March 2015 meeting
The March GWAPA meeting was held at Joshua wiegurt’s home/business in Silver Springs MD. Joshua is the owner, operator of Batfish Aquatics, which specializes in unusual, rare, and quality aquarium fishes, aquarium plants, and other animals. He has quite an impressive set up of over 300 aquariums. On top of that he is very active in many of the local aquarium clubs. He is a member of PVAS, CCA, GWAPA, Aquarium Club Lancaster County, Cichlid Club York, American Cichlid Association, American Killifish Association, American Livebearer Association and the Raleigh Aquarium Society to name a few.
As well as hosting, Joshua was also our guest speaker. He gave a fascinating talk on mycorrhizae. Mycorrhizae are fungal roots that are found on 95% of terrestrial plants. Unlike plant roots, that cannot break down organic matter and can only absorb chemical nutrients, mycorrhizae can utilize organic matter. There is a symbiosis between terrestrial plants and mycorrhizae. The mycorrhizae grow right on top of the plant roots and help regulate water absorption. In college Joshua conducted an experiment to find if there was mycorrhizae growing on aquatic plants and what affect they would have on plant growth. He set up a series of aquariums with all the same plants but sterilized half the tanks so that there would be no mycorrhizae present in those tanks. After the course of the experiment had run, he checked the plants for mycorrhizae. He found them present in the tanks that had not be sterilized. The tanks with the mycorrhizae had developed more biomass than the tanks without. Joshua concluded that there was indeed a benefit to that plants that had mycorrhizae growing in them.
After the talk we had our regular auction. Turn out for the meeting was good, around 25 or 30 people and the auction was a good size too. There were plants and mosses auctioned as well as fish, shrimp and some equipment. There were some really great and less common plants in this auction.
There will be no meeting in April do to GWAPA hosting the 2015 AGA convention. Our next meeting will be in May. Hope to see you there.
As always we would like to encourage people to attend the meetings, they are always fun and there is always something to learn.
Below are some pictures from the meeting. Please enjoy.
