photos, and a few video clips. Ad had a load of info and should he has been doing this for 30 years. Overall a great lecture.


The auction was good ther was a wide range of plants there. I wish I would have taken more money. They had two really nice large anubias that I wanted they went for 7 and 13 dollars. I got some blyxa japonica about 7 good sized pathes of it for 6 bucks and a giant val for a dollar. For fish there were like 25 lamprologus brevis (shell dweller) from tanganika, lik15 tropheus dobiosi (spelling), several uncommon live bearers, 2 syno. Multiplunctatus, 2 varients of angel fish, 2 big jack demseys, and a buch of other fish I can't think of. I got the two dempseys and 7 little live bearers that I need to do some research on now. The had a water bug they dident know what it was so they were auctioning it off to someone who wanted to grow it up, and some live food. The auction was done by a pretty funny guy in a skirt (a little strange) but pretty funny.

Overall I had a good time it was nice to be around other fish people and these people were really friendly. My only complaint is the pushing of the club shirts, they really try to sell those things I'm sure it was something to do with funding or whatever. I would attend another lecture and or auction. And thank you sidekicking for coming out. It was nice seeing and talking to you again.

Yeah the lecture was pretty long, but really informative I really enjoy the pics and the few movie clips
some of those fishes were amazing and I've never seen some of them I was quite happy that i ended up going

and yeah like fishnwv said most of the people there were alot older but very friendly. I wouldnt mind going back again I though the auction they had a lot of good deals...they had a lot of plants and several fish...I never carry cash with me so I wasn't able to get anything...but when the auction was over and everything was gone I realize I had a twenty dollar bill in my wallet the irony!!! right lol

yeah thank you fishnvw Im glad i saw you down there... I had to dragged my girl friend with me cause i didn't want to be by myself

Oh yeah don't forget to buy a shirt next time lol

That shirt thing was over the top right? It was truely bugging me that kept asking everyone. When I was paying for the stuff I bought they freakin asked me again. Hey you want me to add 20 dollars to your bill so you can get a shirt. Iwas like god give it a rest.

Just to clearify something the group was older but its not like the retirement home or anything. I would say most people were in there late 30's and older. There were some younger people there too, but overall the group had a lot of experiance in fish keepers. My 15 years is useaully a lot but not with this crowd.

I am one of those older guys,, well not super older though

No one said it was bad. As a matter of fact I said more experiance, and tat was sent as a compliment. I was only pointing out the age diffrence in the meeting and here. Average here about 25 and at the meeting probably 40. Just observation that's all.

no offense taken ,, I still feel 25 lol

Lucky, I feel 40 (dang manual labor).

I was at this meeting too. It was my first GSAS meeting. I really enjoyed the presentation and got Ad Konings to sign my Malawi Cichlids book that he authored. I also won a door prize (Ad's book on Tanganyika), so I got him to sign that as well.

I didn't want to be obnoxious with my camera, so I took a few photos without flash and unfortunately they didn't turn out too well, but here are a couple. Anyone from here in the pics?

It was a beautiful day.






Someone wearing that t-shirt.

In pic#3 on the left side the guy wearing that green jacket is Anthony(fishnvw) and I'm the one kinda next to him we were talking with each other

I was just out of frame in pic 3 behind sidekicking, looks like down the row from you.

I so wish I would have gone to this.