President’s Messages

Hi everyone!

Well, first I need to thank everyone that came out to our Fall Auction on Sat Sept 28. It was a very busy day. Thank you to everyone that brought items to sell. Thank you to everyone who made purchases. Thank you to everyone who came out to help set up the hall, cleaned up the hall, ran those items, wrote chits, organized tables, helped in the kitchen and everything in between. We had 3 students help us all day collecting some well earned volunteer hours. Thank you to our Vendors-Bobby G’s Pro Aquarium, London, Fins and Scales Hatchery, Cat’s Caves and AquaFlora Canada. Thanks you Albert for getting all our paperwork ready. Big thank you to the Executives for all your help, Mike for finding and organizing donations from our many sponsors and Margaret – good luck sorting it all out now that it’s done. Thank you to our many sponsors – Big Al’s Hamilton, Finest Pets, Aquarium Direct, 520 Buce. Northfin, Aqueon , Bobby G’s and Ultra Fresh Fish Food. Many hands make light work.

Here are the dates of some other auctions coming up-

Sun Oct 6- London Auction – 1653 Richmond St, London

Sun Oct 27 – Oktoberfish- Auction and Show – Waterloo Rod & Gun Club, St Jacob’s

Sat Nov 9 – St Catherine’s Auction- 6557 Thorold Stone Rd, Niagara Falls

Thank you Eric Meade for your program on Cory’s in Sept. I heard it went really well. Our program on Thurs October 10 will be presented by our very own Mike Majer. He’s currently touring many of the clubs with his program “Aquatic Humor- You might be a Redneck!” We are going to make a night of it with Mike and humor him Redneck style. We will be serving Chili Dogs and soft drinks. Hope you can make it. Prizes, draws, mini auction as well as the Jar Show – plants/AOV.

We were hoping you would enjoy the challenge of a Fish Growing Contest this 24/25 season. We have found some young Common and Albino Plecos. We hope to sell these to you 3 for $5. In June you bring your largest Plecos back to see your Plecos is the largest. More details at our meeting.

Hope you see you all at the Redneck meeting!

Carla

Hi everyone!

I hope you all had a great summer. The weathers a bit cooler which makes it bit easier for us to get out to our gardens and ponds. Yes, sometimes the weeds get in the way. And September also means Auctions!

We’d like to thank our guest Aquarium Hobby YouTuber Gordon from Aquarium Talk TV and our surprise special surprise guest YouTuber Joey Mullen. What a great night? Lots of great information from them both.

Our Presenter this month will be Eric Meade on Mooseicorn Corydoras. Eric has been in the hobby for many years and is a member of the H&DAS club. As a reminder to anyone attending our meeting, we have moved to the upstairs hall.

Our Fall Auction will be on Sat Sept 28 at the Waterdown Legion. We are once again are looking for volunteers to help our club have a successful Auction. There will also be sign up list at the general meeting. Many hands make light work and we really need the help. We really appreciate everyone’s help. We also have some vendors helping to complete your aquatic needs. Cat’s Caves, Fins and Scales Hatchery, AquaFlora Canada and Bobby G’s Pro Aquarium, London.

The Jar Show continues this year with September featuring Cory’s and AOV. The prizes will once again be gift cards, 1st place $15, 2nd place $10, 3rd place $5.

We would like to thank all our sponsors for all their support – Northfin, Big Al’s Hamilton, Aqueon, Seacham, AquaFlora, Finatics, Bobby G’s.

Please remember that if you have any articles about your aquarium, fish, plants, (you get the idea) please be sure to send them to Mike – info@hdas.ca.

We hope to see you at the first meeting of the season – Thurs Sept 12. Remember we’ve moved upstairs.

Carla

Hi everyone

A very big Thank you to our club member Jezz Audrey for his awesome presentation on Monster Fish, Exotic Fish and Native Fish. I think he did a great job with his first presentation.

We hope you are all as excited to come to our next meeting on Thurs June 13. Aquarium Hobby YouTuber Gordon from Aquarium Talk TV will be our presenter. I’m looking forward to seeing his presentation.

