So what did ya'll get in Montreal?

[Mettle]

I'm eager to hear about some nice pick-ups... And pics would be nice, of course!

[mseguin]

Best pickups for me were a pair of Dicrossus maculatus, and a pair of Laetacara curviceps. A couple bettas (bringing our grand total to 8 males and 7 females, thanks Mettle :-) ) Various odds and ends, a few crypts, a Penguin Mini, and a moss ball, just for fun.

[pegasus]

Matt you forgot your hairy coconuts.
I had a visit to a friend's new warehouse, a breakfast to our favorite cafe, more breeder connections and more fish.
Artw, I saw Jo again... going Africans.

There was 6-8 bags of C.Moori, 8-10 bags of Yellow lab.
We were two bidding for Breeding Frontosa... hilarious rivalry.
One of us came back with the Prize bag... the most expensive steal of the auction, but it's not to me to tell the story.
I'm with more Aulonocara, Copadichromis, Placidochromis, Electric blue and 7 breeding Dickfildi.

[mseguin]

I didn't get any hairy coconuts, but for future reference, there's good money in them. Take coconu shell halves, put a little bit of java moss on them, and voila, they were selling for like 7$ each. I did travel all the way to Montreal to buy a big bag of java moss from Steve Cass lol.

[Mettle]

Best pickups for me were a pair of Dicrossus maculatus, and a pair of Laetacara curviceps. A couple bettas (bringing our grand total to 8 males and 7 females, thanks Mettle :-) ) Various odds and ends, a few crypts, a Penguin Mini, and a moss ball, just for fun.

No problem, Matt. Hope the extra wasn't too unexpected. (Did it because the other 'yellow' seemed to have changed colours a bit while living in my dad's tank. :? )

Did you stay within your $50 budget.  :lol:    

[mseguin]

Nope, way too long of a day to stay within budget. But since I spent about 25$ on bettas and stuff for her breeding setup, I was able to justify it. :-) And luckily we had another couple contaienrs for bettas around (also luckily I bought a bowl at the auction for the betta I bought her).

[oenology]

Well, I suppose I came away with the big prize - 11 tropheus. However, this morning all were lying dead on the bottom of the tank - very sad, very tragic. I'm heart broken!!!!!! So maybe it was the biggest booby prize.

The dickfeildi seem to be fine. Picked up a new HOB filter plus a couple of smaller tanks and some odds and ends.

I'm still crying!

[maitre007]

The eleve\n dead tropheus reminds me of the 9 Cyprichromis leptosoma that I had bought last november only to see them get immediately eaten by my nimbochromis livingstonii and venustus.

[pegasus]

I did travel all the way to Montreal to buy a big bag of java moss from Steve Cass lol.

More than one of our members came back with James's tanks, heathers and filters.  

Matt can you tell them about all those SA, the live food and even the plants (more than the other years). I think Tim Arndt's bettas did much better than our auctions and he also had a competitor present. What about the OVAS presence?

The Africans were of a better quality & size,  than usual, also more breeding trios .

[mseguin]

Wow that really reall sucks oenology, sorry to hear that. How were they looknig when u put them in?

As for SA, I was a bit unimpressed (well maybe not unimoressed, but less impressed than I was hoping). There was some cool species that you rarely see, like A. eunotus, A. melgar, A. pucallpaensis, and A. atahualpa, but there weren't alot overall, but there weren't any of the nicer ones (IMO) like agassizi or panduro. I lucked out on the Dicrossus, got them really cheap, I think because most people didn't even know what they were, and they were pretty pale in the bag, but have coloured up nicely at home.
If you want killes however, it's the place to be. Tons of killies, I can remember at least 7 species, some of which I had never seen before, and one truly spectacular "Red Dwarf" sjoestedi. Also a good variety of rare livebearers, Limia, Phalloceros, Xenoteca, Alfaro.
Overall a great opportunity to expand your fishkeeping horizons.

[brad]

how was the plant selection?

[mseguin]

Quite good, lots of crypts and Echinos., a bunch of Java fern although the portions were really cheap, and lots of anubias.

[Sailfin]

Awesome auction!   Picked up a dozen Angels, etc.,  for a fraction of your LPS price.   Even the cracked aquariums were selling.   I wanted the Triple Reds, but I gave up after it got a little pricey.....which ended $2  more after I stopped bidding on them!  :roll:    All the fish and plants seem to have been bought at low prices.   I wanted one of the door prizes but didn't have luck on my side yesterday.

[artw]

Artw, I saw Jo again... going Africans.

But of course.  Tell me Michel/Jen, are there really ANY other types of fish?

[mseguin]

Watch urself Art.

[BigDaddy]

How much did the OVAS shirts sell for?

[mseguin]

They actually used them as door prizes.

[Dory]

My other half and I spent about $80.  We got lots of angels, auloconara baenschi, plants, lots of different rocks, and flake food.  The auction was great.  The auctioneers were fantastic.  They were fast and organized.  I've never seen anything like it.  I'm looking forward to next year's auction!

[Mettle]

I'm looking forward to next year's auction!

I plan to actually BE at that one, heh.

[mseguin]

Here's a pic of the D. maculatus pair, with the caudos interfering as well.