WOW!!!! NE MEETING was GREAT!!!!

[brewmaster15]

Hi all,
We'll we wrapped up the First Northeast Discus meeting and I have to say... WOW! It was great meeting everyone and talking to you face to face. I think it was a great afternoon, and I'm glad so many could be there. We socialized, ate, and Jeff Richards gave a good talk on hatcheries based on his experiences, and I fumbled my way thru a talk on artificial rearing of discus. We then gave away some Blackworm Keepers generously donated by Dan at Aquatic Foods, as well as 4 lbs blackworms.!!Thanks Dan!. ( ps... 2 people left them here...email me... and henry...email me about the worms.) Then we squeezed into my house and hatchery, for beer/discus/and salsa!

WE talked about the future plans, and it looks like we will rotate around the area, and plan on 2 meetings a year for now.Possibly one in conjunction with the ACA? I'm going to try to come up with a website for the group, and I'll keep everyone aware as best I can.

Next time around, I think we'll need more time.....maybe an hour more for a real auction but we can talk about that as time goes on . I left feeling like it was a really great thing. I think we can turn it into some very good.

Thanks Jeff Richards and thanks to all who attended...

Heres a few pics of the event....

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oh and about 10 minutes after everyone left the Angels I got from Jeff Richards (tonight!) spawned... So far they have layed about 100 + eggs on the Black cap of the ebo in the tank@!!! ;D

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You know Jeff this happened when I bought that snakeskin from you 2 years ago!


Take care,
al

[Carol_Roberts]

Boy, I bet that meeting was FUN!!!

Who all attended?

Carol :heart1:

[Tyler]

Yep, we had a GREAT time! It was cool getting to know everyone better....and meeting the real person behind the name :) . Turns out 30 or so of us showed up, so it was a pretty neat event. Jeff and Al gave some great talks on maintaining a hatchery and artificial rearing....very interesting! But back at Al's house was certainly the highlight of the night. All his fish are gorgeous, and it was really neat for me to see a fishroom/hatchery for the first time. Overall i had a wonderfull time, and i already can't wait for the next meeting!

Tyler

[darcy]

I'm glad you guys had a ggod time I'm JEL!!!!! :'( :'( :'(
Darcy

[FishHead]

It truly was an awesome meeting. It was nice to meet you all. Food was great, along with a nice atmosphere. Al & Jeff... kudos to your outstanding lectures, I've learned allot from it.

Tyler is right, the highlight of the event was back at Al's house checking out his set-up while chuggin on one of his home brews... delicious ;D He's got some beautiful fish.

Francisco, thank you very much for that large wild angelfish, I'm hoping to cross it with one of my blacks.

Al had a tank full of juvies discus when we all arrived. He announced they were for sale and then the line formed, I brought home 4 with me, thanks Al. I am hoping they will look like the parents, those were my favorite out of all the ones you had. :) Did we clean out that tank?

I can only imagine that your water has to be perfect for those angels to spawn so quick in a new environment, good luck raising their fry!

Thanks so much for the work you guys did, it was a great success. I am looking forward to the next event!

[jdr3366]

Excellent meeting, Al.

Special thanks to Al, Jeff, and everyone for sharing their insights and experiences. I look forward to our next meeting.

Al has spic and span tanks and beautiful discus fish. We adopted 4 young ones. I just put them in their new home. We will take photos tomorrow.

For now, my wife, Irene, posted our photos at the URL listed here.

http://www.medcomres.com/OurHOTrains/discus1.htm

All those who we promised pictures should go to this site (3 pages) to see them.

John R and Irene R

[Wolf]

Wow. That looks like a lot of fun. We need a meeting down here in Texas.

