March 2007 CACTUS KILLIE COOK-OUT Information

March 10th is the 9th annual Arizona Rivulin Keepers Cactus Killie Cook-Out. During the afternoon, there will be several programs. In the evening, we will have a dinner, raffle and auction. More details will be published as they become available.

If you plan to attend ("register") - contact Allan Semeit. There is no registration fee, but we need to have a head count for dinner.

If you are an out-of-town attendee and are looking for a place to crash Saturday night - contact Craig McGowan. This is for a roof over your head. Bring a sleeping bag. An air mattress is also recommended.

If you want to ship fish to the Cook-Out - contact David Riggs.

LOCATION:

The address is 1526 E Driftwood Drive, Tempe, AZ 85283.

DIRECTIONS: The house is about two miles from Bill Edward's house and is in the Tempe Lakes subdivision.
Exit SR60 (Superstition Freeway) at McClintock and head south
Go half a mile beyond Baseline Road.
Go pass the first traffic light after Baseline which is at the fire station.
At the second traffic light make a right turn to enter South Shore.
Make an immediate right turn after that onto East Shore.
Make another fast left turn onto Driftwood Drive.
Driftwood is a short street parallel with South Shore.
Park on the street without blocking any driveways.

1526 is located on your right hand side (North) and is the third house from the far end of the street.
The obvious land mark is a tall street lamp in the front yard.? The two story house is also fenced in with white block walls with three tall pine trees at the front entrance.

SCHEDULE:

11:00 AM Set up
? 1:00 PM Official starting time - administrative announcements
? 1:15 PM First program? (Sue Katz)
? 2:15 PM Break
? 2:30 PM Raffle (a few items) See Corporate Sponsors for companies supporting the Cook-Out
? 2:45 PM Second program (Ron Harlan)
? 3:45 PM Raffle (a few items)
? 4:00 PM Break
? 5:00 PM Dinner
? 6:30 PM Third program (Scott Davis)
? 7:30 PM Raffle
? 8:30 PM Auction session
? After the auction Clean-up

SPEAKERS:

Dr. Sue Katz on Scriptaphyosemions
Sue is a microbiologist, currently an Assistant Professor in the Math and Science Department at Rogers State University in Claremore, OK.

She has kept fish since she was a child in Kansas City. Her first killifish were acquired in 1965 as a door prize at the Kansas City Aquarium Society, but it was some 30 years, before she renewed her interest in them. In the meantime, she finished college, got her Ph.D., moved to Tennessee, and then to Crete, Nebraska.? It was while she was teaching at Doane College that Steve Shine sent her Aphyosemion australe (Gold) and Chromaphyosemion bitaeniatum Lagos. When she moved to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1997, she brought her Golds and some of her other killies. Sue became a founding member of ARK.

Sue keeps mostly killifish (some 35 strains/species currently), although she has some dwarf rainbows and pygmy sunfish as well. She has had experience with a wide variety of killies, both plant and peat spawners. For example, among the fish she is currently maintaining are three strains of australes, 3 species of Rivulus, and 3 species of Chromaphyosemions. But over the years, her specialty has become the Aphyosemions and especially the Scriptaphyosemions. She currently breeds and distributes Scriptaphyosemion bertholdi, liberiense, geryi, etzeli, guignardi and 6 strains of cauveti. She is a member of several KCC (Killifish Conservation Committee) groups. She is a still a member of ARK, albeit a long-distance one, and a member of the Oklahoma Aquarium Society.

Dr. Ron Harlan on Using Reverse Osmosis Units with Killies
Dr. Ron Harlan was born in Buffalo, NY, and can trace his interest in tropical fish to his childhood in Rangoon, Burma, where, at age 5, he helped to collect tropicals with U Cho, a family friend.

He first joined the American Killifish Association in 1965 and was active in the (San Francisco) Bay Area Killifish Association during his high school years, maintaining as many as 35 species. More recently, he has been active in the host Southern California Killie Club as the club's resident Rivulus fanatic.

Ron has led six trips into the Peruvian Amazon collecting Rivulus and dwarf cichlids. He has also collected in Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, and Bolivia.

After 28 years as a classroom professor, Ron is now the Dean of Instruction at Glendale Community College and the president of a non-profit organization building a college field station in Baja, Mexico. He is also the owner of Back to Nature Filtration, founded in 1985, the first manufacturer to introduce a hobbyist version reverse osmosis unit to the tropical fish hobby. Ron has become a "crossover hobbyist" dabbling in many groups of tropicals, dart frogs, reptiles, carnivorous plants, and orchids.

Scott Davis on Paraphyosemions
Scott blames his dad for his love of nature. When quite young, his dad would frequently take Scott and his brother to a local lake. Soon the various critters of the local wetlands began following Scott home. Later, a "subversive" 7th grade science teacher sent Scott home with a small pickle jar containing six baby common guppies.

Scott has been keeping killies since Richard Nixon was president. At about the same time he started teaching and helping high school students study various histories, social studies and a little geography. The school aquarium club's dozen tanks left a different ambiance and humidity level to his team teaching and world history rooms. On the occasions when he wore a sports coat, his students knew he was force-hatching killies and needed the pockets. At the moment he is retired until he gets a better offer.

Involved in a number of Chicago area tropical fish clubs over the years, serving in most of the capacities available, Scott has enjoyed palavering with other aquarists, toodling out articles for club pubs, participating in on-line discussions and presenting programs on killies and a variety of aquatic topics. He has presented programs to a number of aquarium clubs in the western Great Lakes region. More recently Scott has been focused, in small ways, with the CKA locally and the AKA, NANFA, and ALA. He has also spent a large part of the last three years voluntarily coaching and encouraging new aquarium hobbyists on-line. He still finds great joy in keeping and sharing a variety of fishes, including some North American natives, livebearers and, of course, killies.

"REGISTERED ATTENDEES":

Avenetti, Robin (Flagstaff, AZ)
Binder, Sandy (Seal Beach, CA - SCKC)
Breitkreutz, Chris (Edwards, CA - SCKC)
Breitkreutz, Kathleen (Edwards, CA - SCKC)
Choat, Ron (AZ)

Courtright, Brian (Prescott, AZ)
Davis, Scott (Park Forest, IL - CKA)
Dority, Paul (Tempe, AZ)
Gill, Tony (Tempe, AZ)
Hall, James (Flagstaff, AZ)

Harlan, Ron (Glendale, CA - SCKC)
Harvey, Michael (Mesa, AZ)
Heidrich, Debra (Maricopa, AZ)
Heidrich, Paul (Maricpoa, AZ)
Katz, Sue (Collinsville, OK)

Kukowski, Gary (Glendale, AZ)
Kukowski, John (Glendale, AZ)
Kumar, Rahul (SCKC)
Launders, Tara (Peoria, AZ)
McGowan, Craig (Glendale, AZ)

Melesio, Ben (Chandler, AZ)
Nguyen, Thuan (San Francisco, CA - BAKA)
Pape, Dan (Tucson, AZ)
Perez, Alejandro (Phoenix, AZ)
James Rae (Corona, CA - SCKC)

Riggs, David (Phoenix, AZ)
Rudnick, Ron (Phoenix, AZ)
Semeit, Allan (Phoenix, AZ)
Tang, Derek (Chandler, AZ)
White, Will (Prescott Valley, AZ)

Wilson, Rhonda (Apache Junction, AZ)

BAKA = (San Francisco) Bay Area Killifish Association
CKA = Chicago Killifish Association
SCKC = Southern California Killi Club