Aca Convention

[Pat Kelly]

I just completed my online registration for this years ACA convention in Chicago.
It was a great website registration.

Now the challenge to the rest of you.
How many are going this year.

Lets make them think we out number the home club. :lol:

Okay Tracey and I make 2. Thats plus who?

www.ACA2006.com

[phishphorphun]

Chicago is a great town. I've been there on business and had a blast visiting the museums and aquarium. Never been to a ACA yet. This combination of location and interest will probably make me sign up.

[longstocking]

Bill and I are going to try and make it....

But it's not 100%

[JustRon]

Donna and I registered

[Pat Kelly]

Okay, :)
Thats 4 registered so far.

[phishphorphun]

I am in the process of registering. Are there any discount codes I should know about?
Are you staying through the 22nd? Should I sign up for the Awards Banquet?

My first time. Newb jitters.

[phishphorphun]

Pat you can add another registered. I hop I didn't pay too much ;)

[Pat Kelly]

I don't know of any codes.
Bobby, Tracey and I go out on Tuesday. The convention starts on Thursday. We come home on Monday. Less hectic that way. We are driving. Yes Tray and I always sign up for the awards.
We also usually take the trips. But thats just us. We get to explore that way.

That makes 5 so far.

[phishphorphun]

Well I signed up for the awards banquet and the aquarium trip. I have seen the aquarium before and it is pretty nice. I don't know if I'll fly or drive. I made hotel reservations for the four days of the event. There are a lot of neat things to see in Chicago.

Man am I pooped. I just took out a toilet and two layers of tile in the basement bathroom. Put a new floor down and installed a new toilet. Entire job took about eight hours and went smooth for a change. But my back is killing me. :wacko: toytoy

[Pat Kelly]

Okay, that makes 5 signed up.

I know of at least 6 more who said they will
be going. Have you put in your reg. yet?

[KellyandDennisfish]

We live in Alexandria Va. How long is the drive?
We would love to go.

Kelly

[Pat Kelly]

If I had to guess, I would say 14.5 hours
You might be better off with the OCA in November. About 7 hours.
I will be at both, I think

[longstocking]

Bill and I have done the drive. We left around 4:30 am.... got into chicago right in time for rush hour traffic LOL.... got there about 4 pm. About a 12 hour drive....

[Pat Kelly]

Yeah, I want to stay away from the rush hour if possible. The site is north west of Chicago
so I need to take that into concideration. I am going two days in advance so I can recoupe. Leave out like 7 am on Tuesday and get there late Tuesday night. Sleep late on Wed and be ready on Thursday for the first trip.
Remember also, I am old. Have to stop more. :P

[phishphorphun]

Remember also, I am old. Have to stop more.


I used to be old like you a few years ago. But I grew out of it. :lol:

[Pat Kelly]

:angry: :wacko:

[Pat Kelly]

Okay, I changed my mind. Or I should say, it's been changed for me.
I was going to drive out to the ACA convention.
With the price of fuel going up like crazy and my truck
getting 16mpg highway, I have made changes. I looked at how much
my gas was going to cost if things really hit the $3.50 to $4.00 mark like the news said.
I bought air line tickets instead. There in 2 hours and right now it would be about
the same price one way or the other. So much for having plenty of room
to bring back the big tank I was going to win...

[mscichlid]

I'm going. The plan was to drive to Pittsburgh to hook up with a friend and then drive to Chicago. Now that I think about it, I'd rather fly. Sort of puts a damper on showing fish though.

[Pat Kelly]

Sure does. I had planned on taking some but I will still drive to the OCA.
( I say that now)

[daniel4832]

What about getting together and shipping the fish to the convention, or flying United? (which is running about $60 more then AA :angry: ) They allow fish to be part of your luggage allowence. Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Daniel

[mscichlid]

Change of plans..flying straight there. Not showing fish and not participating in the photo show this year either.

Got the plan tickets, registered for the convention and hotel, doing the Shedd Tour. Yeah!

(As much as this software cost, are these the only smilies available? Where's the juggy jiggler?!)

