GSAS.org May meeting
“A Researched Overview of the Pencilfishes [2025].”
Speaker - Randy Carey, Minnesota
Seattle Pacific University - Otto Miller Hall; Room 109
Saturday, May 10th; Doors Open at 12:00 for set-up and social hour; Meeting begins at 1:00
Like so many aquarists Randy started with just one tank (February 1988), a 50-gallon tank went in the living room - intended as a piece of furniture, a visual display. He joined the Minnesota Aquarium Society in January 1991. Within months he was participating in the club's Breeders Award Program (BAP), and since has logged over 200 species, resulting in the Lifetime Award! His interests are heavily towards the tetras, barbs, rasboras, etc. - small, peaceful species that prefer soft water. Pencilfishes are one of his latest interests.
His “fishroom” grew from a few tanks to an aquaria room nearing one hundred – a portion for displaying, and a portion for focused breeding. As he transitions into semi-retirement, Randy is spending more time here and developing breeding programs for select species.
Randy is an enthusiastic writer, earning several Federation of American Aquarium Societies (FAAS) awards, such as Article of the Year, and runner-up Author of the Year. He launched one of the first aquarium sites and authored the first online aquarium blog in the 90s. Randy wrote a quarterly column in TFH magazine (The Art of Characins), traveled to places like the Smithsonian and Amazon to write articles, and was hired to write the book Tetras and Barbs.
Randy’s new project is a deep exploration of the pencilfishes – focusing on primary and reliable sources and passing by hearsay and social media posts. His talk will overview the known pencilfish species, propose a method to visually identify each species, and discuss a strategy for breeding attempts.
There will be an informal gathering with the speaker (likely in North Seattle) Friday evening, the day before the main presentation. Contact us at
aW5mbyB8IGdzYXMgISBvcmc= for more information, or look for announcements on our e-mail lists.
Please join us for our Monthly Auction after the presentation.
Guests are welcome! Free Parking
Also check out other Meetups in Seattle, Arts events in Seattle, Literary Art events in Seattle.
