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As always, the Marine Aquarium Expo for 2011, which was held in Costa Mesa, California, had a good turnout. |
Beautiful animals abounded at the show, such as this Tridacna clam. |
A large touch tank housing various species intrigued a lot of the younger visitors. |
The touch tank’s stingrays were very popular. This specimen came right up to the side of the tank. |
On April 2nd and 3rd, the Orange County Fair and Event Center in Costa Mesa, California, welcomed the Marine Aquarium Expo. As in past years, there was a good turnout for this event, which included a lot of frags and fun.
In addition to frags, there were also beautiful display tanks featured at some of the booths, which housed some stunning reef setups. It’s amazing how a thriving reef tank can be set up just for one of these shows—but thank goodness they can, as they are sure to inspire more people to join the reefkeeping hobby!
One impressive thing about this show is that is strives to attract younger fishkeepers into the hobby. A Captain Jack Sparrow lookalike was on hand, and nearby there was a touch tank that seemed to keep the younger crowd interested. Horseshoe crabs, sea stars and rays were just some of the animals housed in the touch tank.
And of course, for those who are already in the hobby, there were vendors, speakers and raffles. Some of the speakers included Bob Fenner, Ret Talbot, Walt Smith and more.
Frags were all over the place, too, for anyone going “frag shopping” at the show. Both commercial booths and aquarium societies were selling frags of all kinds. Some of the societies that attended were the Las Vegas Valley Reefers, San Diego Marine Aquarium Society, Southern California Reef Keepers and the Utah Marine Aquarium Society. If you want a quick peek at some of the animals they were selling, just check out our slideshow! There you’ll be able to see some of the frags the societies were offering, as well as learning a bit about the popular frags from our interviews with society members.
If you’re in the Orange County, California, area and are interested in buying some frags—or just in attending a great reef show—be sure to check out MAX for 2012!
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