Catfish Convension 2006

rhino · Post by **rhino** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 1:31 pm

Barbie,

Looks like Sunday will be the the only day I can make it.

From what the schedule says, Sunday doesnt look to promiseing. Do you think it would still be worth the trip? Any insight would be appreciated. Is anyone else planning on attending?

Post by **Barbie** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 8:43 pm

Sunday will be the all day auction. Many people that I know skip all the talks and only go to the auctions themselves. They are definitely worth attending! I used to drive 4.5 hours to go to the auctions in St. Louis when I lived in Kansas City, 3 or 4 times a year. Then again, I have fishues

. I would definitely try to make it if you can swing it. You won't regret it.

Julie and I were intending to head down tonight but it's starting to look like we won't get out of here til early tomorrow morning, which will still mean we don't actually miss anything, thank goodness!

Barbie

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 9:06 pm

If it's anything like the ACA show, there also tend to be people selling fish out of their hotel room.

rhino · Post by **rhino** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 10:54 pm

Good to hear. I'll be there. The lady who had her prize fish Stolen ( which happens to be the very fish the convention logo is from ) will be attending also. She gets me in trouble when it comes to buying plecos.

Have a safe trip all who are traveling there. See ya there!

rhino · Post by **rhino** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 12:23 am

Just got back from the convention. Thanks to Barbie I was able to bring home an L134 (once she finally woke up and opened the door)

. I have never seen so many fish being sold at the same time. The auction was awesome even though I didn’t manage to win the raffle for the 72-gallon bow front aquarium fully loaded with all you need including the stand. If anyone is ever to make it, it’s worth the trip. Thanks again to Barbie, it was a pleasure to meet you.

Post by **Barbie** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 7:10 am

LOL! Hey, you try staying up til 4:30 am with a room full of catfish freaks and see if you get out before 10! I wouldn't have missed any of the auction if it wasn't for all the people hovering around wanting to buy fish though

. Auctions take priority! Once I got there I stayed all day long! Had a blast!

It was definitely nice to meet you. Now you can tell people you've met me in person and survived even, hehe.

To everyone that had to miss this event, I can honestly say you've missed one of the greatest experiences I've ever had. The people and information was amazing and they had free beer! Nuff said!

Barbie

lora · Post by **lora** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 3:02 am

Were there any rumors at the convention about Zebra Pleco's? Were there any available at the auction, and how much were they going for?

Post by **Barbie** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 4:09 pm

Noone came and talked to me about rumors, no

.

There were none in the auction. Julie from Frybabies had a couple pairs of adults there that sold for $450 each. She has a few more pairs available I think. Other than that, I didn't even talk to anyone with fry available. The going price for fry seems to be $125, if you can go get them, and $150-200 if they must be shipped. That was just the consensus I got in asking around, mind you.

Barbie

AndrewB · Post by **AndrewB** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 4:37 pm

Thanks to everyone who came to the All-Aquarium Catfish Convention 2006! It was a great weekend of fun, friends and fish. There were, in fact, zebra plecos for sale at the convention but I'll let the seller decide to post with prices if he wants to.

I wanted to address something brought up on this forum about the '04 convention. There was, in fact, an L-134 stolen at this event and I am very disappointed that this happened. However, it was not stolen from the fish show room. The fish show was attended by staff through the whole convention and locked during off hours. No reports of stolen fish were made. In fact, there was a zebra pleco at the show as well as many, many other rare and valuable fishes. Do you think that a thief would take an L-134 instead of the other specimens available? Don't get me wrong, L-134 is a very nice fish but it's not particularly hard to find or expensive on the scale of unusual fishes available to the trade.

What actually happened to that fish is that the owner left a fish box at the auction. She then went back to her room, took a shower, had breakfast and well over an hour later returned to the auction to discover that her fish was missing. Again, I am disappointed that someone would have stolen this fish. However, the auction is open to anyone who wishes to attend and no aquarium society can stress enough that you must keep track of your own property at an open event! Had that box not been left unattended for such a long period of time, the fish would not have been stolen. Period.

The convention and auction staff did everything we could to find the missing fish, going so far as to interrupt the auction and other events to make announcements about it and searching through every box in the room that matched the description of the missing box. Unfortunately our efforts were to no avail. At the end of the day with the fish still missing, I personally guaranteed that I would find a replacement for the fish. After numerous offers with fish in hand, the owner of the stolen L-134 has not accepted it.

This account can be verified by anyone in attendance of the '04 convention's auction. I only take the time to explain this situation to avoid the impression that PVAS and the convention and auction staff were responsible for the loss of a fish. I hope that those in attendance of public, open events will understand that you must absolutely take responsibility for your possessions. Further, I hope that the misrepresentation of an incident like this does not deter anyone from attending an event hosted by PVAS or any of the other fine aquarium clubs around the country.

We had a great time at both the '04 and '06 events. Read the threads on Planet Catfish or look at the thread here to assure yourself that if you decide to attend one of our events you may expect to receive terrific hospitality, a well-run and informative event, and great fellowship with like-minded aquarium hobbyists.

Andrew Blumhagen,
Chairman, All-Aquarium Catfish Conventions 2004 & 2006

Post by **Barbie** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 5:19 pm

Thanks for clearing that up Andrew! I guess I needed to leave my room more often to search for them, rather than listen to the people telling us they couldn't find any

. Then again, I wouldn't have changed a single thing about my convention experience, hehe. You guys really should be proud. It was a wonderful weekend!

Barbie

rhino · Post by **rhino** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 6:34 pm

AndrewB wrote: Further, I hope that the misrepresentation of an incident like this does not deter anyone from attending an event hosted by PVAS or any of the other fine aquarium clubs around the country.

I hope that the misrepresentation you are talking about wasn’t referring to what I have said in this thread. As I said, talking to some as yourself who was actually there would be best. Sorry if I did sound as if it was the fault of the staff. I in no way meant that. I had a great time and was able to learn allot even though I only made it on Sunday. And I almost broke out the credit card for some of those zebra plecos. If it hadn’t been for Barbie distracting me with the L134's I would have gone home with some.

Thanks for the great show Andrew.

AndrewB · Post by **AndrewB** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 8:17 pm

Bobby,

The original misrepresentation was almost certainly from the person who had the fish stolen. That's why I wanted to correct the record.

Enough said. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself at the convention and hope that you'll come to more events hosted by PVAS.

Andrew

Jojoyojimbi · Post by **Jojoyojimbi** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 10:20 am

how about holding it somewhere in the midwest next time, ya know, closer to like the middle of the country so i can justify going and not having to travel so far?

Post by **Barbie** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 9:50 pm

The convention is held whereever there is a host club that wants to hold one. So far, PVAS has been the only club to attempt such a thing and did a wonderful job at it, I might add. If you can convince your local club to host one and put the work into making it a great event, it could happen.

I travelled twice as far and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was definitely well worth the effort.

Barbie