Eastern Iowa Aquarium Association
A non-profit organization to promote the Tropical and Marine Fish keeping hobby with an emphasis on education and fellowship.
Meeting Speaker
Karen Randell
Tuesday, Nov 8, 2021 , 7:00 pm
Having Fun With Nano Tanks
Karen Randall grew up with aquariums as a child. While experienced in many facets of the aquarium hobby, as an adult her focus turned to a concentration in planted display aquariums and the study and propagation of aquatic plants. Her articles and photography have been published in multiple languages and publications around the world. For many years she authored the monthly column, “Sunken Gardens” in Aquarium Fish Magazine. She is an international speaker on aquarium subjects. Karen is past president of the Boston Aquarium Society, is past president and serves on the board of the Aquatic Gardeners Association. She was editor of the AGA magazine, The Aquatic Gardener, for 5 years and is now technical editor of the magazine. She serves as a judge for the AGA International Aquascaping Contest and has recently retired after many years of judging the Aqua Design Amano International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest as well as serving on the jury of a number of live aquascaping contests. She is the chair of the AGA Aquascaping Live! Aquascaping contest. She has also served as a consultant on several major projects at public aquaria.
Karen travels frequently to study aquatic plants in the wild. She has traveled extensively in South and Central America and South East Asia and Australia as well as the southern parts of the U.S. In Brazil she has assisted with Project Piaba, a conservation program in the Amazon centered on the aquarium fish trade. She regularly does programs on these topics as well as aquatic gardening for groups ranging from aquarium clubs, school children, garden clubs and church organizations.Her book, Sunken Gardens, A Step-by-Step Guide to Planting Freshwater Aquariums is availablefrom all major book retailers. She maintains a website, where she blogs on additional planted aquarium subjects at:www.sunkengardens.net And has recently started blogging on The newly revamped Florida Aquatic Nurseries website as well. www.floridaaquatic.com/news .Recently, Karen’s interests have expanded to include terrestrial enclosures, using both aquatic and terrestrial plants in terrariums, vivariums, and paludariums. These lovely enclosures seem to be gaining headway around her home. She has started a sister website for this side of the hobby, though this site is still very much a work in progress! www.glassjungles.net