Richard Ross:
Richard Ross currently works as an Aquatic Biologist at the Steinhart Aquarium in the California Academy of Sciences, maintaining many exhibits including the 212,000 gallon Phipipine Coral Reef, spawning Rhinopias and a breeding population of cuttles. He has kept saltwater animals for over 25 years, and has worked in aquarium maintenance, retail, wholesale and has consulted for a coral farm/fish collecting station in the South Pacific. Richard enjoys all aspects of the aquarium hobby and is a regular author for trade publications, a frequent speaker at aquarium conferences and was a founder of one of the largest and most progressive reef clubs in Northern California, Bay Area Reefers. He is an avid underwater videographer and has been fortunate to scuba dive all over the world. At home he maintains a 300 gallon reef system and a 250 gallon cephalopod/fish/invert breeding system, and was one of the first people to close the life cycle of Sepia bandensis. When not doing all that stuff, he enjoys spending time with his patient wife, his incredible daughter and their menagerie of animals, both wet and dry.
Richard will be talking about Cephalopods in the home Aquarium.
Octopus, Squid and Cuttles have captivated people since before anyone really knew anything about them. Both tiny and huge, there is something so intriguing about a wriggling mass of arms, tentacles, suckers, beaks and huge eyes that many myths and legends have risen up about these beasties. Do they attack ships and eat fisherman? Not so much, but they may try to escape from your tank and some can inject you with venom if they bite you! With their color changing abilities, apparent intelligence, boneless appendages and interactive nature, cephalopods are some of the most interesting animals to observe in the wild, or keep in home aquaria. And never has the time been better to keep these animals - we know more about which species are appropriate for captivity and how to care for them than ever before. In this talk, well cover cephs in general, their impact on human culture, the different kinds of cephs available for home tanks, husbandry, and breeding strategies with plenty of photo and video eyecandy.
Christine Williams:
Christine Williams started keeping fish while she was still a fetus. While the aqueous environment did lend itself to the hobby, it limited her to freshwater species, and so she decided to be born several weeks early. Through sign language she demanded that her parents convert her crib into a reef aquarium and thus started her illustrious career in marine ornamentals. After completing her studies in biochemistry and molecular microbiology she went to work at "Animal ER" where unfortunately she was not filmed for the Animal Planet channel (though her feet did make a cameo during a rescue segment). Currently she is the head of the Industrial Marine Microbiology team for her division of a "very large international chemical company," where she spends her days mixing chemicals, microorganisms and algae together and seeing if they will A) explode, B) glow in the dark, or C) make a good salsa. In order to further her skills (though not her cooking) she is also a graduate student at Stony Brook University's School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
Christine will be speaking on aquarium dangers!
So, you worked in your tank and now you have a painful rash, and don't know why? Fish stings, other stings, spines, cuts, bites, envenomations, poisonings...all are fair game and all are possible in your home aquarium, and being prepared is your best defense. This lecture will teach you the basics of aquarium safety: animals that can hurt you, what symptoms to look out for, when to worry, when to REALLY worry, and how to treat injuries and unfortunate events.
Sanjay Joshi:
Sanjay Joshi in real life is a Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Penn State University. He has been a reef addict since 1992, and currently keeps several reefs aquariums at home including a 500G SPS dominated reef. He also co-manages the 500G aquarium at Penn State.
He has published several articles in magazines such as Marine Fish and Reef Annual, Aquarium Frontiers, Aquarium Fish, and Advanced Aquarist. In addition he has been an invited speaker at several marine aquarium society meetings in the US and Europe. He received the MASNA award in 2006, for his contributions to the marine aquarium hobby.
LED Basics and Comparison with other Lighting Technologies
LED lighting has the potential to be the "next big thing" in the aquarium hobby. This talk will present the basics of LED lighting with a focus on aspects that can assist in understanding LED and in evaluating LED lighting fixtures for aquarium use. Data on the spread and intensity of a few commercially available LED fixtures will be presented and compared to other aquarium lighting options.
