** FREE Lecture** Maya Cichlids - Rusty Wessel May 13 by GSAS

Our May speaker is internationally known Rusty Wessel from Louisville, Kentucky. His presentation is Fishes of the Maya! A photo and video presentation on the fishes that live in the area where the ancient Mayan civilization once existed. It covers Southern Mexico, Guatemala and Western Honduras.

Rusty specializes in breeding Central American fish, predominantly cichlids and livebearers, in his fishroom of over 90 tanks and 8000+ gallons. He has taken his hobby to a point where he has successfully collected fish from the Africa, Central America and South America. He has introduced many new species of fish to the aquarium hobby; if it lives in the water, chances are that Rusty has either caught it, been bit or stung by it. Theraps wesseli, a beautiful and elusive cichlid discovered during one of his expeditions, was later named after Rusty by Dr. Robert Rush Miller, emeritus professor of the University of Michigan.

Rusty is a prolific author and photographer; his writings or photographs have appeared in a wide distribution of specialized publications. He has been heavily involved with the American Cichlid Association, including being awarded the ACA Fellowship, its greatest honor. On the local level, he is currently treasurer for the Louisville Tropical Fish Fanciers. Rusty has lectured and judged numerous fish shows throughout the United States, including the annual "Florida Tropical Fish Farmers" show and several ACA conventions.

The presentation will be Tuesday, May 13th, 2014 at 7:30PM at Seattle Pacific University; Otto Miller Hall; Room 109; West Nickerson Street and 3rd Avenue West in Seattle.

Doors will open about 6:30 PM for a 'social hour'; the meeting will start at 7:30 PM.

After the meeting please join us for our monthly auction.

Guests are welcome; no entrance fee

Family friendly but no childcare provided
Free parking, accessible building
No furry or feathered pets
Go to http://www.gsas.org/ for more information and directions

Rusty will also giving a second "GSAS Members-Only" meeting. GSAS Members can get information on the event on our http://www.gsas.org/ webpage.

Key words: Tropical Fish Tank Fishtank Tanks Aquarium Aquariums CO2 Aquatic Plants Cichlids

So excited for this one!!!

I just might have to make room for this

Wow, that one would be cool.

Madness wrote:I just might have to make room for this

Indeed, out of most of the forum, I thought of you the most when I saw this one coming up. Central royalty to be sure.

Madness wrote:I just might have to make room for this

I was gonna say. If this cant get the south enders up, nothing can

Aquarium Co-Op wrote:

Madness wrote:I just might have to make room for this

I was gonna say. If this cant get the south enders up, nothing can

You know it.   

I am I just missing the members only meeting link on the site because it's late?   

Because I really don't like the other possibility besides "it's not there yet"   

Hi dwarfpike,

Rusty has indicated that he is willing to do a second talk; we are currently working on finding a location to accommodate this extraordinary speaker.

I may have to come to the west side for this. 300 miles isn't that far.

bassetman wrote:I may have to come to the west side for this. 300 miles isn't that far.

  

Any one have a yard I can camp in for a night?

bassetman wrote:I may have to come to the west side for this. 300 miles isn't that far.

I did it once back in '00 or '01 from Spokane to catch Wayne Leibel ... was totally worth it.

Hi All,

I just heard from our GSAS Speaker Chairperson and was advised that the situation has changed and Rusty will only be doing only the one talk at our regular meeting on Tuesday evening......I hope everyone can make it.

-Roy

Hi All,

Our MAY SPEAKER for TUESDAY MAY 13th is RUSTY WESSEL-well known fish explorer and author.  He has an extensive fish room and he is bringing out some rare fish (including rare livebearers and cichlids) to auction after his talk on the 13th....see below for list**.

For GSAS Members there is "Dinner with the Speaker" is beforehand....430 pm at Rays Cafe...please RSVP to me if interested in going.  They have a special happy hour menu (yes salmon for under $10, but it changes...so I don't know the exact menu that week).

Here is a small bit of Rusty's bio...please see www.gsas.org for more details...

Our May speaker is Rusty Wessel. His presentation is Fishes of the Maya! A photo and video presentation on the fishes that live in the area where the ancient Mayan civilization once existed. It covers Southern Mexico, Guatemala and Western Honduras.

Rusty specializes in breeding Central American fish, predominantly cichlids and livebearers, in his fishroom of over 90 tanks and 8000+ gallons. He has taken his hobby to a point where he has successfully collected fish from the Africa, Central America and South America. He has introduced many new species of fish to the aquarium hobby; if it lives in the water, chances are that Rusty has either caught it, been bit or stung by it.

**
X. eiseni  Red Tail goodied  Tamazula MEX
Theraps wesseli   Rio Jutiapa, Honduras    
Red devil   LAGUNA Yaxha, Nic                  
Theraps lentiginosus Rio Chacamax,MeX    
C. salvini Rio Grijalva      Mex
Herichthys deppi Rio Bobos   Mex                        
Thor pasionis  Rio Grijalva      Mex          
X kalmanni   Catemaco   Mex
X helleri   Rio Otapa Mex

Lents??

*  @ not having a bigger tank *

Theraps wesseli - wow, to have a fish named after you!

No! I would LOVE to see Rusty's presentation. Trouble is, I'm going to be on vacation when he's here - I will be on the Yacutan Peninsula! The irony of this sucks!

Hi bad-daddio,

Too bad, but going to Yucatan Peninsula is great too....maybe you can do some exploring!  FYI, if Rusty permits it GSAS will video (now in HD / BluRay) his presentation and make it available to our GSAS members either as online steaming video from our GSAS Talk Archive and Videos page or as a DVD from our GSAS library.

Aquarium Co-Op wrote:

Madness wrote:I just might have to make room for this

I was gonna say. If this cant get the south enders up, nothing can

Plan on being there for sure.   

Hi All,

Just a reminder that Tuesday and the Rusty Wessel talk along with the auction of some of his species is just around the corner.....I hope you can make it!

-Roy

Hi All,

The Rusty Wessel talk is tomorrow evening; doors open about 6:30 the meeting starts at 7:30.  We have received word that it is possible that we may not be able to record this talk for later viewing by our members so if you want to hear one of the top cichlid breeders and explorers you will not want to miss this meeting.

I hope to see you all there!
-Roy

Roy,

Sadly, I could not make it to this talk and auction, what was the final verdict on recording it for future use by GSAS members? How did it go, would love to hear a review from those who could make it!

I was not able to make it either. There was talk about future speaking engagements.... any ideas when?

Rusty brought in some great fish. Thanks to the club for bringing him in.   

Hi All,

It was great seeing a lot of you at the meeting last night! In spite of the beautiful weather 75+ folks showed up and had a great time. I saw some of the fish that Rusty brought and they were amazing; the ones I especially liked were the Theraps coeruleus 'Rio Bascan, MX. that went for $50.00 and the Herichthys deppi 'Rio Bobos' that also went for $50.00.

I was talking with Rusty at dinner before the meeting and he said he does about 12 talks a year and will shortly be doing talks in Australia! He is a very popular speaker and it is unlikely we will be able to have him back in the near future; we had to 'book' him almost a year in advance for the talk last night! The good news is Rusty did allow us to video his talk last night and after editing it will be made available to our members so if you missed him last night you can still enjoy the talk and pictures he presented.

For those of you going to the ACA convention in Louisville, KY this year you can sign up for a tour of Rusty Wessel’s Fish House on Friday July 11th but I heard that 'slots' are filling up fast and over 200 have already signed up!