As you probably know, H&DAS is a supporter of Neighbour to Neighbour. We are asking our membership to help them out by bringing some dry goods to our meeting. We will be selling raffle tickets for our extra special prize table. Once again, the club will match all money raised to help support N2N. We will also be enjoying Pizza during the break.

We will be presenting the Jar Show Awards and BAP certificates.

This is the last month for the sellers to take home 100% of your sales in our mini club auction. Last month there were some very good nice items. I suspect this will another great auction.

The H&DAS Fall Auction is on Sat Sept 28 at the Waterdown Legion, 79 Hamilton St. Please set this date in your calendar. Again, we are looking for volunteers to help us out. Many hands make light work. We will be having a few vendors tables. For more info, please check our website.

We would like to thank all our sponsors for all their support – Northfin, Big Al’s Hamilton, Aqueon, Seacham, AquaFlora, Finatics, Bobby G’s.

Many thank you’s to Mike M for starting up the H&DAS Bulletin again. Hope you all enjoy.

Hope you all have an amazing summer.

Carla

Happy New Year!

The 2023 H&DAS Executive would like to thank everyone who attended our December Christmas Event. Thank you Noel N for hosting our game. Congratulations to the winners.

Our Neighbour to Neighbour Food Drive was a great success, raising 110 lbs of groceries and $1894.50 in donations! Thank you for all the donations at the raffle table. This event just keeps on getting bigger and better!

Frank Aguirre will be our 1st presenter of 2024. His presentation is on “Priapellas” or commonly known as Olmecan Blue Eyes. Did you know that Frank is the President of CAOAC- the Canadian Association of Aquarium Clubs?

Our Spring Show and Auction is on Saturday, March 23rd at the Waterdown Legion. Start getting your beautiful “Show” fish ready to win some cash. We are looking for volunteers to help us out. Please remember that many hands make light work.

Mike M picked up the New H&DAS T-shirts this week. If you haven’t yet paid for your shirt, you can pay at the meeting ($20).

Please remember to bring your fish for the Jar Show. Rainbow/Dwarf Cichlids/AOV.

Hope to see you Thursday!

Carla

Hi everyone!
Thank you Peter for your “Killie” program last month. It was really informative. Haydn Pounder will be presenting a program on “Guppies” at the meeting on Thurs Nov 9. Haydn is a very experienced Guppy expert, a IKGH Judge and will be the Head Judge at the World Guppy Show that’s being held here in Canada.

Our Fall Auction was a success with many hobbyists attending from the area and beyond. Thank you to those that come out and helped to support. It takes many volunteers to help run these events. We could sure use a few more hands so please consider helping us out. Also a big thank you to Big Al’s for their kind Donation and all the vendors that supported the auction.

Our December 14 meeting is about Giving Back to our community. We chose to help Neighbour to Neighbour years ago, as there are many families that need help during the holiday season. We ask that everyone please bring a few non-perishable food items or make a cash donation. We will also have a raffle table with items (items kindly donated by the membership). These items do not need to be fish related. All money raised will be matched by the club to help support our friends at N2N. Noel will be back with a Fish related Game. We will share Pizza and Wings during our break. Please sign up if you will be attending.

Remember to bring your Jar Show entries – Shrimps/Barbs/any other variety.

Carla

Hi Everyone!

I hope you’re all having a great summer. It looks like we’ve all been cutting a lot of green grass with the rain we’ve had. The cooler mornings and evenings are telling us that Fall is very close. And here we go again, kids back to school and H&DAS starting back with its 23/24 season.

Our guest Speaker on Thursday September 14th will be Peter DeSouza giving us a full presentation on his travels in Cameroon. There will also be a Jar Show with Tetras and Corydoras as the Show Classes. Prizes are 1st – $30, 2nd – $20 and 3rd – $10 gift cards.

Pet Expo is September 16 and 17th at the Toronto International Center. I have some weekend passes available to anyone wanting to come out and volunteer for a few hours either day. I will need to know if you’d like a pass by September 1st. There will be many speakers including Chris Biggs, Joey Mullen, Jeff Cardwell, Jennifer Williams, Therese Neal and more. There is an Aquascape Contest, 4th Canadian Biotope Contest, Presidents Tank Challenge. Many aquatic vendors and CAOAC Tropical Fish Show, TransCanada Guppy Show and Auction, Betta Breeders Canada Show and Auction. If you’d like tickets go to the CAOAC website for discounted pricing.

