About the Bristol Aquarists' Society

<body bgcolor="#CCCCFF" background="../back5.jpg" text="#0000FF" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" leftmargin="0" rightmargin="0" topmargin="0" bottommargin="0" class="main"> <a name="top"></a> <p align="center" class="headlink"><br>| <a href="../index.htm" target="_top" title="Home Page">Home</a> | <span class="here">About Us</span> | <a href="../goldfish/goldfish.htm" target="_top" title="Fancy goldfish varieties, keeping and breeding goldfish, diseases, and the history of goldfish">Goldfish</a> | <a href="../events/events.htm" target="_top" title="Goldfish shows and goldfish society monthly meetings">Events</a> | <a href="../links/links.htm" target="_top" title="Links to goldfish and other aquatic societies and fishkeeping information">Useful Links</a> |<br> </p> <h1 align="center">ABOUT THE BRISTOL AQUARISTS' SOCIETY</h1> <p align="center"><span class="notice">Search</span>: To search this site, use the <a href="../index.htm" target="_top">search box</a> at the top of our Home Page.</p> <p>BAS (for a couple of months more - see below) is an enthusiasts' society founded in Bristol in 1929 specializing in fancy goldfish. Our aims are:</p> <ul> <li>To advance the study and enjoyment of goldfish and all coldwater life</li> <li>To keep and breed the various strains of fancy goldfish, and to exhibit them at shows</li> <li>To bring new members into the Society</li> </ul> <h4><span class="inverse">2024 Autumn Update</span> The future of traditional goldfish keeping in the UK, and of this website</h4> <p>In the last few years, the traditional goldfish keeping hobby has been in decline; there are fewer and fewer members attending the monthly meetings of the goldfish societies or breeders exhibiting at the shows. This is true of true of the Bristol Aquarists' Society (BAS), the Association of Midland Goldfish Keepers (AMGK) and the Northern Goldfish and Pondkeepers Society (NGPS); the North East Goldfish Society (NEGS) has ceased to operate.</p> <p>Without active members, it is not proving possible to hold the annual shows at which breeders show their fish; the AMGK show this year (2024) was poorly supported, and the BAS and NGPS shows have been cancelled. The Nationwide show (jointly presented by all the societies) is going ahead this year (on Saturday 05 October 2024 in Coventry - see <a href="../events/events.htm" target="_top">Events</a>), and it may well be that for the next few years the societies 'consolidate' into just the Nationwide show each year.</p> <p>The Goldfish Society of Great Britain (GSGB) have meanwhile taken a different route: their first new style annual event was in 2023, and the next will be in 2025 (again,see <a href="../events/events.htm" target="_top">Events</a>); breeders do not show their fish at this event, but there are many fish on display and for sale. The GSGB are building more of an online community.</p> <p>As the 'traditional' goldfish keepers are now in their 60s or 70s, we are not going to be around for too much longer. The younger folk are progressively moving the hobby online, using blogs, etc. And why not? Change is part of human society.</p> <p>But without the traditional annual shows, there are no British-bred goldfish to photograph to provide content for maintaining this BAS website; this has always, uniquely, been a site about the fish rather than about the members. There is no point in the website author (me, Peter Brokenshire) going online and updating this site with pictures from other goldfish websites that are not British goldfish bred in the UK; further, this site has always featured original photographs, not copies, except very rarely, and strictly as acknowledged and accredited. In short, I have run out of material to keep this site updated.</p> <p>If younger members wish this site to be maintained, then they need to volunteer to run the annual shows.</p> <p>In 2029 it will be the 100th anniversary of BAS, and the present committee will try to preserve the society as active in some form, in order to celebrate that major milestone.</p> <p><span class="notice">Note:</span> For clarity, as requested by the BAS committee, I will close this website in early December 2024.</p> <p>After that, I will try and find a way of preserving the goldfish content of this site, but with no 'Society' content, and no further updates. The goldfish keeping hobby will be carried forward by younger folk in blogs, etc, and for some years more, of course, you can very usefully go to the <a href="https://www.goldfishsociety.co.uk">GSGB website</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p align="center">[<a href="../index.htm" target="_top" title="Return to Home Page">Back</a>]    [<a href="#top" title="Return to top of page">Top</a>]    [<a href="../goldfish/goldfish.htm" target="_top" title="Forward to Fancy Goldfish Varieties">Next</a>]<br>© Bristol Aquarists' Society<br> </p> </body>