History of the Cactus Killie Cook-Out/Southwest Area Killifish Event

[Allan]

The Arizona Rivulin Keepers have always had a special meeting each March.  This originally started out as a barbeque at a member's house and featured a speaker, raffle and trade table.  As it evolved and we drew in a larger audience, we used Arizona State University for the program portion and a member's house for the barbeque, raffle and trade table.  When we needed more space, activities were moved to the Ramada Inn, where we were no longer able to "cook out." This led to us to rename the event to better reflect what was happening.  

Below is a list of the year, location, and speaker(s) and topic(s):

1 - 1999 at Rhonda Wilson's:  Peter Unmack on "Desert Fishes"
 
2 - 2000 at Rhonda Wilson's:  Bill Gallagher on "Spawning Techniques"
 
3 - 2001 at Rhonda Wilson's:  Bill Gallagher on " A Tour of European Fish Rooms"
 
4 - 2002 at Rhonda Wilson's:  Peter Unmack on his "Trip to Australia" as part of his doctoral work.  This was the first time we used the term "Cactus Killie Cook-Out" to describe the event.
 
5 - 2003 at Bill Edwards:  Monty Lehmann on "Killifish of Cameroon"
 
6 - 2004 at Bill Edwards:  Peter Tirbak on "Aphyosemions from the Congo and Gabon"
 
7 - 2005 at ASU/Bill Edwards:  Dr. Astrid Kodric-Brown from the University of New Mexico on "The speciation of pupfishes in Laguna Chichancanab"
 
8 - 2006 at ASU/Fountain Hills:  Anthony Terceira on "Fish Photography" and "The Bivitattum Group", Al Morales on "Pupfishes", and John Boylan on Collecting in Panama"
 
9 - 2007 at Derek Tang's in Chandler:  Scott Davis on "Paraphyosemions", Dr. Sue Katz on Scriptaphyosemions", and Dr. Ron Harlan on "Reverse Osmosis Units"
 
10 - 2008 at Ramada Inn: Ken Normandin on "Rivulus" and "Native Fishes"and Dave Koran on "Aphanius" and "Pupfishes"
 
11 - 2009 at Ramada Inn:  Dr. Lynne Parenti Curator at the Smithsonian Institution on "The Reproductive Traits and the Classification of Atherinomorph Fishes", Mike Hellweg on "Live Foods"and "Miniature Oddballs, Keeping and Breeding Uncommon Miniature Fish" and Dr. Ron Harlan on "Trip of a Lifetime up the Rio Tigre."  
    NOTE: It was for this meeting that we changed the name "Cactus Killie Cook-Out" to "Southwest Area Killifish Event."

12 - 2010 at Ramada Inn:  Rhonda Wilson on "Aquarium Plants and Killies", Ken Normandin/b] on "Collecting and Breeding Fishes of the Southeast U.S." and Brian Perkins on "Altiplano to Amazon - Discovering Wild Peru."