shadoh

Looks like a great system, but unfortunately the sound cuts out at 0.57...

OK, this is the last time I will weigh in on the discussion of breeder only vs mixed breeder/import shows. As said above, nothing I say will change Chi's point of view and I respect that. I, and several other club members have spent a hell of a lot of personal time and effort in making sure this show will be a success. Would I love to see a day where the majority of fish entered into a show are locally bred? Yes! Will that day be next Sunday? No Am I going to let it spoil the day? No Am I going to do all I can do to ensure it's success? Yes, and I'll be damned if I don't find time to enjoy myself - hell, I've taken a break from it all today and I'm enjoying myself already! Chi, I hope to see an entry or two from you one day once we have a much larger self breeder entry base. Until then, :cheers: cheers! Come on guys, where is the love? Let's forget about the semantics and get on with having a bit of fun to celebrate how far we have come! :D

Thanks Ness, much appreciated. Certs are designed, just need to print them out. Everything else is "hands on" - making prize ribbons, cutting and laminating divider cards, laminating beanie surrounds, painting sign, packaging gift packs from sponsor...

Hey Ness, forgot to address a couple of things - with the sale of the overseas fish, yes 99% of them will be for sale. Due to complications I won't go into publicly, we cannot sell out of the building on the day. You will be, however list down the ones you want to buy (we will put a discreet sticker on the beanie to indicate to the stewards that the fish is sold) and you can organize payment and shipping with someone. As for the care template, I was going to try and find the time to revamp our one, but realistically any help will give me an extra hour or 2 of much needed sleep between now and next weekend, so please send me the template (as long as you don't mind me adding a club logo and contact details - I will give you credit for the info though...) really appreciate it!

I have just got off the phone with a gentleman who found my number on the club website. He used to breed Bettas and is looking at starting up again now he has retired. He has been going from LFS to LFS to no avail, hoping that one of them could put him in touch with a network of local breeders not only to get fish from, but to talk with and share info and experiences with. He is quite excited to come along to the show and look at some amazing Bettas and to meet some local breeders.... Why am I telling you all this? That's what this show (and club) is all about - getting people like this together and, in this mans case - back into the hobby. For all the hard work and the bitching and moaning I have been doing lately, it will all be worth it to know that it has brought new people into the Betta community and especially if we can get a few more people breeding Bettas. Thanks Graeme and Ness. Ness, I hope you can make it up here (will have a personalized tag waiting just in case). If not, then at least we know you and the Melbourne crew will be with us in spirit. Wish I had the equipment and know how to do a live feed, but will make sure plenty of photos will be taken.

Chi, I just started to type out another long response to your comment, but frankly, it is late I'm tired and nothing I say is going to change your opinion. The Aussie and Asian show/breeding communities are 2 different beasts. As you pointed out, more people in Asia are breeding their fish and have done so for generations. Compare that to Australia, where there are very little people breeding betta and a large percentage who do, burn themselves out after 12 months and move on to other fish. Asia has had a Betta show scene for MANY years and as you may have read above, Australia has not and has found it difficult to keep it going. I personally am not insulted by what you're saying - I do see your point, but we need to inspire more people to discover the beauty of the betta and get more people breeding them. Shows such as this are a great showcase for that. Just read a handful of posts in the introductions section - a lot of people out there have never seen a Halfmoon or Halfmoon Plakat. We need to educate the public.

Do what I still have to get done and you won't have time to panic *lol*

Continuing with the creative side of things tonight. Have made surrounds to go on the beanies of the winners of each division: Somehow it looks like packaging... Guess the advertising and branding side of my brain has taken over... Now I just have to drop a few well placed subliminal messages and everone who walks into the show will feel the need to get into the hobby! Oh, and yes, I have made a third place surround (yellow) as well as Best of Show and Reserve Best of Show (purple and green respectively) Printed out some id tags for the crew: Now to come up with a great design for the certificates... It's starting to feel real now... I can't believe this is finally happening. If you are thinking of entering, you have until Wednesday to get your entry forms in. If you want to see a room full of AMAZING bettas in one spot, make sure you come along for a look! www.bettaaustralis.com Cheers Jarrod

Thanks Graeme. As I said to someone earlier, I'll try to put the breakdown on hold until after the show. If you don't see me after that, you'll know what has happened Not only to set up - we will need people to help pack up too... So - Benching in will be Friday 7th between 5.00pm and 10.00pm Bench out time 1.00pm and 4.00pm Sunday 9th. Any help people could provide will be most appreciated. PS: You still have until Wednesday 5th to get your entries in :D

Just recieved final numbers for the international entries... A little more than we were expecting - 200! This is going to be HUGE I have to admit that I am now slightly anxious about the logistics of benching in... :eek:

Welcome to the forum Julie. I hope you find it as informative as I do. In addition to the info and links above, you may be interested in coming along to a Betta Australis meeting or two - we are a club of dedicated Betta owner and breeders. We meet on the third Tuesday evening of the month. More info can be found on our website: www.bettaaustralis.com or our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/bettaaustralis Announcements are usually made of upcoming meetings here on the forum too...

I will be revising the design once again next month. I'll be doing away with the gravel and inserting a piece of sponge in each gap at the bottom of each barracks to prevent the fish swimming under the divider into the sump and to add a little bio filtration. Why? The plastic mesh I have to keep the gravel being sucked into the sump is constantly coming loose and floating to the top and the gravel gets sucked into the sump. I want the individual barracks to be bare bottomed for easier cleaning - I'm getting sick of cleaning gravel - by the time I vac the gravel in half the containers, I need to top up to be able vac the rest, then do another waterchange, making the entire job harder than it should be... Also it will look more minimalistic. I'm into minimalism at the moment and these fish must be zen!

Google is your friend....

Yes, I want to join. Have sent PM.

Hey Davo, if your still happy to have some more people on board, I'll give them a go :)

Thanks genius... *lol*

Fire away mate It is so rare to see photos of your Bettas that I'll take what I can get... By the way, what do you keep your giants in?

Stunning Les! Let me know if you get them to spawn, as I'd be interested in a pair of the offspring :)

We have a good international turnout as well as Aussie entries, we have entrants from: Thailand, Indonesia, Japan and Philippines. Join in, be a part of the show or come along, drool over the Bettas and meet other fish nerds!

Hey Pete, did you realise that all wilds have to be shown as pairs? Do you still have the girls that go with the boys?

I have at least 1 A class and a B+ *lol*

Methylene Blue is used to treat a variety of ailments in fish, mainly fungal infections. It's the main active ingredient in most multicure medications and is what stains the water blue. In the case of hatching Killifish eggs (and when hatching betta eggs without the father to move them around), it will prevent the eggs from getting fungus. Rooibos tea is made from the plant: Aspalathus linearis, it is a type of legume. I imagine it also has the same anti-fungal effect... Hey Les, no problem finding it here - it is in every supermarket near all the herbal teas :D

Well, that's half of what we had at the Caboolture show already! And that's only 2 people :)

Hey guys, just wanting to know how many entries to expect from the forum. No need to go into detail, just looking for rough numbers so we can plan shelving layouts. I'll start - I'll have 10 fish and 1 painting...

I know - crazy, right It's still possibe we'll get some Indonesian and Japanese entries as well...