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BAS is an enthusiasts' society founded in Bristol in 1929 specializing in fancy goldfish. Our aims are:
Like most clubs, we have a committee to run the society, consisting of a President, Treasurer, Secretary and several others, who are elected for three years on a rotational basis. The committee organizes the Annual Show, the regular meetings, and such like.
We meet monthly to discuss the many aspects of the hobby from breeding the different varieties of goldfish to feeding, housing, health and diseases, and so on, often with a visiting speaker, and over the last 70-odd years we have built up a huge fund of knowledge about goldfish which we are only too keen to pass on and share with other fishkeepers.
Meetings this year, 2022, are held on the the first Sunday of every month, starting at 1:30 p.m. and finishing at 5 p.m., at a new venue: Knowle Community Centre, The Square, Crossways Road, Knowle, Bristol BS4 2ST. These are 'real', in-person meetings.
The monthly Zoom meetings (which were in place of real meetings in 2020-21) are continuing, and are open to non-members. To join the Zoom meetings, contact Ian Brailey: ianbraileyishome at gmail dot com (remove the spaces, change "at" to "@" and change "dot" to "."); or call 0117 9859303.
See the Events page for the schedule of monthly Hall (in-person) and Zoom meetings.
We hold a table show each month from April until October featuring a particular variety of goldfish: members bring along specimens for display illustrating the characters of the strain in question and we discuss the good and bad points of each fish in relation to the Standards of the Society - for each strain has an ideal 'specification' covering colour, shape, fin length, scalage, deportment, etc, which we hope to achieve through selective breeding for the desired characters. Goldfish, all being varieties of the single species Carassius auratus, have a huge degree of genetic variability, and it is this which has enabled the development of such vastly differing strains, from the fast and streamlined comet to the slow-moving, graceful veiltail.
In September of each year we hold our Annual Show in Bristol, at which members, not just from BAS but from societies throughout Britain, compete with each other to exhibit the best-in-show of each variety in a number of classes (yearlings, two-year-olds, mature fish, etc); our Show is the Crufts of the goldfish world!
At the show there is an auction of young fish, which is an ideal opportunity to acquire first-class stock for those new to the hobby, and there is a wealth of advice on-hand for anyone wanting to know about keeping and breeding goldfish.
Membership is £12 Sterling per year (£16 for people living overseas). There is a monthly newsletter containing a report of the previous meeting and articles of interest about the hobby.
To ask about joining BAS, contact Ian Mildon: mm150 at btinternet dot com (remove the spaces, change "at" to "@" and change "dot" to "."); or call 0117 9712383.
We welcome new members, and coming along to the meetings is a good way of getting to know breeders who can supply newcomers with quality stock. You do not have to breed goldfish to enjoy them, and many of our members take pleasure from simply keeping and looking after these wonderful fish.
Please NOTE: One thing we cannot do is sell and ship goldfish. We do not engage in commercial activity; we are a society of hobbyists, and any breeders with spare stock for sale bring these to the annual show for auction (see Annual Show below).
BBC West in 1995 filmed a short preview of the BAS Annual Show at the home of one of the society's prominent fish breeders; set in the fish house in his garden, the film clip shows BAS members discussing preparation of fish for showing, and illustrates particularly fine specimens of the Bristol blue shubunkin goldfish.
If you would like to view the film (one minute's duration), please feel free to download the clip (5.7Mb mpg file) for playing offline at your leisure.
All content is original and is copyright Bristol Aquarists' Society. Please contact us (see below) if you wish to use any material herein.
It is our policy that all photographs and other images on this website are originals:
If we have no picture of our own, we will occasionally use a picture from elsewhere and we wish to ensure that these are properly accredited. (It is possible that some of the 35mm slides of the uncommon goldfish varieties are photographs of illustrations in older publications; if any viewer observes an unaccredited photograph from elsewhere, please contact us (see below) with the details and we will make the necessary accreditation).
For comments or information about this website, please email your enquiry to Peter Brokenshire (Website Author): basenquiries at gmail dot com (remove the spaces, change "at" to "@" and change "dot" to ".")
BAS is a member of the International Federation of Online Clubs and Aquatic Societies (IFOCAS); you can visit them by clicking on their logo, below: