American Cichlid Association Convention

My friend, Deborah, and I traveled to the 2011 ACA convention held in Washington, DC a couple of weeks ago. This was a much anticipated trip for me, as a long time keeper of cichlids, and though I've wanted to attend this event for many years, it has never been this close to where I live.

Though the convention lasts for four days, we were interested only in attending on Saturday, so we left early that morning and made our way up I-95. There was traffic, as you'd expect, particularly in the Tyson's Corner area where there is a great deal of construction underway, but we made very good time and found our destination easily. We also found free underground parking just a few blocks from the hotel, which was a plus considering the nearly 100-degree weather; we knew the car would at least stay relatively cool while we were inside.

We registered and were given a very, very generous goodie bag, which contained our meeting credentials on a lanyard, a raffle ticket, a t-shirt from Drs. Foster & Smith, and quite a few samples of food and water treatments from various vendors, as well as periodicals, posters, coupons, stickers, etc. Not too shabby! The only downside to this was that the bag was heavy and we'd have to carry it around all day.

We then proceeded to browse the commercial tables where all of the familiar aquatic products were on display for sale at a reduced price. All the big names were there, and I must praise Aqueon for giving away full-size containers of food, water treatments and liquid plant food. They were very generous, though many of us were timid about taking two or three containers of food, as suggested, when the adjacent tables were selling their wares. Aqueon is really trying to make a name for themselves as they have expanded their product line, and they felt the patrons of the convention ought to come away with something to make the trip and the stay in DC a little more worthwhile. I agree, and these small gifts wound up being worth more to me than I realized at the time.

We wandered around, looking at the tanks set up in the hallways up for auction. They were pretty typical setups, though I think they were my favorite part of the convention, since you got to see some creative aquascaping (though some ho-hum setups were on display as well) and some interesting species mixed with other non-cichlid species, in some cases. I'd have really liked to have seen some more unusual cichlids, though, like Altum angels, for instance, and I was really expecting that, but did not see anything I had not seen before.

The main area was downstairs on the first floor, and there were also rooms set up on the 4th floor where if you rummaged in your goodie bag you'd find a ticket to receive a free t-shirt from the Capital Cichlid Association, who hosted this event. This giveaway was for a limited number of T-shirts, so at the specified time we all lined up to receive our shirts. I'm truly not sure why I wanted a T-shirt, since I don't wear that type of shirt, but I thought it might be an interesting momento, and perhaps Rick would wear it, or I could put it in one of my own local club's goodie bags at an upcoming meeting.

We finally get up to receive our shirt and see that they are standing you against a background and they have a photographer taking a picture of everyone who gets a shirt, and this was, apparently, required to receive the shirt. I'm not sure what this was about, other than some mention of the pictures going up on Facebook, but I thought it odd that you were not able to receive a shirt without getting the picture taken. I don't like getting my picture taken, so I asked, and was told that I HAD to if I wanted the shirt. I am a rebellious type but I went along anyway, and once I agreed two young men, 15 or 16 years of age, who were obviously assisting in the process of handing out T-shirts, asked if they could be in the picture with me. I readily agreed, and thanked them for the offer. I'm not sure why they did that, but they probably wanted to be in as many Facebook pics as they could.

Anyway, off we go, eagerly seeking out new gems, hoping to see more fish, and wanting to sit in on an interesting lecture. We happened upon the conference room where the lectures were being held, and we caught the beginning of what we thought would be an interesting lecture on pike cichlids, a variant that neither Deborah nor I knew much about. We were not impressed with the bawdy style of the speaker, whose manner would have gone over great in a hall full of college students, perhaps, but I'd have preferred more science and fewer "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" off-color humor. Our speaker is a chemist and runs a pharmaceutical company and may indeed have biology credentials, but we we left early, lol. We are SUCH snobs!

Let me interject at this point that a mitigating factor to our so-so reaction to everything was that the hotel's air conditioning system was not functioning properly, and, as mentioned, the temps were approaching 100 degrees F outside. Air was moving, but it was not cool, so we were a bit crankier and harder to please that day than we might have been.

We then made our way to the auction room, which had many tanks set up, stacked from the floor to head height, all with number designations and in many cases a species ID for the fish within. There were no lights on the fish so you had to really know what you were looking for in order to make a bid. This again reminded us of our own club auctions, where people bring in fish in bags and float them, and if you don't know the person to ask you might not know what fish you were bidding on.

I honestly can't say what I expected, and why I was disappointed. I guess I expected Heiko Bleher to be there with a beautiful river biotope containing Altum angels, rummynose and cardinal tetras, leaf litter and floating plants placed strategically to mimic his personal recollection of the cichlid's native home. Maybe I expected displays of fish with descriptions, like a public aquarium. Why did I think the whole thing would be bigger and more interesting? I can't tell you - nobody ever told me, but I thought there'd be more fish for sale, rather than the tanks of discus, oscars, jack dempseys, jewels and assorted mbuna like you'd see at any decent fish store. Don't get me wrong - they did have some less common species, but in the dim stacked tanks they were hard to see, as many of them hid behind the sponge filter or other structure, naturally, after their ordeal of being moved.

I think once you return time and again you begin to recognize the people who are putting the fish up for auction, and plan ahead as to what fish you want, so you can bid on them when you get there. I would have loved to have gotten some interesting Apistogramma species, which is something I'm in the market for, but there were only A. cacatuoides, and though I would not mind having that species I was hoping for something a little less ordinary (the specimen they did have was in marvelous shape, though!).

We wound up leaving earlier than originally planned, and made a side trip to Pristine Aquariums in Alexandria, since one of our favorite things to do is to visit hole-in-the-wall fish stores wherever we go. It left much to be desired, though when I checked the web before heading over there they got rave reviews. It was on the way home, so no biggie, but we'd have sure been pleased if they had some Apistos or catfish that caught our eye! It is a very nice, clean shop, and a large one, so maybe they were low on stock and having a bad week.

Next up will be the Catfish Convention hosted by the PVAS next year, which I hope to be didactic and fruitful, though now I'm jaded! I know very little about catfish in general, though, so I'm looking forward to it.