Locally the killie club has a Saturday afternoon meeting at a local college. We are featuring a "Breeder's Roundtable" where four or five people are each asked to select a favorite strain, color form or species of killifish. (If it were a guppy club people would be claiming blue deltas, tequila sunset round-tails, multicolor double swords and so on.) Each would be asked to spend a few minutes  talking about how one would take care of that fish, what conditions would especially encourage them to spawn, how fry might be saved, what care, if any, should be given the eggs, how the fry should be fed and cared for.

It is funny. In grade school, high school and college, we sometimes loathed doing panels. Part of it was getting up in front of people. Part of it was knowing that our grades or at least general reputation (as in job or profession related panels) might suffer because of that one slacker, which always seemed to get assigned to the group.

In a fish club there still might be a little apprehension in speaking before a group. (Public speaking often comes in first in surveys about phobias.) But the amount of preparation is modest and about something the participants already know a lot about. And it is on a topic we really like and among a friendly crowd, similarly afflicted. In fact, we'll arrange seating in a circle and no one will even have to get up to speak.

And suddenly what I hated as a younger person, is FUN!

In the meantime, while recruiting for the roundtable, a particular e-mail arrived. Rats! There is also an auction the same day.

If you are on the mailing list for a aquarium club, your notice, except for a few names and details, might look much like this:

Champaign Area Fish Exchange Winter Auction
Saturday January 19, 2008
108 Water Street Urbana IL
Doors Open 8AM
Auction Starts Promptly at 10:30 AM
Further Information or Advance Registration
Jerry 217-359-6707
Email: jmont at insightbb dot com
Website: www.champaignfish.com
FAAS 10 Table method is used for all items being auctioned.

That ten table thing is something groups in FAAS (Federation of American Aquarium Societies) encouraged several years ago. If a person brings seven bags of fish, plants and stuff (used equipment is supposed to work), they are registered, numbered and placed, one each on the first seven (eight-foot) display tables. If a person had 13 items, they go tables 1 through 10 and 1 through 3.

That system has several advantages. People before and people arriving even during the auction can quietly go over to the tables and, scrap of paper or note card in hand, see what is there and make some notes listing item numbers. That may be advantageous to the bidder, because if the bidding on a bag of yellow delta tail guppies goes way high, when the items are being sold from table one, bidders may drop out of the bidding and wait for table two's bag of yellow delta tail guppies from the same breeder (whose seller number would also be on the bags).

The 10 table approach also prevents much of the annoyance generated at the random selection of 200, 300 or 400 bags in an auction. Sellers don't feel particularly discriminated again (as if all of theirs came up late). And a bidder can go to the washroom or grab a bite to eat, confident that what he or she is looking for, will still be there when they return.

I might add that club auctions never fail to produce fish species, strains of fish, plants, food cultures and other items just never found in commercial pet shops. That is certainly part of their allure.

I may amble around greeting people and offering to be a "runner" during the time stuff from certain tables are being brought up because I know that the same bags of Java moss will appear during tables 7 and 8. On a fixed income (though my excuse used to be, we have kids), I'm gambling that others will have their bag and have spent their money. Maybe that bag from table 8 will cost a little less. If it sells for the same amount, then at least the seller got a better price than he or she might have and the club got a slightly higher percentage of the selling price to help pay the bills.

If too many people "wait in the weeds" for that last bag of very a desirable item, the bidding can get very interesting. Sometimes that one goes for a lot more than any of the others. So bidding becomes, for the most part politely, a bit of a strategy game.

That CAFE club or Champaign Aquarium Fish Exchange (there is also a CAFE - I think - in Ohio) is a very pleasant group. It is only as one gets to know them that one realizes that many of them are also very skilled aquarists.

Their auction especially draws fish heads from a range from St Louis through central and southern Illinois on to Indianapolis and southern Indiana. That is a different crowd, sometimes with a somewhat different selection of guppies and other fishes, than the auction crowds around Chicago or in SW Michigan/ northern Indiana.

One probably should Google map directions to the auction site. They might also Google directions to the Sailfin Pet Shop ahead of time. Sailfin is one of the best aquarium emporiums in the state. They are supportive of the CAFE auctions and often arrange for some sales to welcome the out of town visitors.

Sailfin is at
720 S Neil St, Champaign, IL
(217) 352-1121

I'll miss the CAFE auction and the people there. May not miss charging out to warm up the car. But with the cold, everyone in attendance will just be glad to be there and out of the house. And the camaraderie can be great.