You missed a great one! Renowned author, aquarist and legacy FMAS member Julian Sprung spoke to us on the topic of Invasive Species -- Legend, Psychology, Science and the Aquarium Hobby. A raffle and auction followed Julian's presentation. During the meeting the Board of Directors appointed our new Vice President Jeff Brigman (jeffbrig). Congratulations, Jeff!

Great thanks to Officer Hank Juntenen from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for discussing regulations regarding the collection of wildlife in state and federal waters. For more info, please visit MyFWC.com

And kudos to 2007 FMAS President Chris Little for giving us a demonstration of fragging hard and soft corals. Chris sliced up a Toadstool Leather and demonstrated the technique of "sewing" it onto a frag plug. Then he used a tile saw to frag a brain coral and used super glue gel to attach the frags to plugs. Chris described his method of making frag plugs using coral rubble, sand and portland #2 cement, using dixie cups as molds. Participating members got to take home the frags. Thanks, Chris!

This was our best Frag Swap ever, with more space, more livestock, more equipment, more commercial participants and great guests like Julian Sprung and Martin Moe.

View a slideshow of the event.

Members brought in their water samples and tested for routine water conditions and as well as hard-to-find elements to see how their tanks is really doing. They were able to calibrate their pH monitors and refractometers as well.

Join us at SpareZ Bowling Alley for bowling, pizza and a lot of laughs. Prizes for multiple categories. Cost will be $10 per person which includes 2 hours of bowling, shoes and food. Don't miss it!

Matt Wittenrich, author of The Complete Breeders Guide to Reef Aquarium Fish gave a fascinating presentation about his experiences breeding various types of fish, including Clownfish, Sergeant Majors and most recently, Green Mandarins. His presentation included stunning macro images of larval fish at varous stages of their development. He illustrated how the young fishes' skeleton and mouth parts develop at an incredible rate and how that affects their ability to consume their tiny food. Matt discussed the challenges of maintaining and feeding these tiny creatures, and answered our questions on many aspects of fish breeding. Many thanks to Matt for a great presentation!

Jeff Turner, President of Reef Aquaria Design, Inc. and lifelong FMAS member will discuss the design and construction of large custom reef aquaria. After a lifetime of experience in the marine aquarium field, Jeff is ready to give ALL of his trade secrets away!!! Many beautiful images will be a part of this educational talk that should help others in their quest to build not only a beautiful display, but a quality product with the long term in mind. Most of the reef aquaria that RAD builds are designed and installed with a ten year minimum outlook as they typically maintain the products they sell and thus have a vested interest in the long term health of the animals that they house in their customers' beautiful reef aquaria. Don't miss this one!