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Hi everyone!

Looks like Spring has Sprung! The grass is turning green, tulips and daffodils are doing their thing and we are all busy with our gardens and ponds. It’s such a great time of year.

Big Thank you to Zenin Skomorowski for his program last month on Tetras. I think everyone enjoyed it. And you even had a quiz with a prize! Awesome.

Our program this month will be presented by Jezz. We will be learning about native fish, monster fish, exotic fish and others.

The Jar Show for May will feature Killifish/Betta splendens/AOV. At our June meeting we will be presenting the awards.

I’m not sure if you’ve seen or heard the news. The Hamilton and District Aquarium Society Bulletin is back. Starting this month we will email all paid members a copy of our bulletin. Thank you Mike Majer for taking on this huge project. What can you do to help? Mike will be looking for Breeders Award Program articles and pictures. Mike is volunteering to put the newsletter together but he really needs our help. No matter the size of your article, let’s all help Mike.

Another big Thank you to all our sponsors. NorthFin, Big Al’s Hamilton, Aqueon, Seacham, AquaFloraCanada.

Hope to see you at our meeting on Thursday May 9.

Carla

HDAS Steering Committee Report January 2, 2024

The two members that held the 1st VP and the 2nd VP positions have stepped down for the 2024 term.

Only one nomination was received for each of these ‘open’ positions. Nominations were closed at the end of the December General Meeting break.

Therefore, because both open positions had only one nomination each and both members meet the eligibility requirement, no election is required. The nominated members are acclaimed to these posts.

The HDAS Executive for 2024:

President:                 Carla MacDonald
1st Vice President:    Quinn Purser
2nd Vice President:   Bobby Haralambos
Treasurer:                   Margaret Dent
Recording Secretary: Patricia MacDougall
Past President:           Mike Majer

Our thanks must go out to retiring executive members, Tamera Peattie and James Holland.

To the 2024 HDAS Executive:
Thank you for doing your part to help our club and good luck for a successful, fun-filled year.

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to Spring? What? Let’s check the calendar. This is February! Wow!

Big thank you our speaker Frank Aguirre for his presentation last month on “Priapellas”. On February 8 our very own expert, Brian Glazier will presenting on Livebearers. Another must see program. The Jar Show will feature Characins/Plants/AOV. How many gift cards have you won! Free fish stuff….

Looking into March our program will be a Fish Craft Night. Catherine will be demonstrating how she makes caves, Quinn will be showing us how to make Breeding Mops and Emily will be showing us how to make some Live Foods. This should be awesome.

Our Spring Show and Auction is on Sat March 23 at the Waterdown Legion. 79 Hamilton St, Waterdown. Doors open at 8am. You can find the Show and Auction forms and rules on our website. We are looking for volunteers to help out at the auction and show. Please let me know if you are available -( auctions@hdas.ca ). Successsful auctions and shows are achieved by our volunteers and donations. We thank you for all your support.

Carla

Happy Holidays Everyone! 

Is everyone ready for Christmas? Have you got your shopping done? 

Thank you Haydn Pounder for your presentation last month on Guppies. What an amazing program and thank you for all the information.

Our Thursday, December 14 meeting is our Holiday Event and will feature our Neighbour to Neighbour Food Drive. It’s our way of helping others during the holiday season. We ask that you bring a few non perishable food items to help support. Noel will be back with a Fish related game for us all to enjoy. Do you have your Kahoot app downloaded. 

We will have a raffle table set up with items kindly donated by the membership. These do not need to be Fish related items. Even a dozen Christmas Cookies makes a great item for this table. We will have books from our library for sale. All money raised will be matched by the club. We will be providing pizza and wings for the break. If you’d like to bring something to share(desert for example) please do so. 

We will have the mini auction and monthly Jar Show – Swordtails/Minnows/any other variety.

Are you interested in joining our executive? Nominations are due by Thurs Dec 14 at the end of the break. Please contact Peter DeSousa if interested.

Our Spring Auction and Show will be on Saturday March 23, 2024 at the Waterdown Legion. Please consider helping us out for a few hours. Many hands makes less work for us all. 

Big Thank you to all our sponsors. We really appreciate your help:

Big Al’s Hamilton
Tropical Fish Room
Rainforest Pets
Northfin Fish Food
Finest Pets
Bobby G’s
Finatics

Merry Christmas!

Carla

Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s hard to believe we are into Fall when it was so warm last week. Mother Nature finally finally caught up to the season. Many of you I’m sure are tidying up ponds and moved some outdoor fish back inside.
Thank you Mike Majer for your presentation last month – the Hobby vs the Pandemic. I’m seeing that you’re starting another program. Little tidbits of info. Keep us posted.

Our program this month – Thurday October 12th will be about Peter DeSouza’s trip to Cameroon. I’m looking forward to it.

