MACNA 2018 in Las Vegas will be the thirtieth time this venerable show celebrates the saltwater aquarium hobby and for this milestone MASNA is pulling out all the stops. With thirty speakers this year’s MACNA is the most packed with presentation and speakers from all over the world, and from a very wide diversity of related fields.
Since there’s so many presentations during the three days each year we prioritize just a few to make time to see in person. These are just out personal favorites but there’s a wide range of speakers and topics so do be sure and check out the MACNA 2018 Speaker Lineup to familiarize yourself with all the topics and options.
Joe Caparatta
Joe is the quintessential aquarium renaissance man with a passion for corals and reef tanks that is readily apparent when speaking with him. He’s worked at all rungs of the marine aquarium industry from scrubber boy and bagging feeders to now running a mini empire consisting of a retail store and service in Manhattan to importing and farming corals in Los Angeles. If Joe’s got something to say about reef tanks you’ll want to listen close.
Julian Sprung
There’s lots of reef aquarium gurus in the hobby these days but when we hit a wall or need some next-level feedback and advice, Julian is the man we reach out to for answers.
We try and engineer our aquariums to be robust and capable of surviving in the face of adverse conditions but mother nature is a powerful force. Julian will have some very useful and costly lessons to share with readers following his recent ‘challenges’ in the face of a powerful hurricane.
Liz Groover
Liz is a young passionate aquarists with an infectious enthusiasm for marine fish culture. We’re not usually hot for the fish breeding talks but the small ornamental wrasses that Liz works to culture are some of the most relevant species for home tanks. We hope her recent successes can be duplicated at the hobbyist level because there’s a whole world of wrasses waiting to be bred first by aquarists all over the world.
Dana Riddle
Don’t let his old salt look fool you because Dana is quite possibly one of the most curious reef aquarists in the hobby. Mr. Riddle has been coming up with his own answers since the dawn of modern reef keeping being one of the first authors to measure and describe light using PAR meters and other equipment and his MACNA talk on coral color is sure to be a stimulating presentation.
Kevin Kohen
As the director of LiveAquaria Kevin has the good fortune to live up to his Fish Monger nickname. While he is best known for handling and photographing some of the rarest fish species that come into the trade, for this year’s presentation he is bringing us back to basics and discussing why some of the most common and easy to keep fish are some of the best aquarium fish whether you’re a beginner or a veteran saltwater aquarist.
