Midwest Marinne Conference

Well today was the first day of the 2010 Midwest Marine Conference put on by MASM (Marinelife Aquarium Society of Michigan). There are about 10 wet vendors at the show, notably Cherry Corals, Paul's Corals, Midwest Saltwater, and several others. Reef Nutrition is here, along with Rod's Food, Instant Ocean/Marineland, and several others. Speakers include Jake Adams, John Coppolino, Michael DeGruy, Sanjay Joshi, Kevin Kohen, and Richard Pyle.

The show had a pretty slow start today. I don't know that there were more than 20 or so people excluding staff, that showed up for today's event. It was a pretty dismal turnout, but the weather didn't help. It rained pretty heavily most of the morning, and I think that may have put a damper on things.

There is some unusual livestock at the show, nothing to absolutely die for but it is always neat to see what the livestock vendors have for sale. I still need to shoot some pics. I will have to do that tomorrow.

The event is being held at the Cranbrook Institute of Science. The Science Institute is basically a natural history museum. It is an amazing museum and includes shrunken heads, dinosaurs, an amazing geology/mineral collection, and even 2 really nice reef tanks! Elizabeth and I spent a couple of hours yesterday wandering the halls after we had our booth set up. It is a really cool place. Cranbrook itself is a private school that has classes from Pre-School through High School and the campus has a very Harry Potter feel to it.

Well anyhow, as promised before here are some pics from my recent trip to Houston. This first set of pics is from a shop called Fish Gallery. They have an amazingly beautiful shop, but sadly are going to have to move shortly. Here goes:

This is a shot looking at the saltwater side of their fishroom. In between the curved tank is the bagging station.

The massive filtration room taking care of all of the salt tanks.

One of their unique tiered coral display tanks.

Their huge 4 ft x 4 ft display reef.

Another pic looking across the salt side of the fishroom.

One of the many artistically aquascaped freshwater display tanks.

Another of the FW planted displays.

Their GIGANTIC south american display tank in their consultation room.

A VERY unique and eccentric FW display aquarium in their consultation room.

Finally, another look at the giant display tank and a cool circular tank that are part of the Fish Gallery consultation room.

And thats it for now! Ill try and snap some pics of the conference tomorrow, hopefully we will get a better turnout!

Cheers~!

Motorcity Mayhem!

Wow, so it has been a long time since I have posted a blog. A lot has been happening since my last post. We had ReefEd, a big ole conference in Denver put on by MASC. We had Matt Pedersen, world renown fish breeder, and Eric Borneman, world renown coral expert as speakers. I also was slated to give 2 presentations, one for new hobbyists, and another on Reef Pests. Unfortunately the other speakers' presentation went way over on time, and I had to cut my Pest presentation out of the mix. We had some local wet vendors that showed up, a kick-ass raffle, and some killer mexican food made by one of our own members that stole the whole show. It was pretty cool, however the member turn out was pretty dismal.

After ReefEd, i worked in Denver for a week. Saw some cool shops, didnt get any pics. Ill have to work on that the next time I am home.

Next I was in Houston. I HATE Houston. I dont know what it is about it. Maybe it is the fact that it is the 4th largest city in the US. Maybe it is the fact that the last time I was working in Houston I had a horribly painful ear infection. Who knows what it is. However, even in my dismay, there are a few awesome shops. Ill post pics of my 3 faves over the next couple days while I am in my hotel.

I am currently in Detroit, which I am also not a huge fan of, for the Midwest Marine Conference. The show set up was this evening and runs Saturday and Sunday. The conference is being held at the Cranbrook Institute of Science, which is a kick ass museum tucked inside a wooded area north of Detroit. Elizabeth from our home office and I are out here for the conference, and took a little tour of the museum tonight. It was awesome! They had a freaking shrunken head in their collection!

We visited one shop while we were here in Detroit. The shop is called Stingray Bay. Greg, the owner of the shop is an awesome guy with a cool shop. Greg has a mated pair of Freshwater stingrays that consistently give live birth to babies. I believe that the species he successfully breeds are Potamotrygon leopoldi. Here are a couple of pics of the parents and their babies:

The Female saying hi at the front of the tank

Another shot of the female. This girl was easily 2ft in diameter and probably 8" thick!

A bad pic of the babies. Sorry for the poor quality.

Female in the foreground, Male in the background. The female was super active, would cruise the tank and "blow" in the gravel hunting for food. The male just sat around and let the lady do whatever she wanted.

So thats it for now. Ill try and snap some pics of the conference tomorrow, and get them posted up along with some shots of the shops in Houston.

Cheers~!