Members: Please fill out and submit your surveys! We are still accepting these in November.
Members should now have their Reports through the July/August issue, with September/October not far behind. Take a look here for info on upcoming issues of the Goldfish Report and the publication schedule. Editor Matt has put out a number of updates and requests. We are poised to finish up 2004 with the Report publishing schedule back on track.
If you have let your membership lapse or have been thinking about joining the GFSA, now is a great time - here is a form you can print. To submit material for the Goldfish Report to editor Matt Lyon, please see the updated society contact info. Articles and photos in electronic form are particularly appreciated.
The current line-up of people filling the GFSA offices is on the society officers page.
Interested in joining the GFSA but still not sure? We have two sample Goldfish Reports available to download, to demonstrate that every issue is packed with thought provoking information and pictures available nowhere else. We are also promoting an electronic membership option that significantly lowers the cost of membership.
Seasonal Advice
A number of people make their own goldfish food, based upon various available "gel food" recipes, or using commercially sold aquaculture gel food base mixes. Not everyone likes these foods, but many have found that they work well for a wide range of fish sizes and ages, and can be economical compared to high-end prepared diets.
One minor trick is to add a small amount of fresh raw garlic to the gel food, say 2 or 3 cloves per gallon. There have been various purported benefits to garlic: angelfish breeders have claimed it is an antihelminthic agent (that is, has some efficacy against internal roundworms) and nutritionists have cited it as an antioxidant with natural preservative properties for foods. Anecdotally, it appears to not do any harm to goldfish. The real benefit though is as a "freshness indicator". The gel food will have an obvious garlic smell when defrosted. Over time, as the frozen gel food ages, this smell will lessen when pieces are defrosted. After 2 months or so, typically there is little or no smell left. This is an indicator that the stored batch of gel food is becoming old and the loss of the garlic smell can be used as a proxy to indicate that nutrients are oxidizing and the food is losing value. It is time to make a fresh batch, or at least take care that you are supplementing the diet daily with other complete nutritional sources.
A word of caution: put too much in your food, and your tanks will all start to reek of garlic too, after a few feedings. But then, maybe this is an indicator to change water. Hmmm. Perhaps we can devise a whole garlic-based care regime.