[daniel4832]

Francine,
I can understand you not taking fish, but why would you not enter photos :o
Thanks,
Daniel

[mscichlid]

Francine,
I can understand you not taking fish, but why would you not enter photos :o
Thanks,
Daniel
[/b]


I haven't taken anything new and probably won't attempt to. There'll be enough there, I'm sure. Besides, we have to let some of those other blokes win sometime! :D

[KellyandDennisfish]

Hi,
We are not going to to CCA. :angry: Maybe next year!

What is OCA? :rolleyes:

Thanks
Kelly

[Pat Kelly]

OCA is the Ohio Cichlid Association.
annual event. Cleveland

[KellyandDennisfish]

Cool we can go to that one!!

Kelly

[fishfarm]

If Pats old, I'm in trouble. LOL, Your only as old as you think you are Pat,
Why not show a few fish and take them in your carry on or check a fish box as luggage. I check boxes all the time with Delta and when I came up to speak to y'all I had a very large pair of discus, and about a dozen other fish in my backpack as carry on. Screeners never look up. I checked the fish box too.
I'll be there Wendesday night, will have some or all of my kids and maybe the wife, she hasn't decided yet. I'll show about 20 fish and bring a bunch for sale. Ken

[Pat Kelly]

Then your in trouble :P

If you have a CCA shirt. Please bring it.
I would like to see everyone wear it on the Saturday of the ACA
I would like people to know we are there. If they start walking around and seeing
10 - 15 shirts, they are going to start to wonder where they are.......

[Pat Kelly]

4 weeks from now it will be on.

[Pat Kelly]

Well, I am still trying to catch up on sleep after the convention.

It was the best one that I have been to so far. The show was huge and so was the vender room. I spent some money on a few things. I would guess the rental tank rooms had around 300 tanks in them.

I counted 13 CCA members in attendance at one point or another. Not bad.

The last two years I have been dissapointed in the side trips offered. This year I enjoyed both of them. The Shedd is great and Chicago is impressive.

The Babes auction Friday was big and a lot of fun. The Shedd aquarium donated hundreds of fish to that.

The auction on Sunday started at 9am with Kingfish doing dry goods. The fish auction started promptly at 10am and lasted until around 2am. I left at 1130 and there were hundreds of bags left. The rough est that I heard was 2000 bags of fish.

I picked up two types of fish in the auction and got them home with no problems.

Pictures will be around soon. I hope.

Pat

[DeeCee]

I had a great time as well. I FINALLY was able to make it to an ACA convention & meet alot of people that I've been talking with for years online. Whew!
It was great to see some fish that I've never seen before also, and somehow, a few ended up in the tanks here...... Now how did THAT happen??? :unsure:

:D DeeCee

[AndyNarwhal]

Here are some pictures of the ACA for everyone to enjoy.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l189/Nar...yLucasatACA.jpg (http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l189/Narwhal72/RayLucasatACA.jpg)

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l189/Nar...09-0992_IMG.jpg (http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l189/Narwhal72/109-0992_IMG.jpg)

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l189/Nar...09-0985_IMG.jpg (http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l189/Narwhal72/109-0985_IMG.jpg)

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l189/Nar...09-0979_IMG.jpg (http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l189/Narwhal72/109-0979_IMG.jpg)

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l189/Nar...10-1002_IMG.jpg (http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l189/Narwhal72/110-1002_IMG.jpg)

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l189/Nar...09-0982_IMG.jpg (http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l189/Narwhal72/109-0982_IMG.jpg)

Pat- I tried that Photobucket site lets see how it works!

Andy

[DeeCee]

Nice shots, Andy! I love that red pike - what an attention-grabber beast!

DeeCee

[AndyNarwhal]

It was a sharp fish. I wonder if Rapps still has that pair. I just might have to setup a tank and buy some off of him!

[Pat Kelly]

A few of my pictures from the convention.

