May 17 - 2009 ITFS Fish Show

hi jim,its a pity u didnt make it,it was a good show,for some reason there was no judging in the ca sa cichlids,hope there is a show on annual basis,some very nice fish there.

great show and specially for me for experiencing it for the first time in Ireland. It's seems trvial but would have been great if forum members had hello I'm "forum nick" so we can easily approach and identify the familiar names and match the faces. I think if I hadn't attached my pictures here lampeye and other folks would not recognized me . I've met alot during the monthly meetings but this is where we meet most of the mods like drew aka serratus and the other shop managers like scubadim and Gavin. All got great stuff, and deals are better than instore. I was hoping that the a major prize was raffled every 30min starting 4pm as there are people who bought tickets but had to go earlier. The fishes were great, I loved the catfishes! If there more pictures taken by others hope they can post in photography section.

Thanks you for a well done and organized fishshow, I'm proud to have been part of it even for just a weekend. These sort of shows happen for 3-5 days in Asia but this ain't that bad! Certainly the happy faces of the kids showed it all. I missed a whole lot of bits and stuff and my camera broke and 'misfired' twice! there is nothing more endearing as being there appreciating the FISH! Weather sucked bigtime but the 'tropical' atmosphere inside more than compensated to the gloom and downpour outside.

thanks again for the sponsors for showing your stuff and helping newbies understand what they need in their hobbies. saw a lot of the members had their families there and I too brought the 'gang' and even friends who came home with lots of stuff from the show. My 2nd son who is celebrating his 13th birthday today had spent his afternoon in the show.

Kudos to the sponsors for keeping true to their pledge of great deals. I know we'll stage a better show yet again in a year or so - looks like we are getting the hobby accessible to more and more people - not just the Irish but to all races as well.

Congrats to everyone for a well staged Fish Show and happy fishkeeping to all.

Just home and have put all the fish to bed

Too too too tired to write much now, but it was a great weekend, great to see so many old and new faces, great fish and great bargains too.

I will write more in a few days whne I have recovered in the mean time a big TANK YOU to all that organised, judged, showed, turned up, helped and sponsored.

Particularly I have to mention Darren Dalton (Platy252) and Nessa Duffy (Goldie), without the their incredible efforts and time there would be no show.


Daragh

i got to pop in for about 20 mins while the awards were being givin out!

some crackin fish too

hopefully if there is a show next year i'll be able to spend more time at it!

Daragh took the words out of my mouth.
Fish back in right places,Off to the pit now.
Thanks to all who organised and ran the show,sterling effort.

thanks for that. I was knackered last night. I got home after 10 and had to put the fishies and the kids to bed. The fish were as happy to be home as I was. I swear my hoplo cat sighed with relief as I let him out of the bag. It was a brilliant weekend even though it was hard work but it paid off and it was another successful show.

As Daragh said thanks to everyone that helped and to the sponsors and the judges too. There is a core of people who do the trojan work involved in putting on this show and without them the show would not have gone on. The work is not done just over the weekend but for weeks before hand. so for anyone who put up a poster in a shop to carrying staging and getting no sleep thanks a million.

Our good record is still intact and no fish that were entered in the competition were lost. There was a slight mishap with a display tank but it is good to know that if your fish come to the show that they will go home with you too and maybe with a prize.

its great to see the hobby getting the exposure and to watch it becoming stronger and stronger and people meeting up and making friends. we are all fish nuts so its great to find someone who wont get bored or fall asleep when you start talking ph or species.

roll on the next one.

nessa

My fish were all delighed to be home too. The winner of the African Cichlid class battered everything in sight when he got out of the bag just in case they forgot who was boss;)

It was a great event and what fishkeeping is all about.

congrats to all on a great show and some stunning fish were on show,
can someone tell me the name of the fish tah one the african cichlid section cause i have got to get me one of them,

well done to everyone involved in the show. the overall standard of fish was even better than the previous show. my own personal favs was a nice young altum some huge clown loach and a breeders group of galaxy rasboras. the catfish standard was excellent with near 30 entries and african cichlids were also well represented with some top specimens. i was delighted to see the lfks members supporting the show and winning several classes with great fish. visitor numbers were very high and i enjoyed chatting with everyone.
it was great meeting so many people from the forum and from around the country. donald(killiekid), declan lally(the legend), valerie and family, shea, duzzy, russell and zoom and all the other culchies:laugh:
the tradestands were excellent with good displays and bargains and daragh owens put together a very interesting display of various shrimps and freshwater inverts.
we struggled to finish the judging on time and hopefully by the next show we will have some newly trained judges in place. (tom, jo and valerie were roped in to help with the judging paperwork)
for future shows i would like to see special tall tanks for displaying angels and discus. eg. 18x12x18 for discus and 12x8x18 for angels as even small specimens look better and are happier in taller tanks.

