By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

SEBAGO — Ribbons of sunlight skirt around the canopy of trees and illuminate the surface of the creek. It seems peaceful and quiet with only a few minnows passing through.

However, there is a lot more going on beneath the surface of the creek than one realizes.

Sam Rutka, an employee at Easy Aquarium in Gorham, and a contributing writer for the magazine Paludarium Primer, is searching the water for aquatic plants that are suitable for an aquarium.

There are plenty of plants, each of which elicits a long explanation from Rutka. The river also provides a home to crawfish, leeches, and water skaters.

This is the field trip for the local aquarium club — an outing to collect plants.   

The Lake Region Aquarium Society was organized about three years ago with the aim of sharing with others the love of the fish and plants that live inside the glass tanks.

For club president Bill Gill, it has been strange transitioning from popular aquarium clubs in Boston to a startup aquarium club in Maine.

Obviously, there is the smaller population, especially in the town of Sebago, where the club meets. The club holds free raffles of fish to help people get started. The club has had three different meeting spots before settling on the Spaulding Memorial Library.

But, the biggest difference between aquarium enthusiasts in Boston and in the Lake Region is that Maine has much stricter rules about bringing home native fish, Gill said.

“You cannot collect fish in Maine. Maine is the most restrictive state as far as the rules for freshwater fish,” he said.

“All the other states maintain a list of things you cannot have. Maine has a list of what you can have, less than 1% of what is out there, which makes it a challenge,” he said.

“The clubs in the other states focus on species preservation, and try to collect rare fish. Those aren’t allowed here in Maine,” he said.

So the permissible field trip is collecting the plants that people can keep in their aquariums.

“Collecting plants are one of the few things you can do around here,” Gill said.

“Some people like to set up an aquarium that looks like the natural habitat,” Gill said.

The Lake Region Aquarium Society meets once a month, on the third Saturday of the month at 1 p.m.

“A lot of people breed fish. That is one of the main things the club does is encourage people to breed fish. A typical aquarium club will have an auction every month. People bring in fish they bred or equipment they don’t use anymore,” Gill said.

“We get people from all over the state because we are the only club in the state,” he said.

The club started meeting at a restaurant in town, then switched the location to the Sebago Town Hall before getting permission to meet at the library about eight months ago.

“We thought moving to directly off Route 114 would make it easier for people from Portland and the Seacoast to get here,” Gill said.

“Because we are a new club and because there hasn’t been an aquarium club in Maine for 30 or 40 years, we try to bring breeding stock and raffle it off each meeting — to get people started,” he said.  

For more information about the Lake Region Aquarium Society, view the club’s webpage which is lakeregionaquarium.org or email club president Bill Gill at bostonbreeder@bostonguppyclub.com

The society meets on the third Saturday of each month at the Spaulding Memorial Library, which is located in the Town of Sebago immediately off Route 114. Club meetings start at 1 p.m.