April 12, 2015

Editor: Alan R.De Angelo
Greetings and Salutations!

This issue of the AN has been delayed to allow some things to get caught up, like reworking the web site to do a JOOMLA update. If you know what that is, you’re better than I am with computers but Sean is working on it to get it handled.

BB has finally been produced and you should have it soon. Thank you to Daryl Hutchins for stepping up to the plate on this task.

March has still been cold for many of us and our hobby is still our main focus, so while the warm weather may eventually come, I hope, the time spent with the fish is welcome, too.

A lot of organizational things are still going on behind the scenes and the BOT and cadre are doing their best to finally get the ACA back to being a well-oiled machine. Remember, we all volunteer our time so be patient.

The BOT has been active over the past two months and regular ACA business goes on. Here are the results for the January and February 2015 propositions:

Voting Results:

(Prop 15-1) Passed, Daryl Hutchins Appointed Electronic BB Editor

(Prop 15-2) Passed, Reduce the number of BB’s from 6 to 4 per year.

(15-3) Passed, Allocating $4,000 to Rusty Wessel (Back Issues Chair) to reprint the early issues of BB

(15-4) Passed, Allocating $250 to the Electronic Editor for a dedicated hard drive for editing BB.

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State of the American Cichlid Association

March 2015
By Chuck Rambo ACA 2014 Chairman

Elections
Nominations are now closed for the 2015 Board of Trustees. We have six candidates.

New Awards Chairperson
Claudia Dickinson, former ACA BB Editor, has agreed to be our new Awards Chairperson. Her duties will include acquiring trophies, plaques and certificates to be awarded at the annual conventions and also mailed to members that cannot attend the conventions as well.

ACA Newsletter
Over the years the ACA may have lost touch with some of its members due to their email addresses changing. In the near future you may receive a snail mail version of the newsletter to catch those members we may have missed. The snail mail newsletter will be short lived and will be discontinued once we are certain that we are no missing anyone.

Buntbarsche Bulletin
Good news. Daryl Hutchens, our new electronic BB editor from Australia is very close to sending out our very first electronic BB. The BOT and I have seen the proto type and it is very exciting to see the ACA step up into the modern era. We are working on a few minor glitches but we are sure that you will be impressed with the new format. For those members that want and miss a printed version, the new BB should be available in a version that can be printed out on your home computer. BB will now only come out four times a year instead of six. When BB was a printed version we were limited by the cost of postage how big we could make BB. The new electronic BB’s will obviously not be limited to the weight restrictions so will have even more content than our printed BB’s.

BB Back Issues
Rusty Wessel, our back Issue’s Chairman, has been working hard trying to attain the early issues of Buntbarsche Bulletin so they can be reprinted. He has been successful and we are in the process of attaining and reprinting these impossible to find issues so they can be reprinted and made available for all ACA members to complete their collections.

Conservation
The BOT has approved allocating $3,000 per year for three years from the Paul V. Loiselle Conservation Fund to help finance an in situ Madagascar cichlid breeding project. This project should help maintain these critically endangered cichlids for future generations. These funds came from individual donations, ACA member contributions and corporation’s generosity. These donations are acquired through hard work by the Babes in the Cichlid Hobby. When Pam Chin, Carolyn Estes and Pam Marsh send out their notices for donations, please give generously because all of the funds go towards cichlid research and cichlid conservation and we whole heartedly thank them for their efforts.
Cichlid Room Companion
Slowly but surely Sean is getting members hooked up to the Cichlid Room Companion (CRC). Everyone has to be entered one member at a time but it is happening so your patience is appreciated.

Thanks to all of you, the ACA membership for your patience as the ACA BOT work hard to get things back on track for a better ACA.

Chuck Rambo
ACA Chair

Adventures in Cichlidom

If you remember last time, I told you that my friend Dan’s father built a plywood tank with a glass viewing pain that was the envy of all of us. His Oscars had plenty of room to roam and breed! Man o man! He had big beautiful breeding Oscars. So, what could I do? I told my Dad.

Dad. If you never got to meet my Dad, you missed out on someone truly special. He was the best. So, when he heard that Dan’ father built him a tank he set out to build one for me. And so starts the saga of the 130. (Pronounced hunnert ‘n thirty, of course.)

Being a foreman in a metal stamping firm, Dad new steel and stainless steel. With that in mind, he decided to make a big tank for his son, out of stainless. Now, stainless may not be the material of choice in tank building but it is what he knew and had available. He told me that it would be what was called a “government job” at the shop and not to worry about anything. (A government job was a special project that the foreman devouted time and resources to that no one ever questioned them about. The foreman were all there for many years.) We designed it with a dimension of 60’ X 23” X 22”. According to the Innes book, if you divide that by 231 you get a gallonage of 131.43 or 130 to be close enough. Now, stainless steel is flexible. The frame was fine with the corners, base and top frame being bent in a right angle was good, the glass front was thick tempered glass but the base and sides would bow out. To make up for this flex, Dad affixed steel plates as supports, top to bottom. One on each side and three in the back. The walls were firm. The base plate however was a different story. The bottom stainless sagged under the water pressure too. So, having safety plate glass at the shop, thick tempered glass with wire running through it, we cut and cemented six plates into the base of the tank. The only problem was that the water pressure cracked the glass. It held the bottom stable but who could work with cracked glass. The remedy? Another sheet of stainless on top of the cracked glass and Voila! A stable bottom. It was heavier but, it worked.

This was also back in the day of the black tarry cement that was used. We tried that and had a devil of a time getting a seal. Stainless, being smooth, didn’t really bond well but with enough gook, the water pressure filled the seams. Then, we learned about silicon aquarium cement, a new and very smelly product. It still didn’t bond well but if you roughened up the stainless and spread out about 1 ½ inches of it as a flange on every seam, it held. We were in business. Where there was a will, there was a way. We had a great tank. Not the prettiest tank, mind you, but a tank that has served me for almost 50 years.

The tank has been resealed, caulked, patched inside and out, spray painted and had electrical tape placed on the edges instead of paint so it wouldn’t chip but it still holds water and is virtually indestructible. That tank has raised humongous angelfish, led me into the mbuna craze, bred Tropheus and Discus, convicts and Rainbow cichlids (nows there’s a story) and every other fish under the sun. I recently put it in storage with most of my other tanks as we prepare to sell the house and move but when we move, and the fishroom is being built, it will hold a place of prominence in the fishroom. Afterall, I built it with my Dad.

Until next time….