Meeting Saturday

[EvilMel]

Hi guys, so I have been racking my brain trying to come up with some place to have the meeting.

Mancino's doesn't have an area for us to meet in, so I thought what about Stefano's? It would be on the strip, but they could accomodate up to 40 people in their back room area and it would still be pizza!

Let me know if this will work for you or not. The meeting is supposed to be this saturday. I was thinking around 12:30 if that's ok. So speak your mind here about it!

[fry-man]

The two buffets, Golden Coral and American Steak & buffet, have meeting rooms. We could eat and drink what ever we wanted.

[KafudaFish]

Sorry I cannot make it. It is my daughter's birthday and my wife would KILL ME DEAD DEAD DEAD if I went to the meeting. Enjoy.

[Runner]

Stefano's sounds good to me. I've never been there but am always willing to try a new pizza place. Timing is fine. I am sure one of my sons will tag along and enjoy the atmosphere.

[fry-man]

Mr Gatti's Pizza has a meeting room.

[EvilMel]

Yeah but I don't think they reserve it for anyone. Brent's jeep club met there and he said he didn't think they would ever reserve the room for them.

Plus I was thinking that this would be good for the people who live more out east (rather than having all the meetings on the west side, ya know?).

Is that your objection to Stefano's Eric, that it's not out west?

[fry-man]

Steffano's is almost as close for me.

[EvilMel]

Oh ok. So Stefano's it is...unless someone objects horribly to pizza.

I will make the call!

[salt newbie01]

Sounds good to me - count me in.

Mel will you bring the frags or should I follow you back to your place to get them?? which ever would be better for the frags. just let me know

[EvilMel]

Patrick...I think it would be better for you to come back to my house after the meeting but honestly as long as you have a cooler they will be fine either way. Sitting in a cooler for a few hours should be ok.

So either way.

[CaptainDave]

Somebody save me some pizza with the whole wheat crust :D Stefano's is awesome! I swear, one of these days I am going to be in Knoxville and be able to come to a meeting. Alas, Saturday will not be that day. You kids have fun.

[salt newbie01]

How far from the pizza place is your house Mel? If it's not too far I'll just follow you back because I have and hour or so drive after the meeting. I would rather not keep them out of a tank for that long.

[skwirl]

i will sure make it to this one... this way i can fill out my club member form, and pay muh dues.... can somebody bring me a form?

[Chris_Campbell]

Sorry can't make this one... dang I hate to miss pizza!!

[Runner]

I need some directions to add to the website. I've never been to this place.

[ct_vol]

Can't make it this Saturday... Going out of town for Easter... Oh well, I look forward to meeting everyone next month... Maybe then I can become a member... Hopefully I won't have any casualties between now and then...

Randy

[EvilMel]

Hey scott, it's right there in the middle of the strip.

Here's the address so you can maybe map it with map quest:
1937 Cumberland Ave

I get there by getting off of I-40 at the alcoa highway exit, then there's a couple of exits pretty immediately off of that. The first one is kingston pk/cumberland ave (not sure which one it's called at that point). I go left at the light there onto Kingston/Cumberland. It's down a bit on the left. It's SUPER easy to get to.

I hope that will help.

[EvilMel]

Hey do you guys have a topic in mind that you want to talk about? I have a couple of things in mind, but am open for new ideas. Sorry about this getting put together at the last minute (I've just got a ton of stuff going on this month).

Also, let's get a head count. Who is going to go and who is not going to go (unless you've already said yes or no on this thread previously). I called and booked the room so we are good to go for that.

[nwolfe]

Put me down for 2

[EvilMel]

Oh and btw one of my ideas for a meeting topic was starfish. There are numerous different kinds and people seem to buy them all thinking that they are relatively easy to keep and all reef safe but this is far from the truth. So anyways...we've never talked about starfish in reef tanks before, so I just thought that might be a good topic. I could do the presentation myself probably.

Another idea is zooanthid predators. We are all in a big frenzy of zooanthid buying but do we ever stop to think about the possible zooanthid predators and irritators that we could be passing around? that might be interesting too (we could always do one this month and one next month).

Any other ideas?