Danios, Labyrinth Fishes (non-Betta), and any other variety are this month’s Jar Show entries. Remember 1st prize is $30, 2nd is $20 and 3rd is $10 gift cards. So bring your entries.

Our Fall Auction is this weekend on Saturday October 14th at the Waterdown Legion, 79 Hamilton St.
We could use some help as events like this take many hands. We will have some volunteer prize draws so don’t miss out. Please come out and support the club. We have some vendors coming out this weekend too. Fins and Scales Hatchery, Cat’s Caves, Rainforest Pets and Big Al’s have offered to come out and wow you. If you’re interested in a table, please let me know.
You can contact Margaret if you’d like to pre-register for the auction or pick up your sheets at the meeting.
Hope to see you this week.

Carla

Hi Everyone,

I’d like to thank Jessica Bullock for her fascinating program “From the literature to the lab; adventures in cichlid research”. Our June speaker will be Randy Seufert. Randy’s program “The Little Catfish” looks at the 4 families of small catfish with hints of how to sex, breed, and raise them.
If you can’t attending our meeting in person please email us by 6pm on Thursday, June 8th at info@hdas.ca for a link to the zoom meeting.

Our Fall Auction will be on Saturday, October 14th at the Waterdown Legion. We will have room for 6 vendor’s tables. The cost will be $35 per table. Please let me know if you’re interested.

The Annual CAOAC Convention will be held with Pet Expo at the Toronto International Center, 6900 Airport Rd, Mississauga – Saturday, September 16 and Sunday, September 17.
* Hotel Info – we have blocked off some rooms at a discounted rate at the Monte Carlo Inn, 45 Coventry Rd, Brampton. This is 10 minutes to the Pet Expo. Tickets can be purchased thru the CAOAC.ca for a discounted price.

*CAOAC Banquet on Sat night at the hotel. Dinner is $55

Pet Expo Attractions:
– Meet Chris “The Mad Aquarist” Biggs
– 4th Canadian Biotope Contest 2023 – we would like to welcome 10 participants to our competition. Each participant will receive a 10 gallon tank with light and hanging filter. This package is yours to keep from the organizers of Pet Expo. If you’d like to participate please send an email to – caoac1@gmail.com – attention Frank Aguirre
– Aquascaping Competition
– Trans Canada Guppy Group – show and auction
– Betta Breeders Canada – show and auction
– CAOAC show and auction
– speakers to be announced

*Presidents Tank Challenge*
We’ve asked each CAOAC club to participate in an aquascaping challenge. There’s nothing better than a little competition. There’s also nothing better than watching a group of people fascinated by a beautiful tank. So let’s get all the clubs involved. I’m thinking 20 gallon tanks. Prizes include bragging rights of course, trophy and more. Please let me know if your interested caoac1@gmail.com

Hope to see you at the meeting on Thurs!

Carla

Happy Spring Everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well.

We are still not going to be having our in-person meetings or live auctions due to this crazy pandemic.

I would like to thank Shane Linder for a great presentation on collecting fish in Uganda. It’s interesting how people live in other countries and how they collect fish.

For the month of April, we are having our virtual home show/show and tell of members fishrooms and aquaria. We had this kind of meeting about a year ago and it was amazing to see how different hobbyists maintain their fishrooms or aquariums. Each member who wishes to share will have a time frame that will be given out to show off their stuff! The meeting will be held on Thursday April 8th at 7:30pm.

If you are a paid member, an email we be sent with your zoom invitation – this meeting is for members only.

If you wish to join H&DAS, you can pay online here: https://hdas.ca/membership. All memberships valid as of March 2020 will be kept on hold until we begin meeting in person again.

Band

Our group on the Band app is up and running; here you can buy and sell your fish or equipment. Click here to join our Band group:

https://band.us/n/aeae43Z2y7K9e

Sponsors

Stores are still open! But to limited capacity…… Again.

Our Amazing Sponsors The Tropical Fish Room and Big Al’s Hamilton are still open! They will have a limited capacity of customers to enter their stores. Please support them and follow their rules for entry to their establishments.

Pond Season

Pond Season is almost here! Thinking about putting a pond or few barrels out? Big Al’s Hamilton just got their pond supplies in. You know you don’t have to put only goldfish or koi in your barrels. You can put other species – for example, a few years ago I had an above ground preformed pond. I put about a dozen Red Velvet swords in it. I had a filter running and I had a waterfall on there, too. I had water hyacinths covering 80% of the surface. I actually never fed the fish until August; I let them eat the insect larvae that occurred naturally. Well I put in a dozen fish and by August I had about 100 with the most amazing colors.

You should try it!

CAOAC

The Canadian Association of Aquarium Club website is up and running. Visit www.caoac.ca.

Please stay safe!

Mike Majer
President

president@hdas.ca