<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.3em;">The Arizona Rivulin Keepers are sponsoring their 14th annual Southwest Area Killifish Event (SAKE on <strong>Saturday, March 10, 2012, </strong>at the </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.3em;">The Holiday Inn (formerly the Ramada Plaza Hotel Phoenix at Metro Center), 12027 North 28th Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85029</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.3em;">. The event will feature three programs that should interest a wide range of aquarium hobbyists: </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.3em;"><br /> - <strong>Jim Fong</strong> will discuss the genus <em>Nothobranchius</em> (African annual killifish) and the title of his presentation is "Nothobranchius - Easy or Difficult?"<br /> - <strong>Greg Sage</strong> will talk about the selective breeding of aquarium fishes.<br /> - <strong>Aaron Ambos</strong> will present information and pictures of the wildlife of the Great Basin Desert, with a focus mainly on the isolated and rare fishes of the eastern Great Basin. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.3em;"><br />Anyone can attend and the public is welcome. There is no registration fee to attend SAKE as the event is funded by a gigantic raffle, a silent auction, and a regular auction. To be successful, we rely upon both your contributions of aquarium fishes, aquatic plants, and live foods, and your participation in the raffle and auctions. The raffle will consist of products donated by various aquarium manufacturing and supply companies, as well as local aquarium and pet stores. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.3em;">You can register at the door; however, we encourage you to "register" before the event as it helps us with the planning. The earlier the better. There may also be some incentives offered at the event for those who register early. To register early, on or after January 4, 2012, please send an e-mail to <a href="mailto:azkillie@yahoo.com">azkillie@yahoo.com</a>. The e-mail to register must include:<br /><br /> 1. Your name<br /> 2. Current hometown<br /> 3. Any current aquarium club affiliation(s) <br /><br />If you are registering a spouse, children, or a friend, please include the same information for each attendee. See you at SAKE!</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.3em;"></span>

Our traditional turkey dinner and N.W.K. Meeting will be held at Kit Stowell's on January 29th in Vancouver, WA. I will post directions soon. Please let me know if you plan on attending. Also, if anyone in the Portland area needs a ride to Kit's, David and I will be passing through Portland on the 29th so, gives us a holler if you want us to pick you up. <a href="mailto:patrick@nuurth.net" title="patrick@nuurth.net"><font color="#1251c6">patrick@nuurth.net</font></a> <br />or via phone 541.971.2403<br />P@rick

The AKA is seeking volunteers to fill two new open positions. These are chairman of the KHY program and compiler of the "New Collections" publication. Please see the posts in the Positions Open forum. You will need to be logged on as an AKA member to see that forum. Contact the chairman of the BOT by email for more information.

I am excited to announce a collaboration between Tim Addis and the AKA. As many of you know, Tim has developed a comprehensive site on killifish from West Africa. It is a popular site, to the extent that it has created problems for him due to traffic exceeding his bandwidth allowance, which has necessitated having him take the site down. Tim has now graciously agreed to allow the AKA to host his pages on the AKA web site. You will find a link to the site in the left column, under Show and Tell.

I think this is an exciting development that will be to the benefit of all killie enthusiasts. Tim will continue to develop the WAK site and he retains copyright of the material on it. The big advantage is that this valuable material will continue to be available to hobbyists throughout the world.

Barry Cooper
AKA webmaster

Anouncement:

This year the NANFA annual meeting will be held at Ash Meadows, with an emphasis on "desert fishes", including the pupfish. Please see the NANFA site for more information.