GPASI:
Greater Pittsburgh Aquarium Society, Inc.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that Dov Goldstein made the several hours trip from New Jersey. I first met Dov when I spoke at the Potomac Valley Aquarium Society three years ago, and he often pops up at East coast events with fish to sell and stories to tell.
After the banquet, speakers and several others congregated in Dov's room. A number of conversations fired up and kept us going late into the morning hours.
The show's banquet was held Saturday evening. Wayne Leibel gave an entertaining talk.
The club had hundreds of entries. The four of us judged Sunday morning, each assigned to categories that he knew fairly well. Obviously I handled the various groups of scatterers like characins and cyprinids. I also judged apistos and photography.
This Apistogramma borelli stood out in my eyes because of its excellent and constant deportment (almost always holding its fins erect, and not cowering).
Believe it or not, this was my first job as a judge. It is not an easy job. And it is even harder when explaining decisions to entrants.
The auction followed the judging, but a few of us talked local Eric Bodrock into taking us to his shop. We spent a couple of hours there until Wayne Liebel and I needed to leave for our evening flights.
Eric specializes in catfishes (particularly Corydoras) with additional collections of apistos, killis, and a smattering of others.
Erik Bodrock bagging fish in his shop.
Jeff Natterer drove over from Cleveland. He joined us for our tour of Eric's.