For those of you who don't know, and you live in or around the Los Angeles or Orange County areas, there is a wonderful fish-keeping club called COAST.
Its' website (although not always updated) is
www.fishclub.freeservers.com.
We meet almost always on the first Sunday of every month, in the Costa Mesa Community Center (behind the Petco, and next door to the Costa Mesa Public Library, at 1 p.m.
Membership is $20 a year, and includes a monthly newsletter. You can "audit" your first meeting for free to decide if you'd like to join.
A typical meeting includes about a half hour of chit chat, followed by a guest speaker (recent subjects have included planted tanks, cories, cichlids, killies, freshwater caves in Central Amercia, and the 2004 (Aquarama?) fish show in Asia), followed by a large auction with offerings from members (mostly fish, but there's also usually some plants, and dry goods). I have gotten some amazing deals at the auction! The auction alone is a good reason to join.
If you're into fish, or even better, into planted tanks, please consider coming to one of our meetings. There are a few members who are specifically planted tank enthusiasts, but it would be nice if there were more of us!