The H&DAS Fall Auction will be on Saturday October 14th at the Waterdown Legion. We will also have an area for Vendors. The cost per table is $35. Please contact me if you’re interested.

Carla

Hi Everyone,

Looks like we might have Spring!

Mother’s Day is just around the corner and those of us with ponds and outdoor fish style accessories are excited to get them up and going. I’m one of those people.

I’d like to send out a big thank you to our guest speaker last month Oscar Virgilio for his program on Brackish Aquaria. Our very own Jessica Bullock will be presenting this month. “From the literature to the lab; adventures in cichlid research. An aquarist’s perspective of how fish are studied and used in science.” I’m sure Jessica will have us all asking lots of questions. I can’t wait!

We are going to be presenting our program this month on Zoom for anyone that can’t make it to our meeting. If you would like the information to attend on Zoom please send your request to info@hdas.ca

Save the date:

Canadian Pet Expo – Saturday September 16 and Sunday September 17 at the International Center

It’s 4 expos under 1 roof: Canadian Pet Expo, Canadian Reptile Breeders Expo, Canadian Aquatic Expo, and Plant Expo.

Saturday October 14, 2023 – Hamilton & District Aquarium Society Fall Auction

We hope to see you at the meeting on Thursday, the meeting starts at 7:30 sharp.

Carla

Hi Everyone!

How’s everyone doing after our amazing H&DAS auction and show. Wow! What a great turnout. It was great to see so many friends come out to support our club. Special thanks to everyone that came out to help and all our supporters for donations. We just can’t do this without you all. All dates for upcoming auctions are posted at CAOAC.ca/events

Another thank you Frank Aguirre for his presentation last month on Stingrays. I hope everyone enjoyed this program. Our presenter for Apr 13 is Oscar Virgilio. Oscar will be giving a talk on Brackish Aquaria.
Save the Date – CAOAC Full Convention at Pet Expo – Sat Sept 16 and Sun Sept 17.
Lots of information will be available very soon.
Hope to see you at the meeting this week. Please remember the meeting starts at 7:30.

Carla
H&DAS President
Auction Chairperson
CAOAC Rep

Happy February Everyone,

Well,I thought last month’s message was my last one as your President but I am still here for one more!
That’s right, one more!

I want to thank Larry Johnson for his first part of his talk on his recent trip Malawi. Larry will be continuing his talk this month on Thursday February 9th at 7:30pm.

In all my life being in Various Organization executive Committees I’ve been on , I have seen an election this close! We have a tie for President and 2nd Vice President.

I want to congratulate Tamera Peattie being elected 1st Vice. Tamera brings a lot of experience in the hobby and will be a key person on the executive.

So we have a re-election to see if this Tie will be broken.

We have the following Candidates tied up in there position running for and a vote will take place again at our next meeting on February 9th .

For President
Carla MacDonald
Quinn Purser

2nd Vice
Bobby
James Holland

During our past Executive Meeting we discussed and voted on this election.

In Order to Vote, You MUST be a paid member as of January 12th 20223.
There will be NO electronic Votes. You must be in person to Vote.
No proxy votes will be taken.
To all members who are eligible to Vote, They must confirm with our secretary that they are an up to date paid member..During this time you will get a ballot to vote.

Good Luck to all Candidates

Spring Show and Auction

Mark the date on your calender, March 25th 2023. Doors open at 8am. Follow this link to learn more!

Spring Show & Auction 

Just remember Volunteers are always needed. Please let us know!

Sponsors

Rainforest Pets and Reptiles
Big Als Hamilton
Tropical Fishroom
Finest Pets
Make sure you go visit and support them. Our Sponsors allow you to get a HDAS discount on your purchases with proof of a valid membership card.

Just a reminder the our Library is closing down and we have some books left over with a charitable donation you can own one. All money raised from the book sales will go to Neighbor-to-Neighbor .

For the Last Time I just want to thank everyone who supporting me while I was President. It means a lot to me. Please keep on Supporting this amazing club .Make it bigger and stronger.

Kindly Regards
Mike Majer
Future Past President