Siskiyou Koi & Pond Club

The first time our club ventured into the community to share information about ponds and Koi was April 26-27, 2008 at our local Master Gardener’s Spring Fair.  From the pictures it looks like everything began on the day of the fair but in reality that day was preceded by months of talk and planning.  Since our club does not presently own any equipment we are fortunate to have a good relationship with the In Thee Garden branch of Southern Oregon Nursery.  This store is our best local resource for pond building equipment and all pond and fish supplies.  They offered to loan us a large 400 gallon tank, a pump, waterfall filter and all the necessary things to make it work.  They also offered us a spot in their booth.   Dennis, the owner, is a member of the club.

On Friday we cleaned the tank and got everything ready to go.  Our coach for this first outing with Koi was Elsie Richardson, from Roseburg.   We prepared the water on Friday as per her instruction by adding our cup of salt and de-chlorinating the water.  Very early on Saturday Elsie came to show Dan and Lois the proper way to catch and bag very large Koi (any Koi for that matter).  Elsie generously loaned us her nets and bowls as we didn’t have access to anything that large.  Dan got in the water and with net guidance from Dieter of Southern Oregon Nursery we actually got one in the bowl.  They lifted the bowl out of the water and slide the fish into a bag. The bagging was properly completed and the fish was boxed for its trip.  After the first one we were feeling more confident and got choosey on which ones to take. 

When we got to the fair, Elsie showed us how to get them into the Koi sock net and then into the tank with no mix of water.  Slick!   We are going to have to start saving for some equipment of our own.  With the fish happily swimming we were back in our comfort zone, talking to people about how we love our ponds and fish.  We were eager to share how much we love hand feeding and learning the different personalities of our Koi pets.   We got lots of questions too.   We heard the word “heron” many times during the day, answered many questions on how to get rid of algae, and a variety of other pond topics.  We also told people about our club.  One person filled out an application and joined on the spot.  The new brochure was a big help and we also had a flyer about our next meeting.  Our new banner and club shirts helped us feel proud of our club and our progress in just one year.  

The fish water was tested for ammonia on the schedule Elsie gave us and we were pleased to find the level zero.  Saturday night we covered the tank to make sure they stayed inside. 

Sunday at the fair was pretty much a repeat of Saturday, lots of talk and questions.  When the Fair was over we bagged the Koi and took them back where we got them.  We were happy to have them returned safe and sound. 

This was a great experience, one that will probably become a tradition as it is a logical place to meet people who would likely be most interested.  We are very grateful to Elsie for her help and support.  We learned a lot and will feel confident to do it again on our own.   Dennis gets a big thank you for his support which was essential this first year.  We also appreciate the involvement of so many club members.  The people who worked at least one two hour shift in the booth are Dan, Christian, Linda, Ron, Sandi, Wendy, Jewel, Leanne, Charlie, and Lois. 

The Puget Sound Koi Club continued its annual tradition and participated in the 2007 Spring Fair in Puyallup, WA.  This event took place from Thursday to Sunday, 19-22 April and attracted 99, 423 visitors.  Our club shared display space with Hoshi Koi, a local koi dealer and active supporter of the club.  President John Hillstrom organized our booth, obtained informational handouts, and set up a schedule for members to be present and meet the public.  The natural highlight was a show tank containing several beautiful koi for visitors to ogle.  During this four day fair several club members shared their koi keeping experiences with interested guests and answered questions about the hobby.   The Spring Fair provided an ideal venue for families to enjoy being together and having fun.  This fact was quite evident in the excitement generated by children and adults as they watched the colorful koi swim before them.  Our koi booth was located in the same building as the Fair’s annual garden show and enabled visitors to get ideas on how to landscape koi ponds.  Everyone involved in this outreach effort had a great time in making people more aware of the pleasures and benefits of the koi hobby.   

Despite the somewhat dismal weather, it being cooler and rainy, during the Portland Fall Home and Garden Show from October 4^th through the 7^th, 2007, there was a decent turnout in attendees. We had the wonderful luck of being placed close to access doors, water access and a drain which made our setup and take down a breeze. Our corner location was also a marvelous spot for people to watch our display fish without being crowded into one small space. The fact that we were directly across from a concession stand didn’t hurt as people tended to gaze at the four koi, one comet and one shubunkin while waiting in line. Like I said, it was a perfect spot. Little did they know we lay in wait to bombard them with information, wanted or not…

It is amazing to learn just how many people have ponds, either man-made or natural, put in by them or inherited with the homes they bought, who have never resolved their pond problems. Even after information was shoved at them (in our loving fashion) they still had no interest in remedying the problems. It seemed that if it didn’t work right the very first time, they gave up, mostly because it would be "work" to fix the issue.

