Keystone Clash was AWESOME

[Guppysnail]

The two clubs I belong to Cichlid Club of York and Aquarium Club of Lancaster County host the Keystone Clash so that makes it all the more fun. 
 

If you got to attend share your fun please!
 

I went with @Elodie Rose 🤗

@tolstoy21 brought me a stunning trio of Apistogramma Trifasciata.  Amazingly healthy and well conditioned. Packed expertly in the box! Thank you 🙏 

Some great folks were there. 
 

I started bagging everything right after my shower at 4AM 😲 Long day. 
 

BE KIND It was a hectic morning and I did not realize I never even brushed my hair after my shower 🤣

Father fish was there. Super nice guy!  He bought some of my grindal worms off Jen at Smallworld Aquatics who I wholesale all my critters to. 
 

Jason from Prime Time Aquatics was there.  One of the nicest people I ever met. Very down to earth. 

Dan from Dans fish was there. We talked about pricing and shipping some of my critters wholesale to him. @Elodie Rose got to chat with him about some fish she had previously purchased from him. Outstanding guy. Really lives up to his reputation of promoting small hobbyists. 

Got to say hi to @Bentley Pascoe Super nice as always  

So many great YouTube folks and awesome vendors!

@Odd Duck I thought of you the entire time I shopped Jens massive selection of stunning moss.  
 

Picked up a few plants from Silvermoon Aquatics  

Some interesting wood from Jesse at Just One More Fish m. A few other plants from some vendors I did not know  

 

 

 

 

I took a bunch of photos of the aquascaping competition. Very interesting ideas. There was also I stand with fantastic terrarium stuff with water falls.  For some reason I can’t upload those photos. I’ll work on it. 

[Ken Burke]

Got to rub elbows with all the famous folk huh?  With that was an option for me…..

[Odd Duck]

On 9/23/2023 at 8:04 PM, Guppysnail said:

I thought of you the entire time I shopped Jens massive selection of stunning moss.

I hope you picked up some nice ones!  You know I love my funky mosses!  😆 

Looks like a lot of fun!

[Guppysnail]

On 9/23/2023 at 11:06 PM, Odd Duck said:

I hope you picked up some nice ones!  You know I love my funky mosses!  😆 

Looks like a lot of fun!

All the ones in the photos are the ones I brought home. So one of ALL of them. 🤣

[nabokovfan87]

First, THANK YOU for showing off some of the happenings and goings ons at the event.  I know of a few of the speakers, was excited to see what gets recorded and what not.  I tried to look up on the youtubes about if any of the talks would be up/streamed and all I saw was the KGT drama stuff and just checked out.

Some of those aquascapes look amazing! (to be honest, all tanks look great compared to mine right now).   I love the wood/dragon stone setups that were there.

I'll be very interested to see how the rose moss looks and does for you.  I haven't heard of that before!

Thanks for sharing. Congrats on all the fun. 🙂

[Elodie Rose]

The Keystone Clash with @Guppysnail was tons of fun! Really had a fantastic time. I’d been nervous about it, but all the vendors, guests, and really just everyone, was super kind, friendly, and approachable. 

@GuppySnail found me a lovely little baby GBR, Simon the Second, so that River doesn’t get lonely. He’s in a 5 gal QT tank for a bit, but to say that I am thrilled (and also somewhat terrified) to have him is an understatement! 

Least Killis! That was one of the fish I was specifically looking for, they’re the smallest livebearer, AND they’re native, AND I found out that @Guppysnail had had a colony and that Jen of Small Aquatics had the remainder! Six teeeeeny little least killis came home with me!

Jen is such a sweetheart, and wow, did she work the heck out of that booth. I was able to help a tiny bit, and actually got to wait on Father Fish and sold him some grindal worms! Along with micro worms and banana worms. What a sweet guy! He’s lovely in person, and it was great to buy some of his supplement without paying the shipping for it. 

I joined the Maryland Aquatic Club!!! Suuuper happy about that! And I got some peanut beetles from them, to try out and see what I think. The neighboring booth had an aquarist from Tennessee who’d caught some critters, which of course came home with me, to get a pickle jar of their own to see just what they are and how they grow. 

Dan from Dansfish, who I am a huuuge fan of, was super nice and fun to talk to! I mentioned the goodeids I had, and it turns out the redtails aren’t eiseni, they’re doadroi! (Sp - I’ll check on that) So I need to correct my logs with that name, they were identified by Gary Lang. Dan is just the sweetest guy! His commitment to shipping healthy fish is fantastic, and while some heroes don’t hold up when meeting them, Dan from Dansfish really did. Delighted to have met him! (Thank you @Guppysnail, lol, I was too star-struck to approach him on my own!)

Jason from Prime Time Aquatics was one of the judges for the fish show, and he was super nice as well! Didn’t see him until we were on the way out, but it was cool to meet him just the same! (But by that point it had been many hours, and I was pretty tired/overheated.)

