Source: ANGFA Vic News, Number 33, November 2001, pages 1–2. Authors: Glenn Briggs; Kwai Chang.  View original scan (PDF)

The 2001 ANGFA Convention was recently held from October 26 to 28, at the Haven Marina Inn in Glenelg, Adelaide.

As always, it was a wonderful weekend: a great opportunity to see a wide range of interesting presentations and catch up with ANGFA members from all over Australia.

Approximately 70 people attended from ACT, Victoria, NSW, Queensland, Italy and of course South Australia.

Activities started off with the AGM on Friday evening. Our national president and secretary were unable to attend due to various commitments, but their roles were capably filled by Vice-President Bruce Hansen and ex-secretary Doug Collom.

A new National secretary was elected, our very own Heidy Rubin (congratulations Heidy), and Andrew Thornton replaces David Crass as the NSW liaison officer. Besides the annual regional reports, several ideas were put forward on how to operate a more efficient national committee. The new federal law concerning noxious species and future initiatives for ANGFA were also discussed.

The convention proper started on Saturday with a lovely slide pictorial of South Australian landscapes and species.

This was followed by Andy Wattam presenting a talk on a trip to Arnhemland. Neil Armstrong was to have given this talk, but due to ill health was unable to attend. Andy (who also went on the same trip to the NT) did a great job on Neil’s behalf.

Mike Hammer provided an introduction to South Australian fish species and habitats, focussing on Pygmy Perch and Carp Gudgeons. Of particular interest was the recognition of Pygmy Perch of eastern Victoria and Tasmania as a new species.

Also of great interest (but rather confusing) was the details of a unisexual species of Hypseleotris which cross breeds with other Hypseleotris species as a means of continuing its existence.

Ray Leggett gave an informative insight into the wide range of fish habitats encountered in his travels to Cape York and the Kimberleys.

Heiko Bleher was in vintage form, providing an absorbing account of his trip to Sorong (Irian Jaya) and Misool Island in search of the “true” Melanotaenia misoolensis. Highlights included some amazing Macrobrachium prawns and the wonderful rainbows he found including the newly named Glossolepis dorrityi.

Darren Niejakle provided one of the highlights with a great talk on the Spring Wetlands of the Great Artesian Basin in South Australia. Darren had visited 900 separate springs, which range from a damp patch of several square meters up to the massive Dalhousie Springs which contains 5 endemic fish species.

Bryan Pierce was another highlight, mixing colourful stories with hard facts relating to fish conservation, species extinction (68% due to habitat alteration) and the problems of fishery management. Of special interest was his observations on how Mogurnda adspersa did not spawn in cloudy water as the breeders could not find each other! Also of interest was the plight of the Flinders Ranges Mogurnda, the only population in that mountain range is restricted to a single creek. Despite being in a national park, its habitat is also the site of a magnesite mining application currently under appeal!

Rodney Wubben explained the formation, aims and progress of the Specialist Rainbowfish Species Group. The group has managed to ensure the aquarium stocks of a number of species are no longer critically rare.

In summary, it was a wonderful weekend, well done to Graham, Robert, Andrew and the rest of the South Australian organising committee. I heard Heiko recently paraphrasing Ken Smales by saying “It was the best ANGFA Conference yet!”

A Second Point of View
by Kwai Chang

This was a great convention with a variety of quality guest speakers talking about a range of topics.

Steve Clark on “The ecological Aquarist.” Steve went on to talk about looking at the species that people have in their aquariums and then looking at the habitats the species live in. Sometimes there are some simple “triggers” that can stimulate a certain species to breed, and without looking at that particular habitat you may have difficulty breeding the fish.

Bruce Hansen on “Aussie Blue eyes.” Bruce had pre recorded his talk while still in sunny Queensland so all he had to do was change the slides at the appropriate time. I found this to be a great idea as like Bruce said you could then say everything that you want to without getting interrupted. He went into great details about the different species found in this great land of ours. I have to admit that it made me want to try my hand with a few more blue eyes.

Andrew Bock with the “South Australian Pictorial.” Andrew presented a great pictorial of habitats and animals of South Australia. It was a great 30 minutes and I feel a great idea that all states should follow. It gave an overall picture of the state and made me want to check out a few of those areas.

Steven McLeod on “Freshwater Aquatic Mammals.” Stephen works as the wildlife officer for Earths Sanctuaries. He gave us a show of what and how Earths Sanctuaries works. Great talk and showed us even how our native fish do not get the recognition that they deserve in the money stakes.

Mick Tyler presented “Amphibian interaction with fish.” Mick was probably my highlight, as he is a great speaker and is also quite funny. He has done a lot of research into amphibians and shed some light into some of his knowledge. There was a lot that I could write about his talk; however, I will give you just a quote, “Fish; those bastards eat my frogs, end of story.”

Heiko Bleher presented us with another great talk about some of the places that he has been to throughout the world. Absolutely amazing. Also, he presented the fish that he has discovered and named, the “millennium fish.”

The great Auction. There were over 250 lots up for auction. Here are some of the fish and prices to name just a few:

Oktedis. – $42.00
Werneri. – $38.00
Monticola. – $32.00
Rubros. – $8.00
Ramu. – $34.00
Furcatas. – $55.00
Connia – $75.00
Dave Wilson Goby – $10.00
Crazyfish – $20.00
Pandakas – $11.00

All up a great fun night to be had and a lot of bargains as well.