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On March 13th MASM, the Marinelife Aquarium Society of Michigan, hosted the first Breeder's Workshop at the Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield Hills, MI.
It was our intent to bring together two well known breeders for a full afternoon of captive breeding information and discussion.
A little background... last fall MASM started putting together the Marine Breeding Initiative, or MBI, to promote captive breeding and to help organize captive breeding information. More information about the MBI can be found here: http://www.masm.org/mForums/tm.aspx?m=33558
Breeder's journals can be found here: http://www.masm.org/mbi_DashBoard.aspxAfter a few months of emails we were able to arrange for both Matt Wittenrich and Matt Pedersen to join us for the Workshop. This was the first time that these two amazing gentlemen were together talking about captive breeding in the same place at the same time. Pretty exciting! For the sake of this post I will refer to them as Witt and MP.
The weekend started on Friday when I picked up Witt at the airport. The amazing coral "farm", Tropicorium, is located just a few minutes from Metro airport so we had to make a stop there on the way home. There we got a tour of the whole place by Dick Perrin who has been propagating corals for decades.
This is an awesome place, if you're ever in Detroit you must check it out!
The next morning it was off to Cranbrook for the Workshop. Oh, I forgot to mention that MP drove in from Chicago on Friday night and didn't arrive until after 1am...
Before the presentations started awards were given out to members of the MBI that had reached various award levels.
In the pic above, from L-R: Scott Cline, Derek Elkins, Kevin Kramer, myself, MP and Chad Penney presenting the awards.
A special award was presented to Kevin Kramer for being our youngest breeder. Kevin is 14 years old and is successfully breeding P. biaculeatus, gold stripe maroon clowns. He was presented with a signed copy of Witt's book, much to his surprise.
Ok, on to the Main Event! I don't have a transcript of the presentations but I do have pics.
Matt Wittenrich- The Modern Fish Breeder: when diversity drives creativity
Witt's childhood home:
Matt Pedersen- Breeding Harlequin Filefish
We had an impressive turn out... over 40 people attended from as far away as Chicago, not including MP and Witt. Even better, the age range of attendees was from 10 to 60+! It was great to see so many people from different age groups getting involved.
After the presentations MP and Witt spent almost two hours talking with people on an individual basis. This was something that made the Workshop more than the usual "lecture and leave" that we're used to. Here are some pics from after the presentations... some of you will recognize a few faces...
After leaving Cranbrook just before closing time we took Witt and MP out for a bite to eat...
(Note the bumper sticker on the table)
On Sunday after the Workshop we took MP and Witt over to Grand Rapids to see Edgar Diaz's uber-impressive breeding set-up.
The last stop before taking Witt back to the airport was Preuss Pets in Lansing. A destination in itself.
All in all the Workshop was a spectacular success. Promoting captive breeding is one of the most important things that can be done for the hobby/trade if we want it to continue. I urge each and everyone of you to seek out and choose captive bred fish and invertebrates whenever possible.
One last pic. As I told both the "Matt's", having them here for this event took a huge chunk out of my Bucket List...
MASM, and I, would like to thank everyone that made this event possible:
The MASNA Speaks program funded by Reef Nutrition/REED Mariculture
Cranbrook Institute of Science for use of their facilities.
Edgar Diaz for inviting us to see his set-up.
Mike Howe and Amy Weirs for photos.
And most of all, Matt Pedersen and Matt Wittenrich for putting up with all of my emails while setting this event up and their continued support of the MBI program. Thanks Guys!
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