PotM Themes?

We are in the process of coming up with the Picture of the Month (PotM) themes for this upcoming academic year, and we want YOUR opinions!

Last year's themes were:

August - Fish Only
September - Top-Down
October - Halloween-ish Picture
November - Full Tank Shot (FTS)
December - Holiday Picture
January - Macro (Close-Up) Shot
February - From Far Away
March - Feeding Time
April - PotY


Would you like to keep these themes? Are there other themes that you would like to swap these out for?

We want to serve YOU to the best of our abilities, so post your feedback and comments here!

At the time I can't really think of any other categories that I would like. Maybe an inverts potm?

inverts would be cool!

Thanks for the suggestion! Unfortunately, we can't do an invert-themed PotM because it excludes anyone without inverts (and many of our members have fish only tanks).

Please keep the suggestions coming, though! We want your input, we just don't want to exclude anyone from the competition...

Sam_G wrote:

Unfortunately, we can't do an invert-themed PotM because it excludes anyone without inverts (and many of our members have fish only tanks)

But an invert can be put into a living space smaller than a bowl fish bowl or pico tank. I think everyone has the option to get one if they want one. I mean this isn't the "fish club at USF"

Nicholas41 wrote:

But an invert can be put into a living space smaller than a bowl fish bowl or pico tank. I think everyone has the option to get one if they want one. I mean this isn't the "fish club at USF"

That's very true. I had in mind the fish-bowl aquarist members that probably only have a betta or goldfish and no inverts; however, it is always possible to add an invert (as they are small like you pointed out), and we may even have some members that only have inverts and not fish (like shrimp-keepers, etc.).

Not trying to push for it, just thought it would be cool. I'm sure someone with a cherry shrimp the size of a quarter could take a sweet pic as well as someone with a peacock manits etc.

cherry shrimp are cheap and are ok in mosty any tank i thinK? and if you have a reef you are almost garunteed to have an invert.. i'm with nick, not a requirement but it would be really cool

I agree. We'll add inverts as a theme. However, that means we need to trim down the old list...

I vote to boot the "Halloween" and "Holiday" themes. Reasons: The Halloween theme encouraged pics of dead stuff, which doesn't make for a great forum homepage pic. Also, the winning PotM is posted the month after the contest, which makes it weird to have Halloween pics posted in November and Christmas-type pics in January...

Opinions??

If I had to choose between the two, I would get rid of "Halloween". Holiday theme is still somewhat acceptable in January. Or you could run the theme a month early so the picture is posted in December.

What about a love shot for February? Like two clowns hosting the same coral, or two things sharing a cave, or somebody hugging their tank. A red betta or pink coral?

Iceelover wrote:

What about a love shot for February? Like two clowns hosting the same coral, or two things sharing a cave, or somebody hugging their tank. A red betta or pink coral?

I like it!


The main problem is that we will not have a PotM in August (because school starts so late this year), which is why I said we needed to cut two PotM themes. If we incorporate a "love" theme, then we need to cut three.

Proposed Solution: Keep throwing out new PotM theme ideas. Then next week open a poll that lists all of the old PotM themes plus the new suggested ones and have members vote for their favorites. The themes with the most votes, will be the ones used for this year. Sound good?

I like the idea of polling, is there any way to allow people to vote for their top three (as we have a limited # of voters)? As an added idea, maybe Still Life, where people take pictures of something non-fish in their tank, like plants, coral, decorations, or get creative with that.

Farfromfiji wrote:

I like the idea of polling, is there any way to allow people to vote for their top three (as we have a limited # of voters)? As an added idea, maybe Still Life, where people take pictures of something non-fish in their tank, like plants, coral, decorations, or get creative with that.

Thanks for the "still life" suggestion! We'll add it to the list!

I'm not sure if I can limit the voting like you suggested, but I can try...

If anyone else has any new PotM theme suggestions, make sure to post them up here ASAP! We will open the voting polls very soon!!!

Today's the last day for new PotM suggestions. If you have any, post 'em up ASAP. You've got until 5pm today!