[Runner]

Heh. I should attempt to dig my behemoth starfish out of my tank for show and tell. I wouldn't want to scare any young children that may be present, though. This thing I have is the stuff of nightmares. It has yet to eat a fish or even knock a coral over yet...

[EvilMel]

What kind of star is it Scott?

That's how I feel about my giant coral banded shrimp. The other day he tried to grab Priscilla! Then when Brent walked by he tried to grab Brent through the glass! Hungry little bugger.

[Runner]

I'd have to call it a "bristle starfish". I don't know its real name. I got it along with the rock I bought from a guy who was shutting down his 3-year-old tank. Back then, its head was the size of a quarter and the legs ~8" long. Now I'd have to say the head is as big as a silver dollar and the legs around 18" long. It is bristles/spines all over its legs. It is mostly tan/black striped, but the spines on the bottom are red. I think it tends to fade its colors in and out.

I rarely see the entire thing anymore (and only then if I shine a flashlight on the tank at 2am). It just sticks its arms out from its cave in the rock and gathers food from all directions when I feed the tank. I think it has grabbed snails and eaten them before, but I couldn't be sure.

[EvilMel]

Wow. hah hah. That's horrible. Yeah I too have a pretty big brittle star. It's one of two big starfish in my tank. I've got the one black and white striped "brittle" star and a green "serpent" star. I had a green brittle star (the notorious fish killers) and it totally ate a green clown goby of mine. I saw the dang thing perching trying to catch it but just didn't think it really would be able to. Boy was I wrong. It found the cave where the goby hid out and one night got him. I tried to get the goby to move it's hole but it totally wouldn't. Once you get all that rock in there it's pretty difficult to get things like that out, ya know?

That's why people ought to think about the types of starfish they can keep (I totally shoulda thought about it before I got that green brittle star). This is partially why I thought it would be neat to do a topic on starfish or zooanthid predators...we seem to have a LOT of newer people, which is GREAT! But if we can inform them (and experienced reefers too) prior to purchases...well that's great too!

[cee]

I'll be at Fall Creek Falls SP on Saturday, so I'm out. I'd like to see someone do a talk on natural control mechanisms of coral predators, as I think it would be wider encompassing than just zoanthid nudis and introduce people to all the possible predators for different species of corals, and there are many to be aware of. Maybe a chart showing natural predators and what they're good at controlling or something, along with pics of the coral predators, etc. Just my $0.02.

Dave

[marybeth1975]

I am a future new member. I didn't get to make the last meeting. The meeting place sounds fine to me. Im just worried about the time. Im on call (which means I have to work till about 12:00) sat and I might be late. Im coming from Oak Ridge so its a bit of a drive.

[skwirl]

yea!!!
what time does it start?

[EvilMel]

It starts at 12:30. Don't worry about it at all Marybeth. You will be totally fine. If you want me to order you some pizza, just email me and I will get it done.

[SmartWrasse]

You can put me down for 1 pizza eater. I haven't been there before. Are we ordering or doing a buffet?

[EvilMel]

It's not a buffet but what I figured was that once a decent number of people got there, we could just order stuff together and split it up. Sound good?

[SmartWrasse]

Sounds good

[marybeth1975]

It sounds like a blast. I will definitely try and be there. Im sure I'll have plenty of time for pizza...lol So whats the topic of discussion this month?

[EvilMel]

Hi, I didn't see Dave's comment until just now and I think that would make an excellent topic for a meeting. Since you won't be here Dave, maybe we will do that topic next month so you can be there for it? I figured you'd want to be there when we discuss the topic you came up with.

So what about starfish for this month? It's fairly easy and I think I can put something together in the next couple of days. Does that sound ok to everyone?

I definitely think we need to talk about predators in the tank next month though. With all the new people popping up that's a great topic to get them started thinking about.

[Runner]

Website has been updated for directions:
http://www.easttnreefclub.com/meetings.html

[reefninja]

hey guys, sorry I missed the last one...but I cant make it this time either.Oh well, there's always next time right? Eat A slice for me! C-YA!

[EvilMel]

That's cool Shane. Maybe we'll see you next time.

[skwirl]

im running late but imon my way