In an effort to encourage captive breeding of marine fishes and Invertebrates, MASM is happy, and proud, to announce the start of the
MASM Breeding Initiative!
MASM would like to involve everyone that is currently breeding as well as those that are interested in giving it a try.
In the next few weeks we will set forth the guidelines for the Breeding Initiative, which will take place over the course of the next year and is open to anyone that would like to get involved, MASM membership is
not a requirement to participate in the MASM Breeding Initiative. The initiative will include a
Breeder's Challenge where anyone that is interested in breeding ornamental marine fish or Invertebrates will have the opportunity and support to do so. We will be organizing a group buy for equipment and materials for the Initiative, and we will have dedicated forums for participants to create breeding logs to document, and to ask questions about, their project.
We are also extremely happy to announce that master breeders
Matt Wittenrich, author of “
The Complete Illustrated Breeder's Guide to Marine Aquarium Fishes” and
Matt Pedersen, MASNA’s 2009 Hobbyist of the Year, have volunteered to act as advisors for the MASM Breeding Initiative and will help answer the more difficult breeding questions posted on the MASM forums.
As a special treat, we will be holding a "
Breeder's Workshop" in March 2010 where both
Matt Wittenrich and Matt Pedersen will be in town to speak with us! This will be more than a simple lecture. A short lecture and Q&A session from each speaker will be followed by a social gathering where attendees will have plenty of personal, "one on one" time with both Matts. This will be a great opportunity to get individual questions answered by the experts and to share your successes and difficulties experienced through the first several months of the Breeder’s Challenge!
We will have more specific details about the Breeder's Challenge and a date for the Breeder's Workshop in the next few weeks.
We already have the two forums created that will be used for this Initiative. You can see them at:
MASM Forums
They are both marked with a:
on them so they are pretty easy to pick out.
While there are a few details up in the air one requirement is that anyone involved in the initiative must have a thread( or two ) in the Breeding Journal forum detailing their progress though out the challenge. Anyone that does have a regularly updated thread will at the very least be guaranteed of receiving a certificate of participation. There will be other awards as well given out during the course of the Initiative for achieving specific milestones and at the end of this year's initiative.
We seriously hope that this will be an ongoing yearly event for us.