BTW my name is John R also. Everytime I see you post for a split second I think it's me. :cowboy:

[chuck]

You did a TERRFIC JOB BREW! I had a real good time :thumbsup:
you have some super fish, GREAT TAsting BEER, HOT salsa and a real tolerent wife to put up with all the people!! ;D
You couldn't have asked for a better bunch of people, Everyone was really nice and friendly .. Good to meet you all..
chuck

[Ryan]

Wow, who knew Wayne of Wayne's World was one of our residents here? LOL.. Funny how fish folk travel in the same circles, isn't it? I wish I could have gone.. the two main fish I keep are discus and angels. Oh well, maybe another time.

I'm glad everyone had a great time. I hear you all have younger siblings to my wild green x blue ss now. You guys will love them, they are a very healthy, vibrant cross!

Ryan

[jim_shedden]

Great pics .................but who are the people that attended? Looks like a great idea.

Jim

[chuck]

Ok I'll try to identify the people, But I don't remember everyone.. So since Most of the poeple there were named John, It would be a good guess that his name... ;D
picture #1 Irene R (john R's wife) and Fred
#2 (L_R) Fred, ??? (brought some SUper Koi Angels), John R
#3 BoxerDad (john Appuzzo) KoriDOC (dottie)
#4 Tylers Mom (laurie ??), Tyler
#5 John Wu and some family/friends
#6 ??? (The angel guy (OEG), ???
#7Irene r, Fred, ???, ???,Jeff richards
#8, back L-R RichieE, His wife Helene, me, Slicksta, (front) Fransico and daughter Maya
#9 Jeff Richards
#10, Me- hogging down, boxerDad, Tylers mom
#11, John R, ???, Fred,Gary Wu
Sorry about forgetting names....
maybe someone else can fill in the missing people.
anyway..
hTH
chuck

[slicksta]

Great Meeting!

I really had a good time, and it was nice getting to meet everyone and spend the day talkin' discus.
Everyone was great, and we really need to do this again.........

At my table it was me and a friend from work, Francisco and his wife and daughter who were super
nice and have a great sense of humor. Little Maya is great at peek-a-boo..... ;D

I want to thank Brew for organizing the event and especially for inviting all of us fish lunatics back to
his house.....his wife is a saint!!!Brew..... :thumbsup:
Special thanks to John, aka BoxerDad and Brew again for my new discus...I took two small guys home
from each of them and if they look half as good as the parents......I've got some show winners!!!
p.s. Brew, my friend wanted to know if the hour ride home was long enough QT..... :o

......see you all in May...........


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Just so you know.....the day wasn't all discus......
here is a shot of Al showing Jeff how to do "Hand -Jive"...... ;D

[fred 22]

Thanks AL and Jeff great time . I have been away from Discus for about a year. I have been breeding Koi Angels. But I picked up Marlboro Reds at the meeting from John Apozza thanks JOHN SO I guess I am back into it.


THANKS AGAIN

FRED OLIVER

[Ryan]

Just so you know.....the day wasn't all discus...... here is a shot of Al showing Jeff how to do "Hand -Jive"...... ;D

LOL.. That's great... I also like the pic of Tyler eating.. since everytime he comes into chat he is either talking about food or eating something. I'm so glad everyone had fun, and glad that Al helped contribute to converting some more of the good angel folks to the "dark side" of discus keeping. They can never turn back now ;D

Ryan

[RichieE]

Thank you AL!!!!!!!! I had a great time and my only regret was I didnt get to meet more of you. The day went soooo fast and the group at the table my wife Helene and I sat at got along real well. The talks were great and as Jeff Richards pointed out books and the internet are no substitution for talking face to face.

The idea of getting together 2 times a year is ideal IMO. Anything more and it might get stale and repetitive. Anything less wouldn't be constructive enough because it takes an hour or so just to get aquainted and reaquainted with everyone.

Al has some really nice Discus and it was really generous of him and wife to let 30 or so people truck through their house. If i didnt have such a long trip back home I might still be in his basement.(standing up because there isnt much horizontal room left ;D)

I got five (thanks for the extra one) Marl Red 1/4 size Discus from Boxerdad John. Hes doing something right with his pairs because hes got more fry in the pipeline.