Okay the heat. Was nearly unbearable. Since it was chilly and rainy outside, I wore jeans. BIG MISTAKE. Don’t do it. Wear shorts. And sandals. So hot, omg. But that’s what the fish needed, so the people just got to sweat! Heh. It was tough to handle, but I wouldn’t have changed it. Those fish in bags needed all the help they could get!

Jen from Small World Aquatics sold me a 2nd pair of the gorgeous violet mosaics she has. Violetta is growing, and becoming one of the most beautiful guppies I’ve ever seen. Victor and Victoria joined them yesterday!

Ten or so blue dream shrimp joined the growing colony that I am attempting to build, from two different vendors. 

I didn’t know that I was joining one of the clubs that hosts the Keystone Clash!! Next year I really want to be more involved and help out more. Jen was very kind and let me keep all my stuff at her booth, and I retreated to the chair beside her booth a LOT when I was tired and overheated. She works HARD, I was glad to help out a tiny bit. Hopefully I can learn enough by next year to be a bit more useful while I enjoy the Clash! Because that was incredible, and I’m DEFINITELY going next year. 

Also came home with tons of plants and mosses, which I’ll have to take pictures of later. Fantastic experience. The fish community is so welcoming and wonderful! ❤️ 

Edited September 24, 2023 by Elodie Rose

[tolstoy21]

On 9/23/2023 at 9:04 PM, Guppysnail said:

@tolstoy21 brought me a stunning trio of Apistogramma Trifasciata.  Amazingly healthy and well conditioned. Packed expertly in the box! Thank you 🙏 

Glad you like them! Happy to have met you in person. Next year I'm hoping to stay longer and meet more people.

My kid enjoyed the Clash immensely. He now wants to go back next year, get a table and sell fish!  He's so excited about the idea of that. Well that, and he wants to stay in the hotel and use the pool. (Kids always have ulterior motives!)

The only thing I came home with was some tangerine tigers. Was going to buy some orange laser cories, but someone bought ALL of them right before I could get some!

Very nice event. Well worth attending.

Edited September 24, 2023 by tolstoy21

[Bentley Pascoe]

This was my first Keystone Clash.  I have to say, this event was a TON of fun.  Lots of wonderful folks made it out, tons of small creators (myself included!) got to spend time meeting people, meeting each other, checking out some amazing vendors and wonderful talks.

I love the social side of conventions, getting to meet people, learn what fish they love, just babble a bit and nerd out was wonderful.  I'm pretty sure I helped sell fish for a couple people because I wouldn't stop talking about "Did you see those Bulgarian Green Angels?!" or "Did you see the person with the Red Empresses?  They have better color stressed than any other Red Empress I've seen!" or "Go see the buce booth!  His prices are the best deal I've ever seen!"

Events like this are what make my entire year.  Seeing people I only met previously at Triple Crown, catching up since then, meeting other new people.  Aquarium Domain was there, sitting with him and Jason from Prime Time to just babble fish late Friday night was perfect.  I could gush more and more about this, but I suppose that would ruin a video 🤣

[tolstoy21]

On 9/26/2023 at 5:46 PM, Bentley Pascoe said:

This was my first Keystone Clash.  I have to say, this event was a TON of fun.  Lots of wonderful folks made it out, tons of small creators (myself included!) got to spend time meeting people, meeting each other, checking out some amazing vendors and wonderful talks.

I love the social side of conventions, getting to meet people, learn what fish they love, just babble a bit and nerd out was wonderful.  I'm pretty sure I helped sell fish for a couple people because I wouldn't stop talking about "Did you see those Bulgarian Green Angels?!" or "Did you see the person with the Red Empresses?  They have better color stressed than any other Red Empress I've seen!" or "Go see the buce booth!  His prices are the best deal I've ever seen!"

Events like this are what make my entire year.  Seeing people I only met previously at Triple Crown, catching up since then, meeting other new people.  Aquarium Domain was there, sitting with him and Jason from Prime Time to just babble fish late Friday night was perfect.  I could gush more and more about this, but I suppose that would ruin a video 🤣

It's amazing and awesome that you traveled so far to attend this event, meet fans, chat with other fish nerds, etc. Much appreciated.  I live an hour away, so attending is kind of a no-brainer.

[dmurray407]

This looks like so much fun!  There was a big expo here in Minneapolis a month or so ago and I couldn't make it. It sounded great with tons of different venders and I heard that they are already planning for next year.

[Bentley Pascoe]

On 9/27/2023 at 3:02 PM, dmurray407 said:

This looks like so much fun!  There was a big expo here in Minneapolis a month or so ago and I couldn't make it. It sounded great with tons of different venders and I heard that they are already planning for next year.

I had some friends attend and they really had a ton of fun!