Catch up with events you may have missed, and find out what we thought about them.
Please let's have your views!

April 30th: Planned as a Video Evening, this will undoubtedly turn out to be something else as Dick and Janet are away in Colorado!
A Lucky Dip Slide evening seems to be favourite at the moment, but come along and see what transpires for yourself!

April 16th: TABLE SHOW Catfish, Rasboras, Danios, Loaches and AOS Egglayers.

We had a new member!

Well, for one evening only as Spike introduced us to his new 'Baby' -
a six week old Sulphur-crested Cockatoo that he had nurtured from
a worrying hatch 'birthday' to a fairly confident youngster we saw this evening.

Back on the fish front, Peter Quested made up for lost time (welcome back, Hanne!) by taking the majority of
Table Show Cards although Peter Anderson and Ron put up a good fight too.

Peter Anderson registered some Galaxy 'Rasboras' he had bred whilst Peter Quested's adult fish
(now officially re-classified and renamed Celestichthys margaritatus) showed all the colours that
the youngsters can aspire to.

                    Golden (Albino) Ancistrus                                  A Bristlenose to brag about

                    Harlequin Rasbora                                              Botia hymenophysa

A viewing of Gloucestershire A.S. Home Furnished Tanks showed just how diverse people's tastes can be in fishkeeping.
Seeing some Corydoras in with some Fancy Goldfish only goes to show just how differently the hobby is practised.

April 2nd: BRING 'n BUY.

It just shows how popular Hounslow's Bring 'n Buys are -
Wendy is clearly setting up a telephone bidding contact as the assorted
Lots are gathered in and previewed.

The space on the right hand side was reserved for Angie's contributions -
and she still needed an extra table!

Yes, the rubber chicken was back! However, in amongst the
generally aquatic-related items there were some excellent
bargains to be had ranging from home-bred fish
(Endlers Livebearers, feegradei Danios, Gouramies, Ancistrus) to
magnificent 'still in the boxes' Eheim external power filters.

Most of the evening's fun comes from seeing what folk think are sellable items and sometimes the event becomes an unsuspecting exercise
in re-cycling - for next year's Bring 'n Buy! However, the refreshments were terrific (almost too much for the smaller in numbers attending)
and it was good of Nigel to pop in. As usual, the evening concluded with the Raffle.

March 19th: TABLE SHOW: Barbs, Characins, Cichlids, Labyrinths and Killifish.

The main surprise of the evening was that
Peter Quested wasn't competing
(just shows who's the driving force in the
family doesn't it - with Hanne away,
he's obviously at a loose end!).

    

However a few fish made it to the Showbench where Peter Caira, duly adapted his judging skills in accordance with the new
'Four 20s and Two 10s' Pointing System.

The not quite associated Slide Show provided by Peter Anderson and Dick featured views of two public aquariums,
one in Hanover, Germany and one in Napier, New Zealand.

March 5th: BREEDING BETTAS MY WAY A video featuring some of the fantastic 'new' strains of Betta being bred by Ray Brown.

The problems of recording talks are not always appreciated at the time of actual recording.
Hearing this video back was somewhat disappointing as the acoustics of the original location were
very 'boxy' which, coupled with Ray's Corby accent, often meant things were hard to pick up.
Fortunately, both Dick and Peter Q had been at the original talk and could fill in some of the
important details. Otherwise, there were some stunning fish to be seen.

We were delighted to welcome Eric and Mary Franklin as permanent members and wish them every happiness with us,
their new aquatic home now that SPASS has sadly ceased to function.

February 20th: NEW AQUATIC PRODUCTS Peter 'Open the Box!' Anderson brings us the latest from the commercial world.

February 6th: QUIZ NIGHT presented by Malcolm Goss

If it was a brain-teasing evening you were after, then this was it!
Malcolm not only had a wide mix of really aquatic pictures to test us with but also threw in several personalitiy photos from the past.
Needless to say, some of our older members did the best, with the newcomers often wondering what they'd missed!
Sadly, Ash Wednesday duties accounted for Peter Furze and Ken Marriott, whilst Pete Caira offered a 'Sick Note'
and Colin and Wendy were also unable to attend.

January 23rd: LUCKY DIP SLIDE NIGHT This is another occasion where you can (or not!) air your knowledge about fish, depending on whether you get lumbered with a familiar species (or not!)

New member Peter Joyes must have thought he'd stumbled into a foreign country with all the strange fish names being bandied about.
We hope he was not too overwhelmed by the very diverse fishes that were featured on the screen.
Here's a couple of maybe uncommon species, at least to our tanks.

       
          Labiobarbus festivus                                        Lamprologus calvus                                   Filamentosa Barb

January 9th: CLEARING THE CUPBOARD

It's not often we turn up at Club and find someone outside, waiting on the doorstep to join but this was
the happy situation which got our New Year off to just the best start we could wish for.

    Peter (yes, we seem to attract them, don't we?)
    had seen a write-up about us in the local Press
    and decided to give us a try even though the
    evening's entertainment was not what he had
    been led to believe by the article.

    As is the Hounslow practice, an existing member
    quickly engages the newcomer in conversationto guide him
    through the mystifying intricacies of a Fish Club meeting!






        

The contents of the cupboard were duly emptied out and divided into 'Keep This', 'Keep That' and 'What the hell do we want this for?' groups.
Many items came to light and the Club's coffers soon swelled with donations for all types of aquatic bric-a-brac!
Similarly, the Library box was sorted into 'Desirable' and 'Undesirable' piles and the Trophies were yet again reclassified!

  At the end of the evening
  the cupboard looked
  considerably tidier,

  three members were duly presented with their
  10 Year Membership badges   (something else
  we found in this annual inventory check)
  and the new Peter became a fully paid-up member.

  Let's hope he enjoys the Club even more when we
  get on to real fishkeeping business!

December 5th: CHRISTMAS PARTY

Once again we welcomed our friends from SPASS, Eric and Mary Franklin, Angie King and Dave Brooks, for our annual festive get together.
Sadly, Reigate & Redhill's usual representatives Syd and Joan Fewtrell have moved away and Nigel had another appointment.

Well, they would have missed a blinder of an evening -
one which will be remembered as 'The Peter Quested Evening.'

A run-down of the Awards reads:

             
         Breeder of the Year                                 Aquarist of the Year                          Bert & Marjorie Pratt Award
             Peter Quested                                           Peter Quested                                          Peter Quested

The bottle of Bubbly was an extra, to celebrate Peter's clean sweep in the Awards - a first in the Club's history.

plus, Peter also managed to win First Place
in the Fish Category in the photographic Competition!

Fortunately he didn't have it all his own way as
Dick managed to grab the Quiz prize

Several other members all gained 'prizes'
(of some kind or another) in the 'The Game' -
a legacy from Reigate and Redhill Christmas evenings
(thanks, Syd, we worked it out O.K.)

                     Food and drink flowed -
                     (How come Ron manages
                     to get two helpings?)
                    Janet says 'Thanks'
                     to all who contributed,
                                                                                                     the CD player needed a
                                                                                                     frequent kick to make it
                                                                                                     move on to the next track,

and the Raffle produced some excellent prizes.

All in all, a perfect end to the year.