If you were thinking of attending but didnt because your not THAT CRAZY about discus you should reconsider. My wife has almost no interest at all and she had a good time. In fact on the way home she STARTED the conversation about how interesting Als talk was on artifical hatching. I think she could do it with a little practice!

Lets do it again! Rich

[korbi_doc]

:bounce2: :bounce2: WWWaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!
Not enough time------here it is 9.am. & not recovered yet!! (was a long ride home, but I had a good co-pilot) From a great meeting, THANKS AL,!! Appreciate all the efforts you all made to make this a fun mtg. Had a great time, even educational with hatcheries & artificial rearing, hahahahaha, not even going near that one! Really enjoyed meeting everyone, wish we could have spent more time socializing, went by too fast!!!
Joihn, Irene, Slick, aL great pictures of us all having a wonderful time; look forward to doing it again!!!!!!!!
& thanks Al to you & your very patient wife for your great hospitality!! Had to have a taste of "the brew", & it tasted like beer, (sorry, no experience, can't judge) but it was very good!! It was a super visit, I think everyone had a fun interesting time. Dottie :D

[daninthesand]

Looks like it was a great meeting.

Sure wish I lived close enough to consider gettting to one of those.

Al, are you sure those angels or spawning..looks to me like he's just checking out what that stupid blue button is for!? lol

Daniel

[Chaos]

Thanks for a great time Al + wife, Jeff and everyone. The meeting started great, bumping into Al going into the restaurant. Nothing like an opportunity to meet face to face and to shake hands with "Brew" and all the other dedicated contributers to the Disucs hobby. One of my first objectives was to buy 5 Marboro Red juvies from BoxerDad (John A). My wife, I and two relatives who just got started with Discus and Angels attended. Picture #5 from Al from left to right (Khai, John C - aka Chaos, Anh - wife and Henry)

By the way, Henry said he'll donate the 4lbs of bloodworm back to Simply.

The restaurant was very charming. Sat on same table with Wayne from Wayne's World. A dedicated and succussful Angel Fish breader. It'll be great if he can get his Discus breeding stock going. The speech by Jeff and Al was very informative. One thing for sure the passion for Disucs keeping is strong and growing by the day. Imagine Al, up all night feeding his artificially hatched discus frys and cooking breakfast for them, scramble eggs cooked just right. ;D ;D The "force" is getting stronger by the day.

The day ended at Al's Discus dungeon ( ;D oops castle). Do you feed your culls to the snakes? What about that huge iguana (Lizard)? Al had some great fish. I bought four ssxred turq. I would of bought the rest if I had more room in my tanks.

Need to make this short, got to go now and see Henry's Angel and Discus tank.

Thanks again for a wonderful day.

[rsawest]

It looks like a great meeting and a great turn-out! ;D ;D

[BoxerDad]

Just wanted to pop in to say what a good time I had meeting everyone, and also thanks to Chuck for taking the ride up with me as we chatted about discus on the drive up and back which made the time fly. We also shared quite a few laughs over our different experiences with discus keeping.


I'd like to say thanks to Al for the hospitality in welcoming us to his place. Some great fish Al, if I had a free tank I would have grabbed a few from ya. Maybe at a later date we can work something out.



I would like to thank-you very much to everyone who purchased the Marlboro Red fry:

Ron Mench
John (Slicksta)
John Chao
Fred Oliver
RichieE




In speaking with a few of you, I probably should have brought some more extras up with me.

I have about 30 fry left if anyone else is within driving distance to Long Island.

Let me know if anyone is interested.


Again, thanks to all.

John Apuzza aka BoxerDad

looks like you guys had a blast,

I really admire Tyler's mom and Francisco.

All the experts in the world can write all the books they want, or develop all the newest fancy strains. but by getting the kids involved and supporting them, you are contributing more too this hobby than any book or new fish ever could.

and I commend you both.