Some fish
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/finman57/ACA%202006/aca2006m.jpg

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/finman57/ACA%202006/aca2006c.jpg

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/finman57/ACA%202006/2006acab.jpg

The auction lasted forever.
It started with a friend of all clubs
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/finman57/ACA%202006/aca2006k.jpg

In the middle of the auction there was no rest for the weary.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/finman57/ACA%202006/aca2006i.jpg

There were at least 2000 bags of fish. This was the first table out of like 10.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/finman57/ACA%202006/aca2006h.jpg

The side trips were the best that I had participated in.
The first was a boat trip around the city. It was
raining but was still good.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/finman57/ACA%202006/aca2006e.jpg

The second was to the Shedd.
We got some behind scene tours. Looking down from above the displays.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/finman57/ACA%202006/aca2006a.jpg

And you though you made a lot of baby brine. I use 2 liter bottles. They think big.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/finman57/ACA%202006/aca2006f.jpg

Found this flower growing out of a tank. I know, not a fish.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/finman57/ACA%202006/aca2006g.jpg

[Apexpredator]

Nice pics Pat......wish mine came out half as good.

[Pat Kelly]

The rental tank room was actually 2 rooms. There had to be 400 tanks in there.
This shot shows 1/2 of one room.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/finman57/ACA%202006/aca2006o.jpg

They gave away 6 or 7 tanks. This was the biggest.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/finman57/ACA%202006/aca2006n.jpg

Hans was there with his set up.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/finman57/ACA%202006/aca2006p.jpg

There were more vendors than I have seen in the past. Of course the main one was
Ray with his set up. You can see one of the Catfish convention posters in the back. There was another
one to the right that you can not see from this angle.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/finman57/ACA%202006/aca2006q.jpg

Oh, here is the other one.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/finman57/ACA%202006/aca2006r.jpg

And the Discus people gave out some awards after the ACA awards.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/finman57/ACA%202006/aca2006s.jpg

[Pat Kelly]

With all the pictures and everybody having a good time I did forget one thing. Daniel won class 16 Lamprologus with his Altolamprologus compressiceps. The picture is not good (sorry Daniel) It was a dark fish with a dark back ground and low lighting. excuses excuses. I know.
Congratulations Daniel!
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c251/finman57/ACA%202006/aca2006t.jpg

[DeeCee]

Thanks for the pictures Pat! Nice job!

Congrats to Daniel and the other winners!

DC

[Steve]

Wow. Thanks for posting those photos, Andy and Pat. I like the shot of Pat sitting there apparently stunned . . . . :) Andy (or anyone), what is that fish in photo: http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l189/Nar...09-0992_IMG.jpg (http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l189/Narwhal72/109-0992_IMG.jpg) ??

Pat, I notice that you didn't mention which types of fish had come home with you . . . .

Cheers,
Steve

[Pat Kelly]

About 14 hap ruby green.
and 10 small frontosa. Zambian blue?

Picked up in the auction.

[George]

One question Pat. Since I know your tanks are pretty much bursting at the seams, where are these going?


:lol: George

[Pat Kelly]

Right now the ruby green fry are in a 20/ They are small
The Fronts are only about an inch and are in a 29.
I plan on putting them in the 150 when I get it emptied out. At some point.

[George]

I love it - a 150 - when I get it emptied out, Seems a siphon would take care of it. Those are nice fish Pat. I hope they integrate well. You know I wish you luck.



George

[Pat Kelly]

CCA sponsored a class. These will take you to the pictures from the
winners of the class
http://www.gcca.net/gallery2/aca2006_winne...006_winners_033 (http://www.gcca.net/gallery2/aca2006_winners/aca2006_winners_033)
http://www.gcca.net/gallery2/aca2006_winne...006_winners_036 (http://www.gcca.net/gallery2/aca2006_winners/aca2006_winners_036)
http://www.gcca.net/gallery2/aca2006_winne...006_winners_035 (http://www.gcca.net/gallery2/aca2006_winners/aca2006_winners_035)
http://www.gcca.net/gallery2/aca2006_winne...006_winners_034 (http://www.gcca.net/gallery2/aca2006_winners/aca2006_winners_034)
And Daniels winner
http://www.gcca.net/gallery2/aca2006_winne...006_winners_070 (http://www.gcca.net/gallery2/aca2006_winners/aca2006_winners_070)

[AndyNarwhal]

The fish in the picture is a Pseudocrenilabrus nicholsi. One of the Egyption mouthbrooders. A very stunning male and an easy to breed fish. Pat's pictures are way better than mine. I will have to invest in a better camera and maybe some more patience!

Andy