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Why join the AKA

    I started with killies in 1965. I walked into my first fish store and the 
first fish that caught my eye was a full grown male blue gularis -- WOW!!!! I 
was 7 years old and it was love at first sight. I couldn't afford the fish or 
the BIVs and the australe in near by tanks. I heard the store owner say to a 
customer that he had gotten these fish from a guy named John Gonzales in 
Philly. Then killies disappeared from the store. Every once in a while a 
store would get some australe from Florida, but that was it. I would call and 
call the stores asking for killies. Once a store got some blue gularis and 
after mowing four yards -- a pair was mine. My uncle sent me a pair of gold 
australe from NYC. I would look at the pictures in the books and just dream 
of the fish. Then one day I saw an ad in a new fish magazine I had ordered -- 
Tropical Fish World Magazine. This was 1969. It told of an organization 
devoted to killies: The AKA . It was Christmas time and that was all I wanted 
for Christmas that year. When my first issue of the old "Killie Notes" 
arrived, I turned to the Fish and Egg Listing and was in heaven. I had no 
idea what to order -- there was so much. I settled on peruensis from the late 
Ed Warner. 6 days later the box arrived and there was my first pair of 
legendary killies -- the Peruvian Longfin. WOW!!!  Soon I ordered a pair of 
Golden Pheasants from charter member -- and still going strong -- Bill Dyer 
in Indiana. After years of starving for fish and wishing I was overwhelmed 
with riches.
     Then there were the hobbyists. The killie guys were brilliant. Every 
month was a new article or discussion that expanded my knowledge and pointed 
me toward more and more resources. The AKA was simply the best bang for a 
buck that I ever spent. It created the model of the Specialty Club -- eat 
your heart out ACA. It brought the "science" of fishkeeping to the hobby. It 
kept alive the international hobby after Innes and then the Aquarium Journal 
left the scene. Its founding is probably the single most important event in 
the post WWII in the USA -- it set the tone for what was to follow. We all 
owe a great deal to the AKA -- member or not. It is well worth joining. Its 
kind of an honor.

Robert E.
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