Club Breeding/Propagation Award Program

And is there going to be a separate section were documentation/proof will be? Many people already use MBI (marine breeders initiative) or MOFIB (Marine Ornamental Fish & Invertebrate Breeders)... maybe they have to use one of those recognized journal sources to document and then post to a specific section we have on here in order to be awarded the points?

Just food for thought.

 

who will be running this? If we have to get into documentation that can be pretty time consuming. Maybe just take thier word for it????

 

oh man Chris what are you trying to do to me! you do remember I have a 1yr old? right? lol... I'm not so sure I'd like to run that part, but maybe be a part of a panel review who looks over things to verify- that I wouldn't mind. I'd certainly help, but would rather not run it as my plate is a bit full right now to responsibly commit to that. /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/wink.gif

I know verification is time consuming... but then again as I stated earlier if you went through an already existing database they are already checking through, and verifying this information. So in short, our end of the job would be to simply keep a thread or multiple threads that have awarded points up to date. Where the breeder who wanted to participate would have to submit the link to their already filled out journal from another one of the pre-selected approved sites.

 

I just found this paragraph on MBI describing a pretty good scenario to consider....

Join the Marine Breeding Initiative
Are you a club or website owner that would like to allow your members to search and even submit MBI reports right from your own website?
The MBI system is designed as a portable solution that can be installed on nearly any website while still allowing users to search and share data with all other MBI enabled websites. Users remain local to your organization's website during the entire process so no need to send members off to another website to search or review information.

If you are interested in setup up the MBI system on your site please Contact Us, Or fill out the site application form at: http://www.mbisite.org/siteapplication.aspx




I don't know if that's ideally what we are trying to do, but sites like these have put countless hours into what we would only be trying to recreate.

 

WSe would need to consult JB on this.

 

If I remember correctly from the last get together, it sounded like it was going to be very general i.e. A zoa frag = x points and an Acro frag = y points; no matter what kind of zoa or acro it was. Also, (and I could be completely wrong here) but I'm not sure a whole lot of members are breeding that many marine fish here. Even if they are, is anyone doing anything more than clowns?

Thus, I don't think we'd need to be so technical in our documentation. Now while I think MBI is good and I suppose the cause, for our uses and purposes: a shared excel spreadsheet run by the officer(s) would be the best option. Just my 2cents.

 

I personally do clowns, banggais, red spot cardinals, and neon gobies. Snails, shrimp, and emerald crabs. Nanno, tetra, and T. Iso algae along with S and L rotifers, tiger pods, and parvo pods.


All of which are inter-related. One feeds the other, which feeds the other... and so forth... all of which individually are worth points on MBI.


If clowns need X pods for feed, then do those live foods you feed them get Y points as well? and if XXX fish is much harder to feed and requires YYY live food source then both that needed culture as well as the fish themselves should earn points.


Just a lot of EXTRA details that SOMEONE is going to have to keep up with and an excel sheet may not cut the mustard if each person has multiple things to list on it.


Just saying.... those on the fish/invert side of things would far more benefit from an outside source.


HOWEVER-


I would agree that the corals would be heavily misrepresentated at an outside source and maybe the excel sheet should be looked into. At the same time though... maybe someone on here has an alternative exterior source that they know of that has been well looked into for the coral side of things. I just personally know MBI- hence that suggustion... but if there's another dedicated cooperative out there that works better for the coral side of thigs let's here it!

 

As I said I could be completely wrong. I do agree that anyone taking the time to do the fish/invert side would benefit greater and, to go back to the example above, X fish, y food, xxx fish, yyy food should all get points because they should count. however I'm not giving away 1 point per pod. that's a bit extreme. /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/wink.gif

For the point system, if there is enough interest, then maybe there should be a mini meeting to set up the scale and points and then bring it to a regional vote. I would not mind contributing or recordkeeping but would need a back up .

 

Since I did not run for office nxt year I could help with this. Just let me know what you want/need.

 

Maybe we should hash out some of the 'point' scale before we call to a meeting though... ???





New thread maybe?

 

Sounds like more trouble than it's worth to me. If you taking frag donations to the club why not just have a club booth at the twice yearly frag fests to sell them? You could still have a trophy and points for donations without the problems of bringing the corals to meetings where turnout could be low or there is no interest in the items. Could have a club system ready to keep the frags or just have ppl bring frags to the club setup right before frag fest.

