It all began on a Thursday morning around 6 am when Randy Carey and Carter McAninch showed up at my front door. As planned, we had informed our employers of an unexpected family emergency requiring our absence for a very long weekend. The second part of the plan was to get an early start and beat the traffic out of town. Unfortunately, Randy had just purchased a digital camera. With the diligence of a young Charles Darwin surveying the Galapagos, Randy intended to record every single detail of the trip. The camera became a minor deity -- all seeing, all knowing, always there.
A visual chronology of the journey is posted on Randy's web site (http://characin.com/carey/trips/98ACA/intro.html).
We had selected the group with utmost care. Randy was a veteran of ACA meetings and knew what to expect. I joined because I had a new minivan. We picked Carter because he is quiet. Careful planning is the key to all successful road trips. For the first four hour leg to Madison, Carter uttered absolutely no sound. Shortly after Madison, an intense conversation between Randy and me on dwarf Central American cichlids was interrupted by a series of throat clearing noises from Carter. It took more than one fierce glare to quiet him down.
By noon time, we had already passed Rockford, IL. There, Randy revealed his proletarian origin by suggesting a fast food stop. The highlight of this meal was not the food but the sight of Jim Mathis and Rich Smaciarz stumbling through the door. Of course, Randy wanted to take a picture of them eating. Carter suggested we take a picture of them at the urinal -- which may appear on the web unless they agree to certain monetary arrangements.
The rest of the trip was uneventful, except that St. Louis was further than we expected. We really don't know, since we had no map. That, of course, was also part of the careful planning. Real men don't read maps. After checking in at the hotel, we ran into Roger Anderson and Ron Hansen. They had driven through Iowa and claimed that it was a shorter route. Without a map, however, neither side could prevail.
The ACA meeting was everything one could expect when a large group of obsessed individuals meet to discuss a hobby few care about. The show revolved around a large fish room for exhibition, competition and selling (more on this later). There was also a small vendor room with fairly meager offerings -- except that the heavier items were discounted toward the end of the show. I picked up a 5-lb container of sodium thiosulfate for $5, enough to dechlorinate all the tap water in the Upper Midwest. Even for discus keepers, this stuff should last six months.
The most exciting part of the ACA was the individual selling. For a $10.00 fee, you could post offerings on their bulletin board. Or you could just write your offer on Randy's sheet (it's my van). Some people simply posted notices on their hotel room door. Randy had four tanks on the desk in our room, plus fish boxes stashed with extra inhabitants. I had a cooler with heater and sponge filter bubbling right next to the desk for my angelfishes.
According to ACA tradition, you would leave the door open with the species posted. People would either stop by to see the fish and/or rob you. Randy managed to pay for his trip by Friday, and most of his camera before we left. I sold enough to pay for several Wendy combination specials.
I thought we were prepared, but others were far more ambitious. One guy hauled a rack large enough for 8 - 10 10 gallon tanks up the elevator on a hand cart. I saw others bringing in 30-, 38- and 55-gallon tanks. One importer had all his tanks set up in the bathroom because his wife liked the air conditioning on high. Randy also had the foresight to bring his own water. St. Louis has very hard, alkaline water and many of the South Americans (fish) at the show competition appeared stressed.
As I mentioned earlier, the focus of the convention was the fish room, with 200+ tanks containing various cichlids. The tanks were divided between those fish in the show competition and others offered for sale. Of those for sale, some were sold via silent auction, and others were sold by a mysterious process known only to the cognoscenti. I was desperately trying to get some German rams and Golden German rams, but could never find the seller. Joel, who brought all the WasDykes to St. Louis, confided later that they were all males (the rams, not the WasDykes).
As a novice to ACA, I had no idea that the weekday talks were all scheduled in the evenings. On Thursday night, the first talk began at 7 pm -- the last one began at 11:30 pm. On Friday night, a talk on Madagascar cichlids was scheduled to begin at 11:30 pm and actually started at 12:30 am!