I was thinking if we would have grander displays and even fish seminars etc, may do good to start public viewings as early as possible in the day. That would be more time to mingle with friends, see fish throughout and for the sponsors to sell more stuff given more time.

Hey guys I'm not sure if it was said but on behalf of the LFKS I must congratulate you all on an absolute cracker of a show. The organisation and care taken with everyone's prize critters was top notch and the respect shown by all visitors towards them was a real joy. It was great to put faces to usernames and the friendliness of all involved made the whole day whizz past with a great atmosphere. Money was spent and sponsors tables were a bit lighter after I breezed by!

I wrote on our website that I was disgusted with myself for not bothering to bench my favourite fish and it will not happen again!!!

Again, congrats to all on a brilliant job!
See you next year......

An absolute cracker of a day, and the efforts that go in to running the whole weekend merit huge thanks for Nessa, Darren, John, Darragh, Ken, Peter and everyone who stepped in over the weekend to get it all set up and maintained and then dismantled again.

Award Documents
For those of you that won an award, some documents did not get signed by one of the judges and the secretary, if you wish your form to be authenticated please PM me for my address and I will organise the return of signed awards.


Andrew

Hi a few questions about the show;
Are the results gonna be posted?
Were the African cichlids judged separately from discus and SA/CA cichlids?
Were the SA/CA cichlids judged at all?
Thanks guys.

Heres the last shows winners.A lot of the same names,its a shame more didnt bench fish this year,a few expressed interest but were worried they were 'only a newbie',some of those attended the show and now regret not benching,we did try and tell you!Hopefully next time.

www.irishfishkeepers.com/cms/component/o...w/catid,39/id,14076/

quick question ... who owned the hoplo catfish that was benched on sunday .... he was a stunning fish .

i recently got my hands on a breeding pair of them which i thought were big until i saw him .

whoever it is ... congrats on such an amazing specimen

martin

Trimax wrote:

Hi a few questions about the show;
Are the results gonna be posted?
Were the African cichlids judged separately from discus and SA/CA cichlids?
Were the SA/CA cichlids judged at all?
Thanks guys.

1. Yes as soon as all the paperwork is collated a list of class winners will be posted.

2. Yes, there are 4 cichlid classes, can't recall them now, but one is Angels, one is south americans and the other two are ....

3. Yes, all fish entered were judged.

Thanks Daragh, looking forward to seeing the results

cichlid classes are
da; angels
db; dwarves. apistos, rams, kribs etc.
dc; african lakes. malawi, victoria etc.
dz; all other cichlids. discus, s. and c. american, african river, and any cichlid which is not
in the da, db and dc classes.

at the show commitees discretion, discus for example can be placed in a sub class such as dx. this would only be applied if the show sec. knew there were a lot of discus entries expected.
Derek

duzzy1 I own the hoplo catfish. Its nice to hear you say that you like him. I have a pair of them but have never bread them. I got 2 when they were really tiny and it took a while to see if they were a pair. He was a tired fish after the show and if a fish can sigh then he did when I put him back in to his tank. Hopefully he will be going on a little holiday soon to stud so we will see what comes out of that.

thanks for the nice comments

nessa

congrats on a gorgeous fish goldy ....... my female is lookin reather plump at the moment so here's hoping i ight have some news to report in the near future ..... bubble nest builders apparently which will be a new one on me ,

fingers crossed i guess

martin

David was six months old yesterday which reminded me of the show this year a great day out.

when will we hear about next year show so i can get my stock ready plus I want to see the wee man face when he see all those beautiful fish

there i ask is there any plans for " THE FIRST IRISH FISHKEEPERS CONVENTION"

Mickey

Here's to that Mickey. My youngest had just turned two at the last show and had a ball:laugh:

Let's hope we have another show this year. I for one am willing to roll my sleeves up again.

its great to see such enthusiasm. I havent got my head around christmas yet never mind the next show. I dont see why there wouldnt be a show next year but I suppose it will be discussed soon. But dont worry you will all be the first to know.

It will be nice to see david now he is not a bump anymore.

Ken was your little fella born at the time of the first show or was he a bump then too.

Nessa