# CAFE Auction this Saturday, October 6



## t2000kw (Jul 29, 2006)

The CAFE auction will be held this Saturday starting at 11 AM, if I remember correctly. Details here:
http://www.columbusfishclub.org/auction.php

There's a link to a map on that web page. This auction might be small as far as size but there is plenty to see and buy, fish, gently used "dry goods," and more.

I plan to be there since the supervisor of the cleaning company that cleans our business wants to start a natural aquarium and wants to see what's available. If there's a good aquarium buy, they might pick one up.

I'm looking for a couple of turquoise discus (or at least bluish in color), maybe just a single one, to contrast with my orange colored one. There were discus at the last auction so I would think there will be some this time around. The prices were very good.

Since I'm not connecting with the loach guy here (he has a couple of glass tops for my 55 gallon tanks), if I see some glass tops that will fit, I will try to get those if I can at a good price. I'll have to remember to take my tape measure and not trust my memory.

I think that Brian's Tropicals has been there before and if he is I might get a few crystal red shrimp. If not, I can wait. I get a real kick out of watching the cherry reds we have.

Let me know if any of you plan to be there.

Donald


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## evercl92 (Aug 14, 2006)

I'll be there. I'll have plenty of plants for sale...

I may have CRS... I'll have to check my colony's status.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

we'd be interested in getting more crs. we're thinking of bringing a bag as well. 

ill be checking in bags after 10 with my bf daniel. hope to see you all there!


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## t2000kw (Jul 29, 2006)

*Liz--I donated those chichlids to the CAFE group. They had a bag and took care of it. I don't know what they got for them but I'm told they're quite common ones. *

I got some good buys there, and one so-so buy. The good buys included the fish mentioned below and a Whisper 1000 air pump for a great price of $17. I wanted to pick up the Whisper 950 there which would be auctioned sometime that day but the auction was going pretty slow with one particular auctioneer. He started out way too high and wasted about a minute or so to get down to a price where people would bid. The other auctioneer (they alternated every hour or so) started low, dropped lower quickly if there was no interest at that price and got the bidding underway much more quickly. It seems that if you start low people will bid it up if they want it but if you start too high and keep dropping the starting bid people may think it's not worth bidding on. That's my take on the whole thing, anyway, and why I start my ebay auctions on the low side. I gave up waiting and left at 1:30. At the rate things were going, it would be a very long day indeed if the 950 was one of the last items to be auctioned.

*Liz--If you could pass the above info along to your club maybe that other person (not Steffan--he was great) might change and get things going more quickly the next time. *

The so-so buy was a 5 gallon tank with misc. stuff in it. I was making a side deal with someone who bought a box of junk that had some airstones in it and I ony wanted the airstones, so we made a deal just as a 5 gal tank was going up for auction. I thought it was another one that had a glass top but it was one with a screen top. I bought it for more than a 5 gal was worth without a glass top but it had a breeding net and a hang on the side mini-tank (and some other stuff I don't need), so the net and hang on tank may come in handy sometime. I got some plexiglass cut at Lowes from their scrap, a piece or below as a water barrier and one for the top, both for $3, and today I got another pair of pieces today for $1 (pricing varies depending on their mood and how much scrap they have, I guess) for the other 5 gal tank I didn't know I could use (I thought it was being used for someting important by Melissa).

I needed at least one 5 gal tank for the Israeli purple guppy pair I bought there and for the turquoise delta guppy pairs I also got there.

Which brings me to a question that I'll post in another forum here: Has anyone ever heard of these kinds of guppies? The names might be wrong and there was no scientific genus/species name on the labels.

I bought them because they look really nice and they're easy to care for (assuming that they're anything like regular guppies).

Melisa thought it would be a shame to have them mix and have hybrids between the two different colors so we're going to set up the 5 gal tank (as a second guppy tank) I bought yesterday. For now, they are in the already planted one that Melissa had going with some Endlers in it (which I'll have to move to another tank now to keep them all separate).

The Israeli purple pair has a male that looks more vibrant than any red-purple betta I've seen. I'd like to have more of them so we'll see if they'll multiply as guppies are supposed to be good at doing.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

With guppy morphs, theres nothing scientific behind the name. it's all about the coloration. All guppies you commonly see, besides endlers, are the same species. There are tank bred strains/morphs which have these fancy names. I'm sure there is a logical derivation, but I'm no guppy afficianado (quite the opposite in fact  ). Anywho, try hopping on a guppy breeder's site, or a specific forum dedicated to them and I'm sure you'll find your answers. CAFE brings in common fish, but also some interesting ones if you know what you're looking at. 

Also, with aquarium bred fish, there are "good" strains that show the ideal color, shape, etc of the 'holotype' strain (term im using for the lack of a better one), and there are not so good specimens. Guppy breeding could be thought of as dog breeding where the "breed" will ideally have "x" trait. Of course, if you bought the fish as a filler for a community, or just for enjoyment of the animal's husbandry and not for breeding, none of this really matters. 

And yes, I will pass on the suggestions about the auctioneers. Jeremy and Dan are still new and will get better as they go.  We've already opened discussion about it via our group email sessions. Thanks for the feedback, as always. 

I too don't like the grab boxes, but until no one buys them, we aren't going to police it. The gravel, however, has become a detested item  .

EDIT: And THANK YOU for the donations! I was wondering what some of those fish were, they were very nice!  I'm bad at IDing mbuna though.


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