 

I have no interest in this but I understand if others do :0) Most meetings are held in Ds Ms and that's quite a drive for me. I don't like to transport frags, let alone if I would have to return them to my tank...I just see it as unnecessary stress for my corals. I want to support our region and its members but I think I can do it in other ways. I think Hart brought up good points also :0)

Besides, Jazz would win as she's quite the breeder! LOL

 

ha ha...Thanks sponge, it's an addictive learning process! I'd hope one day I could support more of our LFS and both the stores and myself could be on the plus side of things. Personally I could care less about the 'points' vs no points or even prizes for that matter... but rather the sharing of learned information. I look at it in the 'bigger picture' kind of view.

I breed XX and use a technique that works and someone else can utilize it too, or find a new spin off of it that works. That's more captive bred live stock than there were before.... in turn that's less wild harvest that devastates our oceans. 90% freshwater is captive bred, 10% wild caught.... salt is the extreme opposite at 90% wild caught, 10% captive bred. Point in case that's just not sustainable. /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/sad.gif

But I'll jump off that soap box (for now! lol.) I'd just like to see more 'interest' sparked and maybe promote at least a bit more awareness to it all.

 

It is a noble goal and I support the idea as it is very possible that many species of coral will become extinct in the ocean and captive systems may play a vital role in species preservation. I also believe that while it is an admirable goal, it is a bit outside the scope of the "breeders cup" being proposed.

If any club member is breeding fish that are not commonly bred in aquaculture then by all means post about it on this an other forums! If there was an easy way to link a source to share information like that then that is great, but I am not sure how many GIRS members are breeding fish that are either rare in the hobby and for the few that are how many other members want to buy that fish at a meeting? I am sure there are a few, but most of us don't have large systems to accommodate more fish or the time and ability to care for very young difficult species.

When it comes to coral how many members have truly unique species that are not from aquaculture facility? All of the corals in my tank have their origin from parent colonies at ORA, reef gen, liveaquaira, or other smaller facilities. Most people with ocean imported wild coral not commonly seen do a pretty good job documenting successful techniques and if they don't then they should! I don't think this program will really create incentive for that knowledge being shared that hasn't been shared before. More practical matter then begin to creep up too. If we just categorize in a general manner, ie acros, montsi, and so on, how much does that help and even if we wanted to be more specific how does one do that? Commercial vendors make up names for the different colors but those are of little use in the big picture. Even species identification of corals is pretty hard with colors depending on lighting and the zooxanthelle present. Really you have to do DNA sequencing of either ribosomal spacers or mitochondria to get a proper phylogenetic tree to document what conditions are successful for individual species.

I then wonder about who will be buying the coral at meetings. How many people generally show up to meetings and how many of those are the same people that don't want the same frag again? I don't think our pool of members attending meetings is large enough to sustain this long term. Not everyone has space or tank conditions for SPS as an example. People who collect high end "designer" corals don't want a common pink bridsnest and even if they are nice enough to bring frags of their rare coral to donate there are not many who can keep it alive or who want another one. That is why I think having a GIRS booth at fragfest would work better if we decide to go down this route.

 

I like the idea of the award, but maybe it would be best to put up a frag tank at the fests, and let the club vote on best frag. Same for fish, since the fish will more than likely be bengaii or clowns

 

I see this as a way to help the club. In short, there are always people at meetings who like to buy frags. I know when I first started my reef tank I got a lot of nice small frags for a great price from several members here in the club. The fact that members could "donate" frags to the club and have the club sell at a low price to raise money is a way to help the club. Sure frag fest tables could do that too, but that also includes sales to non-members and so the actual club members don't get any special treatment at frag fest (free entry to the $10 event aside).

Hart is right, that there are too many different names or claims to the same piece of coral and that doesn't help anyone out. So you would need to generalize when donating. If you have an awesome "high-end" coral that you feel is super special, then don't donate it and try to sell it on the forums. But for the people who lose everything in a storm or disaster and want to start again, or the new beginner, a program like this would help them out.

This might not be the right idea or the right program but I would like to see the Des Moines region do something internally to help out its other members who show up to meetings. I've also never been to a meeting where there hasn't been at least someone who wanted a frag. At work so my time is limited but will try and post more later.

 

Here in short is the kicker.... if no one can step up to lead it, good discussion or not.... then it can't get any further than just that.