Friday was also the designated day for tours of the Arch, Anheuser Busch and Beldt's Hatchery. Beldt's used to be a Mecca for area fish hobbyisttrying to spawn their favorite species. Today, virtually everything is imported for distribution. It's a very old facility, with concrete tanks and completely rusted piping. Most of the employees in the hatchery only had a passing knowledge of fish. I was able to take advantage of the situation by finding a contaminant in their discus tank -- a Red Snakeskin in a tank of Red Turquoise. Jim and Rich went to Beldt's before the official tour was to start and Jim found a pair of Geophagus balzanii that were spawning in the tank (watch for the BAP).
Saturday was the first full day of technical talks. Since Saturday mornings follow Friday nights, the early talks were sparsely attended. This was unfortunate, since these were the best talks. While most of the presentations were travelogues, with loads of slides of the exotic locale, flora and fauna, the Saturday morning talks were more technical -- medication, water chemistry, etc. To the delight of the MAS contingent, Igor Jarecki also made a surprise appearance on Saturday.
Saturday evening was the conventional banquet. After walking around for three days in shorts and loafers, I cleaned up and wore long pants with my loafers. Many people came to the dinner with business suits or evening wear. Dinner featured delightful conversation with fellow fanatics and a marine species, followed by the award ceremonies.
Dr. Paul Loiselle (our November speaker) announced the awards since he was the only one who could correctly pronounce all the Latin names. A photographer had taken pictures of virtually every tank in the show room so the winning fish was shown at the time of the award. First, second and third place awards were given for 19 classes of cichlids and two classes of cichlid art. Charley Grimes was the after dinner speaker and delivered a 45-minute of standup routine replete with salty language and ribald jokes.
The banquet was followed by the annual meeting of the Club Snail -- a generally disreputable group interested in late night gallivanting. (All the late talks were heavily attended, even by Midwesterners.) This year's mystery speaker was Chuck Rambo, current president of ACA, who gave a hilarious talk on his experience in the hobby. Chuck's talk was scheduled for 11 pm and started more than an hour late. Most of us were fully incapacitated before the last event, when "Babes In The Cichlid Hobby" (their official name/acronym) gave out their annual awards.
The highlight of the convention was the Sunday auction. Scheduled for 10 am, it actually began around 11 am. At the start, both the audience and the auctioneer were still staggering from the chemical effects of the previous evening and I was able to pick up a juvenile Giant Cobalt X Brilliant Blue discus for virtually nothing.
Around noon time, the audience woke up, they changed the auctioneer and prices started moving up. A typical bidding process (which involved an MAS member) went like this:
"Let's starting the bidding at $10 for the 5 small angels."
(Screaming at the top of his lungs) "TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS"
"Okay, we got $25. Who'll bid $26?"
(Screaming at the top of his lungs) "THIRTY-FIVE DOLLARS!"
"Okay, we got $35. Who'll bid $36?"
(Screaming at the top of his lungs) "FIFTY DOLLARS!"...
I'm hardly an African expert, but pairs of rather common fish went for $25. Slightly uncommon pairs went for $70 - $80. Several pairs exceed $100. Sellers' enthusiasm, however, was tempered by the 60-40 split.
We left the auction early, partly because we're cheap; partly because we wanted to visit fish stores in Milwaukee on the way back. Fortunately, my brother lives in a bachelor apartment in Chicago, which we understood was near Milwaukee (no map).
The trip to Milwaukee on Monday morning was generally uneventful. Amazingly enough, we bought more fish. By then, the back of the minivan was stuffed full of fish boxes and the aggregate weight could be felt both during acceleration and braking. We pulled back into my garage around 7 pm Monday evening and Randy took more pictures of everything. The trip odometer read 1,496 miles -- pretty good with no map!
At this point, reality sets in and you start wondering about where all the fish are going to go. If you notice the three of us selling a lot at the next MAS auction, you will know why.
All in all, the trip was a complete blast. The next ACA meeting is in mid-July in Detroit. I highly recommend everyone to attend. For you South American types, Detroit has very hard water.
