Thursday 21 May 2009
| Arrival in Portland Dan and I arrived in Portland Wednesday evening and immediately settled into our large room. The accommodations are excellent. As we were unloading the car and carrying the fish and luggage up to the room, Barry cooper, Brian Watters and Thuan Nguyen appeared at the elevators and the weekend actually kicked off. We were invited to the hospitality suite where they were tanking the early arrivals and special auction fish. The room was loaded with tanks and the fish were already in show colors. Absolutely superb. But today I am going to talk a bit about the trip and will get to other stuff later. I intend to post some pics in the gallery later today. PHOTO GALLERY LINK Sometimes I think we take the USA for granted, but after this 2800 mile trip across the country, I doubt I will ever be able to think that small again. From the wide expanses of the farm belt across Iowa and Nebraska to the incredible vistas in Utah, Idaho and Oregon, there was not a moment where something new and exciting appeared in front of us. I must have taken over 100 pictures just from the moving car as these new images apeared before us. Traveling to 7800 feet in Utah and then heading down towards Salt Lake City on a winding highway through gorges and between mountains was aweinspiring. Around every corner was a new vista and incredible views of snow capped mountains and deep gorges. It was truly spectacular. I must say one of the most amazing things to see on the road was the view coming over the mountains in Oregon. 4,000 feet beneath us the flat plains led a hundred miles off to the Columbia River. The expanse of this view was breathtaking and you could literally see for a hundred miles in all directions through the crystal clear air. While many think Dan and I are a bit insane for driving from New York to Oregon, I am now willing to say it has been one of the great experiences in my life. Stay tuned for more. |
Wednesday 13 May 2009
| AKA Convention 2009 - A Diary How does someone describe the adventure or perhaps foolish choice that Dan and I have made to drive from New Berlin, NY to Portland, Oregon for the 2009 AKA National Convention. I know our sanity has been questioned by many friends and even ourselves over the past few months, but now the trip is about to begin and in just two days I will be leaving my isolated home in northern New York to spend a night with Dan and his wife, Inky before we set out on our travels. I've been scratching my head over what fish I should take and how I should deal with them and finally have decided to ship them Friday to the hotel in Portland where someone from the NorthWest Killies club will receive and tank them. My cohort has decided to try it the other way and carry them with us. It should be interesting to see which of us has better success. Our goal is to travel the 2,846 miles in 4 days - which means we have to average a bit over 700 miles a day. I suspect the first day on the road wil be the one with the least number of miles, but as we head west past Chicago on Interstate 80, we should be able to average at least 750 a day if we drive 12 hours. I am certain in some areas we will be averaging 75 MPH which makes it even easier. Personally, I am not against the long drive or even a couple more hours a day if it gets to Portland by Wednesday. That way we have Thursday to recover a bit and play tourist. Depending on when we arrive, we have been invited by Liz Hutchings and her groupies (Sorry Ken and Jim) to join them for dinner along with Ruud Wildekamp on Wednesday evening. I am not sure we will make it in time, but you never know what the temptation for a good steak and beer will entice us to do, particularly after 3 days on the road stopping at fast food places for a brief choked down meal. I know one of the reasons I agreed to do the road trip was the opportunity to see firsthand a fairly large part of the country up close. While I have been to Seattle and traveled over the Sierra Nevadas a bit on a vacation in the early 1970s, I have not really been past the Mississippi River in the continental USA (discounting two trips to St. Louis which is right on the Mississippi. I have been told of the grandeur of seeing the Rocky Mountains for the first time while traveling across the vast open plains of Nebraska. As we cross the Rockies, our plan takes us to Salt Lake City where we turn north and follow the old Oregon Trail through Ogden, Utah to Boise Idaho and finally on to Portland. Just following the trip on Google Earth shows some of the fascinating areas we will travel through - the mountains, valleys and rivers of the western US look amazing. Stay tuned here for updates and photos of our travels across the country. |
Friday 08 May 2009
| Plans for Upcoming AKA Convention The AKA National Convention a about 2 weeks away and I am making some plans for KillieNutz Online to report on the weekend as it happens. Initially, Dr. Dan Nielsen and myself will begin traveling across the country on Sunday May 17 and hopefully I will be able to upload and post some pictures in the gallery of that trip. My overall plan is to do a bit of writing as the convention progresses and add pics as I take them to the website here for everyone to enjoy. Start looking for the first report on Thursday, May 21. |
Tuesday 28 April 2009
| New Content Added to Killie Library I added a number of collections and their codes in a new section of the Library today. These are all Collections in 2008 and 2009 of Nothos. There are currently no pictures, but I am working on obtaining permission to use currently published pics. |
Thursday 19 March 2009
| New Cameroon Aphyosemion Named Aphyosemion Campomaanense is a new speices related to the A. calliurum group and recently posted on Zootaxa 2045 pg 43-59. Below is a copy of the abstract. The authors are : JEAN-FRANÇOIS AGNÈSE (France), RANDALL BRUMMETT (Cameroon), PIERRE CAMINADE (France), JOSETTE CATALAN (France) & ETIENNE KORNOBIS (France)
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Wednesday 18 March 2009
| New Mozambique Notho Named A new species of Nothobranchius from Mozambique has been named by Valdesalici, S. and Hengstler, H. in the 2008 aqua, International Journal of Ichthyology, 14 (4): 187-194).  N. krammeri was originally collected by Holger Hengstler and Silverio Venda in a single temporary pool in the Meronvi River Basin. In addition a second yet to be described Nothobranchius spec. "Macimboa da Praia" MZHL 2005-13 was found in the same pool. The readings for the pool were: pH-7.0 , KH-4, GH-10 and the water temp was 27C. According to the article and photo, both originally posted on http://www.nothobranchius.cz/, this is a relatively easily bred Notho with a 3-4 month incubation period. |
Sunday 15 March 2009
| Update Today  I have not had alot of time the past week to do any work on the site, but I did take a few pics over the weekend which I added to the gallery. I admit my skills are not great, but then again I am using a small $150 Pentax digital I happened to run across. Its not a digital SLR so I am rather surprised at the pics I actually can get. Tony T. has nothing to fear from me! Also ... just to update those who are interested, I have completed the framework for the walls of the new fishroom and here is a shot of the step I am on now. |
Sunday 01 March 2009
| KILLIENUTZ ONLINE IS OPEN  The original KillieNutz Online will continue to offer news and information about killifish and build a database of articles obtained from many different sources including hobbyist magazines (with permission) and staff writers. If you wish to write articles, you may do so by submitting them directly via our WYSYWYG editor. All articles are subject to reveiw before they are posted. We are looking for submissions of all types from articles to photographs. With the opening of KillieNutz Auction Site, the expansion offers a place for hobbyists to auction their pairs and eggs of killies and related products. The auction site will expand as necessary to accomodate the needs of the sellers and buyers. This is a free auction site. Tropical Fish Warehouse will open this spring and offer sales of many species of tropical fish with a focus on rare species that are either wild imports or first generation fish bred from special purchases. It will also include many uncommon species that have been bred in our newly constructed breeding facility. |
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