The main issues were, in order of prevalence: raccoons, herons, kingfishers, filtration, algae, ducks and geese. There were people who had ponds with koi, goldfish, bass, catfish and a combination thereof of these ichthyoids in residence. Despite some of these ponds being installed rather recently, some did not have bottom drains which made maintenance a mess, had gently sloped sides which allowed raccoons that nightly smorgasbord buffet, or were shallow enough for herons to stand in. And, just exactly what do you do about those darned kingfishers anyway? Train your fish to stay away from the surface? Easier said than done…

I encountered only one family that had several inches of rock lining the bottom of their pond and they refused to remove it, believing their one to three times a year (you read that right – a year) cleaning was sufficient and did not bother the fish (even though they admitted the fish huddled at the far end during the cleaning process of stirring the rock up to dislodge debris which was then quickly flushed, a process that was not completely explained to me by the pond owners). I hope I didn’t tick them off too badly by suggesting that the multiple inches depth of rock harbored bad stuff and that even though koi tended to rearrange any gravel or dirt in the hunt for delectable bug and worm tidbits, they couldn’t rearrange rock that deep. To prevent a public argument, it was agreed that if it was working for them, then that is the way it should be.

One gentleman was lucky enough to have a natural pond with an artesian spring fed stream. If I recall correctly, the pond measured about an acre. His concern was that since putting two koi in it a few years ago, he hasn’t seen them. I just HAD to smile at that. Lucky fish! His other visual problem was a very lush covering of frog bit over the entire pond surface. Well, said I, there you go, that explains why you can’t see the fish. The only remedy was to add lots more fish or to continually scoop off the frog bit in the hopes of seeing one of his koi occasionally. Neither of these organic solutions seemed very practical. At the time, I didn’t think of suggesting a skimmer, but since he wanted to keep the pond in its natural state, I’m not sure that suggestion would have helped. I fear I failed him.

A few people asked if the koi on display were catfish. No, I responded, they are my mud puppies, just common reject koi not good enough for anyone to show, but more than perfect for me to gaze at in my pond. There were the questions of hardiness, ice, water depth, food, mature size, mature age, cross breeding with goldfish, use of salt, koi prices, sexing koi, cannibalism of fry, plumbing, aeration, filtration and more, including tastiness (yes, you can eat them, but would you really want to after you paid how much to get them?). And, sometimes I too would like to know: Where do you get THAT kind?

We raffled off a bunch of divisions of one of my water lilies and a large basket of pond and koi related goodies. Happily, our club gained four new members from the show and raised a few shekels from the raffle. All in all, fulfilling our duty to provide koi, goldfish and pond information to the public in keeping with our non profit organization mission was not work at all, but a joy. I hope the club is ready for my next show suggestion…. Is that whimpering I hear in the background? It’s ok, I’ll only schedule you for one shift next time.

Northwest Koi and Goldfish Club 2007 Grant Article

Children’s Day at the Japanese Garden

Display by Northwest Koi & Goldfish Club

The Northwest Koi and Goldfish Club members enjoyed another wonderful event at Portland’s Japanese Garden again this year. On the first Sunday in May each year the Japanese Garden hosts a festival to honor children and it is called Children’ Day. Parents all over the world take great pride in their children, but each year in Japan two separate festivals are held in their honor: March 3^rd for girls and May 5^th for boys. At the Japanese Garden in Portland they combine the two days and celebrate Children’s Day. This year it was on May 6^th and we had the wonderful opportunity to set up a koi display for the children so that they could view the koi up close and personal. A tank was set up for the fish on Saturday afternoon on the deck of the pavilion and Floyd, Michael & Raeleen, and Bill & Linda had a fun time on Sunday introducing the children (and our future koi keepers) to the koi.

This year we were very fortunate with our weather, which did start out a bit wet, but then turned out very nice when the sun broke through for the rest of the day. The sun came out just after the children started to arrive and helped to raise the koi-no-bori (carp kites) on the flag pole. As the day progressed the children enjoyed many demonstrations and activities at the Garden. The Taiko Drummers, traditional Japanese dance, and the Japanese Tea Ceremony were all performed for the children. There was also an abundance of hands-on activities for the children to participate in which included: koi drawings for the children to color, block printing, sumi brush painting, ikebana (flower arranging), and origami koi for the children to fold (provided by Northwest Koi & Goldfish Club). 

But the koi viewing was definitely one of the most popular of the activities at the Garden. The children came back repeatedly to pet and enjoy the koi. We were all kept quite busy giving out koi stickers and fish necklaces and answering all of the questions by these inquisitive little minds such as….”How old are they?”, “Do they bite?”, “How big do they get?”, “How long do they live?”, “Do they have names?”, “What do they eat?”, and many other fun questions.

The warmth and excitement of the children was so much fun and definitely took some of the chill off the early afternoon drizzle and helped to make this a very memorable and enjoyable experience for the members of the Northwest Koi & Goldfish Club. We hope to continue to help with Children’s Day at the Japanese Garden for years to come!

Submitted by:

Linda Montgomery

Northwest Koi & Goldfish Club