[mench]

Yep a good time was had by all,good food ,good people,good beer,good fish,what more do ya need!!!!!
It was fun putting faces to all the names,but we HAVE to get more food into Tyler LOL,the poor guy is fading away to nothing......My traveling bud Gary and I had a good trip,we wnet from out house in Rochester to NYC,6 hrs, to visit D.Webber,who has some terrific fish and rays,then by the time we got out of the city traffis and to Dark Discus house,Meatloaf forever!!!! another 3 hrs,then another hr...North John!!!!.....to our hotel for a little rest...The next day with all the discus friends and again some rest then back home another 6 hrs... only about 1000 miles this time....who says fish people are nuts????
Another weekend gone and time to think about planning the next "Road Trip"
Thanks again to Al and Jeff who were the main forces behind getting the First Meeting going.

Mench

[Tyler]

Wow Ron, you were a busy guy!
Ryan, lol......... the salmon was really good! See ron, i eat!

Tyler

p.s. Jason, mom says thanks :) .

[Don_Lee]

Great to see everyone had a great time! I hope that we all can get together someday, discus people are the best! It was great to see Maya, she is really growing up Francisco. Please tell her I said hi, maybe she will remember me, we caught a few frogs together! I was busy though guys.....my tank is bare!

Don ;D

Sounds like everyone had a great time, I wish I could of been there. Maybe next time............Randy

MAN I MISSED OUT!
looked like everyone had a great time.
Maybe the next one I will be able to attend.
takecare,
cary Gld!

[gary1218]

Cary,

You WILL be able to attend the next meeting. One of the things we voted on at the meeting was to have the next meeting IN YOUR BASEMENT. We will get back to you with a date and time to expect us :) :D ;D

GARY

[Tyler]

Don!!!
No gravel? No PLANTS??? I have succeeded!! I'll admit it though don, you were a tough one to reel in :) :P .
Yeah GLD, we hope to see ya next time.........I've already met you once, and since i made it out alive the first time, I wouldn't mind seeing you again!

Tyler

[DarkDiscus]

It was definitely a good time! I really enjoyed meeting a lot of the people I post with here and it's a lot more fun being able to put a face with the name.

Getting to meet Ron and Gary the night before was a pleasure, and meeting Tyler, Dottie, John, John, John, John, John, John, John (heh!), Jeff and everyone else was a lot of fun. I'm pretty bad with names, so being able to call everyone John worked out well!

It was also fun seeing Al and Francisco again, of course. Don, you are right, Maia (Maya?) has put on 6 inches since this summer!

Both Al's talk on artificial breeding and Jeff's on fishrooms were interesting and informative. My family won a billion wormkeepers (the fix was NOT on) but I could only use 2 more, so we re-donated one. Of course the 2 I got are STILL stuck together... LOL!

Al, did anyone bid on the DiskusBriefs? Things got a little rushed there at the end!

And Al's fish, of course, were great, as always! I am really looking forward to getting some of the PBxWG cross. They are looking good and the parents are great!

Definitely a lot of fun and I'm already looking forward to the next meeting. Rochester anyone?

John

PS. Ron, Sandra has already got your meatloaf dinner planned and ready to go - and Gary's cheesecake is in the works as well!

[Francisco_Borrero]

Excellent pictures guys.
I too want to thank Al, Jeff and every single one who attended, and those who supported it even if not in person.
Yep, Maya is growing fast! She commutes everyday to Providence with me, to the school where I teach and she is in pre-school. She thinks she is a senior....and behaves like one. Helps with the worms and the hoses but does not do water changes yet. Don, she does remember you and your son, and spoke about wishing she could catch frogs again.

I am also looking forward to another great meeting like this, and agree that it would be nice to have more time. I guess it would be important to plan have a plan, and go by the plan. Since all plans are over-ambitious, even more time is needed.
All in all it was wonderful puting faces to names, even real names to screen names. Thank you gals and guys.
Cheers, Francisco.