The 19^th Weekender at Halifax Hall, Sheffield University began in earnest Saturday morning with the arrival and benching of the show fish and Saturday residents. There was once again a small but healthy turnout of exhibits for resident judge Mick Price to sort through. Betta splendens was particularly well represented in the various catergories.

The first talk was courtesy of Peter Riley on live foods. This was a very entertaining and informative talk of the collection, identification, propagation, maintenance and feeding of live and living foods to your fish. This was complete with a practical demonstration in the main showroom that consisted of every thing from tiny infusorians all the way to crickets and locusts, and also introduced us to a Praying Mantis.

Following a brief lunch and watering in the bar, the afternoon’s main workshop commenced. This was a four way presentation on the methods of photographing fish that a number of us use. The presenters were Kevin Webb, David Armitage, Allan Brown and myself, and ranged from my prehistoric combination of 1970’s Pentax SLR camera, lights and filters, to Allan Brown’s digital camera. After a brief break for coffee, Barbara Brown gave a demonstration through the PowerPoint computer system of the good points of the digital camera and also advised on potential pitfalls. The auction of the donated fish took place and raised a good amount. Thanks were expressed to all who had donated fish to this auction.

Saturday evening, and the assembled enjoyed a superb evening meal, including the now famous sticky toffee pudding dessert, the reputation of which had spread so well that we were limited to one piece each J . The night-time entertainment was provided by Tony Pinto, with a fish on stamps identification theme, and a hugely popular and equally frustrating, sweet identity game from Chris Clark.

Following Sunday’s breakfast, Tony Pinto and David Armitage presented their slides and pictures of the trip to Thailand in search of B. simplex and B. Mahachai among other fishes. An absorbing talk with stills of the habitats and fish as well as scenes from the localities where they stayed.

Lunch followed, and then the AGM. There being no nominations for contesting the positions within the AAGB the officers were again elected en-bloc.

Chairman, Show Secretary, Judging- Kevin Webb

Vice Chairman, Information Officer- Andrew Smith

Secretary, Members Weekend, Registrar- Chris Clark

Treasurer- Mick Price

Merchandise- Colin Kilgour

Editor- David Armitage

Special Projects, Website- Tony Pinto

We also welcome the newest member of the committee Stephen Cumming, who has been responsible for many of the colour plates in Labyrinth and the PayPal aspect of membership on the internet.

During the AGM it was pointed out once again that membership subscriptions will not be increased. This is in line with previous years and it was noted that this has been the case for in excess of 15 consecutive years. Also there will be a change to the time of year we will be able to have the facilities at Halifax Hall next year (2004). Make a provisional date for June 18-19-20. There will be a day meeting in October at Scawsby Doncaster, and a provisional date of October 18^th was approved but this is to be confirmed.

The prize giving followed the AGM, and were awarded as follows:-

B. splendens – Peter Riley

B. splendens female - Peter Riley

B. splendens twin tail - Andrew & Debbie Smith

Betta bubblenester

Betta mouthbrooder - Hans Jurgen Dieke

Badis Nandids Tony Pinto

Channa- Kevin Webb

Ctenopoma- Andrew & Debbie Smith

Macropodus-Kevin Webb

Pairs - Andrew & Debbie Smith

Breeders team- Andrew & Debbie Smith

AOV Anabantoid- Andrew & Debbie Smith

Photography- Kevin Webb

Best fish in Show Betta taeniata- Hans Jurgen Dieke

Best Exhibit- Betta edithae Breeders team- Andrew & Debbie Smith

Members favourite fish-Badis siamensis- Tony Pinto

Best donated fish - David Armitage

A lively auction followed with many interesting fish for sale that you are not likely to find in the shops or stores. Among the species available were Betta splendens in various colour forms and finnage forms, B. burdigala, B. edithae ‘Bangka 5’,  B. unimaculata ‘Jantur Gemarah’, B. patoti, B. rutilans, B. persephone ‘Ayer Hitam’, B. albimarginata ‘Malinau’, B. schalleri , B. pugnax species (various), Pseudosphromenus dayi, Parosphromenus filamenstosum, P. sumatranus, and other Parosphromenus species, Microctenopoma fasciolatum, Trichopsis vittatus to name a few.

A lot of these species you will not find in the shops and the AAGB members weekend and the Members day in October are the best way of obtaining them and getting advice on how to propagate them.

We would like to extend our thanks to the sponsors of the AAGB event, and for their donations of prizes etc. namely Tetra, King British, and Aquarian the latter of which supplied us with as huge bucket of flake that the assembled unanimously voted to send to Dr. Jim Cambray in South Africa for the Sandelia project.