WAMAS Spring Meeting - Todd Gardner & Tony Vargas - April 14, 2013 (Sunday)

[Gatortailale]

WAMAS SPRING MEETING - Oakton High School, Vienna, VA - April 14, 2013 (Sunday)

 

The Spring Meeting of The Washington Area Marine Aquarist Society (WAMAS) will be on Sunday April 14, 2013 from 1:30-5:00 p.m. at Oakton High School, 2900 Sutton Road, Vienna, VA 22181 (immediately outside Washington, DC). Go in through Door 5.

 

Special Guests and Highlights:

 

- Speaker: Todd Gardner - "Frontiers in Marine Fish Culture"

- Speaker: Tony Vargas - "Successful Reef Aquariums"

 

Vendors on site:

- Artfully Acrylic & Incredible Corals

- Dr. Mac's Pacific East Aquaculture

- Exotic Reef Creations

- Jan's Natural Reef Foods

 

WAMAS Members selling/trading (table display)

- Captain Ron

- Copps

- DaveS

- Gantz Aquatics

 

Along with lots of frag swapping and a great raffle, this is sure to be a meeting NOT to miss!

 

For further information on the WAMAS Fall Meeting, visit our web site http://www.wamas.org/

 

Who: WAMAS (Washington D.C. Area Marine Aquarist Society)

When: April 14, 2013 (Sunday)

Time: 1:30 P.M. - 5:00 P.M. (EST)

Where: Oakton High School (Door 5)

2900 Sutton Road,

Vienna, VA 22181

 

Agenda

 

1:00 - 1:30 Sign-in / socialize

1:30 - 1:45 Club business

1:45 - 2:45 Todd Gardner - "Frontiers in Marine Fish Culture"

2:45 - 3:00 Break

3:00 - 4:00 Tony Vargas - "Successful Reef Aquariums"

4:15 Raffle!

 

Miscellaneous

- food & drinks provided

 

Todd Gardner

Talk: Frontiers in Marine Fish Culture - Todd will be discussing the challenges involved in the propagation of marine fishes, based on more than 20 years of breeding experience. From the basics to the most recent breakthroughs; from research and development, to commercial production, Todd will address how the direction of aquaculture technology is impacting our hobby, and most importantly, how the average aquarist can contribute to the advancement of aquaculture.

 

Bio: Todd Gardner grew up on Long Island where his aquarium-keeping habit, which started around age 6, was encouraged by his parents and an abundance of local marine life.

 

In 1988, Todd began attending East Stroudsburg University where he founded the ESU Marine Science Club. In 1991, while working as an intern at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Todd became acquainted with the techniques of algae and rotifer culture, two skills that would open up a whole new world to him. In 1993 he graduated from East Stroudsburg University with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and marine science. After graduation he spent a year working for Blue Earth Films, assisting in the production of a National Geographic Explorer feature film about coastal marine life. His job was to collect and maintain as many interesting creatures as possible for filming in aquaria. It was in those tanks that Todd experienced his first successes in the spawning and rearing of marine fishes. He found fish culture to be so addictive, and such a worthy cause, that he felt he had little choice but to devote his life to it.

 

Todd spent the next 3 years working for Bill Addison at C-quest, the world's largest marine ornamental fish hatchery, where he worked on developing technology for the production of new marine species. His most important contribution was the development of a technique for commercial scale production of the Pseudochromids (dottybacks), allowing for the first widespread availability of several species including Pseudochromis fridmani, P. aldabrensis, P. flavivertex, and P. springeri.

 

In September 1998, Todd decided it was time to get more serious about aquaculture research and with some regret, left C-quest behind to pursue a Master of Science degree in biology at New York's Hofstra University where he completed a thesis on the early nutrition of the lined seahorse, Hippocampus erectus.

 

Todd currently lives in Calverton, NY with his wife, Ashleigh and son, Finn. He works at The Long Island Aquarium, a small but highly regarded public aquarium on the east end of Long Island where he cares for a number of exhibit tanks, leads collecting excursions, and continues his aquaculture research behind the scenes. To date, he has raised more than 50 species of marine fish. In his spare time, Todd dives, photographs marine life, writes about marine life, teaches college biology courses, competes in triathlons, and plays music.

 

 

 

 

 

Tony Vargas

Bio

 

Tony Vargas started his aquatic adventures at the age of seven, with Guppies in a pickle jar. Shortly thereafter, he was breeding a large host of freshwater tropical’s. In the early eighties he took a giant leap forward and assembled his very first salt water aquarium (fish only). Moving on to more challenging waters, in the mid 1980′s, he took another leap forward and experimented with marine invertebrates and corals. Moving forward in the late eighties a handful of aquarist including Tony were among the first in United States to successfully keep and maintain Acropora alive in captivity, long term. Tony began to share this experiences and knowledge with others through the many articles he wrote in a column titled “Feature Coral” for FAMA magazine. One of the Acropora articles in FAMA was acknowledge in Carden Wallace text book on Acropora titled “Staghorn Corals of the World.”

 

Today, Tony SCUBA dives around the world taking underwater photos and observing many of these creatures in their natural environment. With his writings he has effectively communicated his experiences and observations. Tony has traveled the States and Europe giving lectures and consultations on corals, reef fish husbandry, and complete system design.

 

Recently, Tony has completed work on his forthcoming book titled “The Coral Reef Aquarium.” This book focuses on the basics of reef keeping, how to properly assemble a coral reef aquarium (five great examples), and the long term care of these critters in a captive environment. Forward by Sanjay Joshi and Preface by J. Charles Delbeek.

 

 

 

Directions:

- NOTE: HS is about 1/4 mile from Vienna Metro stop on Orange line

 

Here's a map from Mapquest[/b]

 

Map link

 

 

Special thanks to theses sponsors. Please support them & say thanks next time you shop with them. You can find their website address by visiting their forum or the sponsor page on the WAMAS website.

 

 

- Air, Water & Ice

- Aquaholics

- Aquatic Obsession

- Artfully Acrylic & Incredible Corals

- Avast Marine

- Blue Ribbon Koi

- Dr. Mac's Pacific East Aquaculture

- Exotic Reef Creations

- Fantastic Frags

- Fins & Feathers

- Jan's Natural Reef Foods

- Petland

- Premium Aquatics

- Reef eScape

- SaltwaterWorx

- www.FishNReef.com

- Quantum Reefs

- Rob's Aquarium Service

 

 

 

* Save your receipts from our sponsors and get raffle prize tickets

[Gatortailale]

Updated post to add second speaker. Will get is talk topic posted soon. Will also coordinate with Tony to see if we can get him to sell MACNA 2013 tickets at the meeting.

 

 

VENDORS & MEMBERS who want to set up a small display. Please let the Officer team know you plan to come (1) so we can plan & provide you a booth space; (2) so we can update this post to list Vendors & proide you advertising value.

[dbartco]

Bump

 

[Gatortailale]

- Added title of Tony Vargas's talk

- Updated vendors and members with sale/trade tanks on location

 

 

If you are vendor or member wanting to have a display, PLEASE let us know so we can plan for you.

- bring your own power cords