I love this event. Southwest Area Killifish Event is an annual small fish convention held in Phoenix, AZ every March. It is sponsored by the Arizona Rivulin Keepers (ARK), the local branch of the American Killifish Association.
In some ways, fish conventions are like science fiction conventions in that you get to meet with other enthusiasts and rub elbows with experts, meet new friends, and have a good time.
In other ways, a fish convention is totally different from a science fiction convention. I just love the auctions. SAKE has both a live and a silent auction, where you can find fish that just aren’t sold in stores anywhere. Some of the fish are rare or even endangered. Sometimes, you can even find fish that are extinct in the wild, and serious aquarium hobbyists are the only people preventing the complete extinction of those species.
This year, there will be three speakers. Jim Fong will be talking about breeding fish in the genus Nothobranchius, and annual killifish normally exchanged in egg form. Greg Sage will discuss selective breeding of aquarium fishes, and Aaron Ambos will discuss fishes of the Great Basin (American southwest desert fishes).
I’ll be taking some of my fish to donate to the auction as well. Since I’m rebuilding my colonies after a catastrophic poisoning event last year, my fry are still small, but I have several to bring this year. I expect to bring Australian desert gobies, two strains of endlers livebearers, some black Moscow guppies, and some Heterandria formosa (aka Least killifish), offspring of wild-caught parents.
Even if I don’t bid on anything in the auction, it’s still a lot of fun seeing fish that I’ve only seen in photos.
