Welcome to the first On-line edition of the NGPS newsletter. The printed versions will continue for members who do not have Internet access, but each

Welcome to the first On-line edition of the NGPS newsletter. The printed versions will continue for members who do not have Internet access, but each

will be reproduced here. This reduces costs, especially postage, and extra items can be added at any time. For example, this December edition has a copy of the article about the Aqua2013 Trade Show. The AQUA 2013 Trade Show a report by Dr David Ford, Aquatic Services There is only one Trade Show this year exclusively for the Aquatic Trade, so it was a very big one with more than 70 manufacturers, importers and wholesalers vying for business from the more than 1,000 Aquatic Shops in the UK. In fact there are more than 9,000 petshops in the UK and they all have the potential to add fishkeeping to their sales portfolio. To these, the Supplier Trades use this Show to persuade them to place orders for new and exciting products. The pet trade always reflects the state of the Nation and there is a sure sign that things are recovering from the low growth of recent years the Trade Show was really impressive with large, ultra-modern design stands staffed by experts in marketing, sales and the technology of our hobby. It took place over two days: October 9 th & 10 th in the Telford International Centre, in Telford town centre, Shropshire. You needed to pre-register as a pet trader to attend and so the Show was not open to the hobbyist, so here are some of the items that will be in an aquatic shop near you soon. The Exhibitors

The Entrance Every available stand in the two halls was taken by the exhibitors

There were regular seminars with talks by people such as Keith Davenport of OATA (Ornamental Aquatic Trade Association) Changes to the Sale of Goods Act and Jeremy Gay (Practical Fishkeeping magazine) What the consumer wants and Dave Perry (Peregrine Livefoods) Retailing Reptiles. Here is Jeremy Gay talking about trends in the fishkeeping trade. He predicted that white was the new colour. Equipment such as pumps and filters will be white plastic to give a technical but decorative look to Nano Tanks and Biorbs. Even the aquaria and their stands will be white. This is proved true where manufacturers showed their 2014 models..

.and the equipment for tanks and pond maintenance. He also predicted that Blue is the new colour for aquarium fish soon there will be a Blue Angelfish. Bettas (Siamese Fighters) will be as popular as they already are in the USA, he claims. Certainly the firm Aqua One had a Betta Stand for this fish

Cater for the Children The potential for fish as pets for children are no longer a goldfish in a bowl. Tetra had a Peppa Pig aquarium and Eheim had a Hello Kitty tank. The ornaments in these children aquaria were like a scene from Disney Land. The Pepper Pig tank. The Biggest and Best The largest stand was by Tetra a long tradition at Fish Shows in all the World.

Hagen competed by having an aerial display. But the most interesting stand was by Mars Fishcare. They are a global manufacturer with several brands. These are API (Aquarium Pharmaceutical Products) which are made in the USA, Aquarian fish foods - made in Yorkshire, and Rena equipment - made in France. On their stand was their consultant Dr Peter Burgess, to answer trader s fish disease problems, staff from the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition to answer queries on fish feeding and USA technicians to deal with API product queries.

-} The Waltham Centre (in Leicestershire) has a small aquarium laboratory for fundamental research, but a brand new research laboratory has been built by the API people in Pennsylvania, USA, with these pictures of the facilities on their Mars Fishcare stand. Attracting Attention Another stand that was attracting attention was by Dr David Pool who is the Chairman of the OATA Impact Exhibitions (and so organised the Trade Show itself). He has launched a brand of fish foods called FishScience and he had his own stand. With so Stands message to displays or This person around the much competition the needed to bring their the visitors by special hand-out leaflets. from Hikari walked Show all day.

One stand had an ice cream stop me and buy one. To show how the aquariums would look in the home, there were displays with room furnishings added.

Many exhibitors had furnished aquaria with goldfish and tropical species.

Neil Hardy s stand Fancy Goldfish on JMC s stand The Plants

Firms such as Waterplants and Aquatic Plants had amazing displays with the latest pre-potted specimens in hydroponic gels and water cascade systems. The Pond Scene The Water Garden Centres were catered for with pond equipment and Koi stands.

Converting the Petshop If the visitor owned a petshop without a fish section, there were several suppliers who would install units complete with aquaria and filters A good example was Hobby Fish here is the owner Jonathan Chalmers (specially brought into the show from retirement) showing how the display units have easy access (and choose your colour too) At the back of these display units are the pipes (wide bore for high water volume) and filter units to give clear water Even the Government had a stand this was Cefas the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science. They had information leaflets and advice for the

visiting aquatic store owners on the legal requirements of owning live fish and aquatic plants. The Trade Show was a fascinating and rewarding experience it is a pity that the hobbyist cannot experience it too. But they will when all the New Products revealed at the Show eventually reach the Aquatic Stores to be chosen by you and me (yes, the sign says no photographs not seen at the time, honestly).