The Fish Wrap: September 2006
From The Koi Club of the Air
We had a fun time speaking with koi, goldfish, and water garden enthusiasts during August prior to events in September and October. The first audio on August 10 featured Koi & Goldfish Judge Peter Ponzio sharing with us history of the two disciplines & hobbies plus his preview of the Sept. 8-10, 5th Annual Northern Midwest ZNA Koi Show in Plainfield, Illinois. “We actually started five years ago as sort of an offshoot of the Midwest Pond and Koi Society. We decided on the ZNA show to start a club that was more specific to koi. We tend to get size five and six fish, large fish of high quality.” Being a U.S. based chapter of the Japanese Zen Nippon Airinkai (ZNA) visitors to the show won’t be disappointed by the show quality fish. Many of the members of the Northern Midwest ZNA are also members of the Midwest Pond and Koi Society, which is much larger with about 500 members. Ponzio recently retired and is now not only a goldfish judge, but recognized as a koi judging authority under the Associated Koi Clubs of America (AKCA). Peter shared the common history between the goldfish and koi societies in Japan. Plus, there was extensive conversation about combined shows and issues related to them.
That show also included conversation with Businessman Kevin Burns, president of Maximum Service Landscaping in Burlingame California who shared some concerns he had with one of his pond projects.
The August 24 Show was chalked full. Chris Charbonneau discussed the 15th Annual Washington Koi & Water Garden Society Show to be held Sept. 9-10. Their club is 15 years old and started with the help of vendors in the area that wanted to establish a high quality show in their area. In a unique approach to running a koi show vendors don’t operate booths in the traditional manner, but make up benching teams, wrangle, and work as emcees, which Chris explained the benefits of along with other interesting tidbits. “We draw members from Washington, Idaho, and Oregon and we are international and draw from Canada,” Chris said. Koi Club of the Air cohost Todo Todorsky jokingly asked if the Canadian fish swim differently? Chris laughed in response and said, “They do have this little trick to get across the border. They don’t quarantine them, but they do have to come with extraordinary paperwork from veterinarians. Now with Homeland Security issues around water and all it will be dicey for the Canadian hobbyists, but they are planning to come. They have reserved their tanks and we are going to welcome them whenever they are able to get here. They have 50 show tanks available and expect 250-300 fish to show. Certainly the Washington Koi & Water Garden Society Show will draw many a koi enthusiast from the area to see one of the largest shows in the country.
David Boyd shared details of the 12th Annual Atlanta Koi Club Show to be held Sept. 16-17. The Atlanta club began back in 1989 according to David and has grown significantly since. They have a strong association with the University of Georgia and their local koi celebrity Vickie Vaughan, UGA Director of Aquatic Services Dept. of Veterinarian Medicine. UGA Koi Herpes Virus research will be the principle beneficiary of funds raised from the Atlanta Koi Club Show this year. And David notes the Atlanta Club is focussed on their mission in the hobby. “We help out whenever we get a notice of distress from anybody in the area,” David said. “It is just a matter of helping people learn about their ponds and everything.” The Atlanta Koi Club has much to be proud of and they share a portion of it on their website at www.atlantakoiclub.org.
Garry Chin took time out from his vacation (actually in his hotel room) to share with us details of their Camelia Koi Club Koi Show to be held in Sacramento, California on Sept. 30-Oct. 1. The club is over 25 years old and has membership principally in northern California. They are expecting over 200 koi to show in their 35 available show tanks at their event, which is usually very well attended. “We’ve had to turn away vendors over the last few years,” Garry said. “So this year we decided to move to a larger venue and we are able to have 25 10x10 booths for vendors.” And they have already sold out their ample vendor space! A special feature of this year’s show will be the unveiling of a new lecture series by Head Judge Toshio Sakai, of the Isawa Japan Nishikigoi Center who is best known for being the first to breed the Matsunosuke Sanke koi variety. The lecture was yet unnamed, but sure to be a good one and worth every bit of the free-of-charge fee levied on the event that Sunday. Obviously, this is one more show worth planning to attend, as are all club shows!
Todo spearheaded some important discussions in our Koi Talk and Pond Tech sections in August, which included a primer on how to prepare your koi, goldfish, and water garden facilities for a hurricane. It was a timely piece as hobbyists along the Southeastern seaboard faced down a hurricane and tropical storm warnings last week.
In other news we had to make some server adjustments in August as we faced a tremendous amount of interest from the Koi Club of the Air audience that listen in from numerous websites aside from our own that feature the content. Thanks again to everyone that makes the show possible including our guests and advertisers, which include AZ Ponds & Supplies at www.AZPonds.com, Blackwater Creek Koi Farms at www.koisale.com, and Mazuri Koi Foods at www.mazuri.com.
Happy Ponding from the hosts of www.KoiCluboftheAir.org the only nationally available outlet for Koi club news.
John Hawley & Todo Todorsky
