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May 2000 Selected Articles |
Hi Koi Lovers - President |
Office of Sec. - Anne |
At this time, with the best interest of the club in mind, I feel that I am not the right person for this position. Truthfully, I was excited, although nervous, about taking over this position, but I felt sure I would get better if given the time and support. However, in only four short months as president, there have been numerous negative remarks made directly to me, as well as the ones I’ve heard second hand. At first I regarded these comments as an adjustment in getting used to me, and me getting used to the job.
When I was approached to run for president late last year, I hesitated because I wasn’t sure I had the time to devote to the club with my job, family, Jaguar games, etc., and my own pond to deal with, I thought I’d be spreading myself too thin. I finally relented because I do enjoy this club and especially enjoy the friendships I have made.
I have really tried to give a lot of time and attention to the club for these past four months, striving to get myself in sync with what’s expected of me. This is all very new to me, to think of all the in’s and out’s of running a club. I know it’s impossible to please all of the people all of the time, but I hadn’t expected some members to be so eager to destroy the very fine comradery within our club. I would have preferred it if I was called directly, so that I could at least have had a chance to address any problem that a member had with the job I was doing. I’m told that I didn’t provide any leadership. All of this is a little more than I was prepared to hear after such a short time. On the other hand, many of you have told me that I was doing a good job and that I got better each month. My thanks to those of you who were patient with me and encouraged me and were willing to give me a chance. Unfortunately, enough things were said that it has taken the wind out of my sails and I no longer can give my all to this job.
Please accept my resignation, along with my sincere apology if I let you down. Jim Roberts
Office of the Secretary by: Anne
Our last event was the Young Fish Show, we had 14 members participate in the competition, several who were showing for the first time. 72 Fish competed. The show had a steady stream of visitors throughout the day, and the Club gained 4 new members. Jim Roberts and the setup crew did a great job fitting all the tanks into the limited amount of space. Congratulations to all who participated in the show. Again, a large Thank You to Joe & Sherri White, for taking care of water quality and being our Judging team, they did a great job!Our main focus now will be for the Annual Pond Tour to be held June 3 & 4. We still need additional ponds to add to the tour, we currently have 8 families signed up and would like to have 12 ponds on the tour. If you have not signed up and will show your pond, please contact one of the Board Members. Ponds on the tour will be open both Saturday and Sunday, we will also need volunteers for those that would like to have help in staffing during the show. This is one of the events that generate the most revenue for the Club, so we really need everyone to pull together to make the show a great success. Don't forget to let us know if you would like to show your pond, or volunteer to help in staffing. We will have flyers at the next meeting and encourage everyone to take some and to help advertise the show.
Koi Chat with Sandee Don & Shirley Rohman have been members of NFKC for 8 years. Shirley dug their first pond while Don was in south Florida for the post Andrew clean-up. Their first pond was kind of unique since in was dug between the house and the front walkway leading from the front door to the driveway. Where most people would have a small flower garden, Shirley envisioned a goldfish pond. However, in June of ‘93 the Rohmans went on the Annual Pond Tour and were given their first koi by Debra Richardson.The Rohmans now have two ponds. Besides the first pond at the front door where they have approximately 80-100 gallons of water and 6 fish, they have a 200-gallon prefab in the side yard where they have 8 or 9 fish. And there is probably a larger pond somewhere in their future. They have won several awards, though Shirley says she still doesn’t know any of the names of the various types of koi. She just likes her fish.
When asked about a funny, sad, terrifying, interesting or informative story about the pond or fish she recalled the time when they had come home from a two-week trip to Canada to visit their daughter and found that the electricity had gone off and they had lost most of their fish. The side pond had also developed some type of bacterial growth with the water level being down, so it was some time before they got that cleaned up enough to put fish back in that pond. Losing fish is always a heart breaking experience. And it certainly wasn’t what they wanted to come home to after a vacation.
When asked about advice for new koi keepers, Shirley was quick to respond that they should go on a pond tour before digging a hole. Learning about experienced koi keeper’s ponds, filter systems and landscaping before you get started can save time, money and frustration.
Ah, the sights, sounds, and smells of spring around the pond. The fish are frisky and very hungry eating as much food as 3% of their weight among five feedings a day. It seems they are spawning every few days. You do a water change to get rid of that excess ammonia and they spawn again. The lilies and bog plants are just beginning to grow after their dormancy so you feed them with the proper fertilizer to get the most out of the early spring growth. The toads and frogs make a heck of a racket into the night laying their strings and mats of black pearls. The fish gobble up the mats but leave the strings to develop into tadpoles that feast on hair algae or your favorite plants. Life is everywhere. And then there's 'Soup du jour', usually Pea, rarely Bullion. Why does this happen when things are going so well. Especially right after you added that special brightly colored koi with a name you can't say, spell, or even remember. Well, lucky for you 'Soup de Jour' is just that 'the soup of the day', or week, month, season. It actually isn't so bad, unnatural, expensive, or even hard to eliminate. A look at the nature of the beast will yield both secrets and questions.
Hutchinson introduced the "Paradox of the Plankton" as how so many different species of unicellular algae or can thrive without one becoming dominant to the exclusion of the others. One explanation is that of "contemporaneous disequilibrium", that is, the cells are floating around in such random haphazard manner that they are never in one place long enough to make a difference.
Does anybody ever order pea soup on purpose?
In laboratories and fish hatcheries there are scientists and aquarists that go to great lengths to produce pure cultures of select species of algae. These algae are critical for the culture of zooplankton which are typical first foods for larval fish. Algae producers constantly toe the line of the carrying capacity for algae culture. Population crashes and contamination by another species are common as algae can double their population in as little as a few hours. With that fast a doubling rate the algae culture can starve if and when the nutrient food supply is exhausted.
Back in your pond that culture, or pea soup is balanced on the brink. It gobbles up nitrates then dies and recycles nutrients within your pond. A close look at your water clarity will show a surprising clearness late at night as opposed to late afternoon. The beast can even swing your pH and oxygen levels to really stress your fish. During the day the algae are converting CO2 to O2 driving the oxygen levels to maximum. The lack of CO2 and accompanying carbonic acid (H2CO3) drive the pH up to dangerous levels where ammonia becomes un-ionized and very toxic to fish. At night the algae, being a green plant, respire to consume O2 and produce CO2. Low oxygen and high CO2 makes more carbonic acid which drives the pH down. A couple of cloudy overcast days in a row can spell disaster for large earthen fish ponds under bloom conditions as the lack of sunlight will cause a massive die off of the algae so that oxygen is no longer being produced and the decomposition of the dead algae further consume critical dissolved oxygen to severely stress or even kill the fish unless supplemental aeration is provided. This sounds really bad but your pond is hopefully buffered to stabilize the pH and the constant aeration from your waterfall or filter return will keep the gases in check.
The beast is feeding on all those nitrates that built up over the winter when the water temperature was too cold for algae to grow. Once the water temperature reaches the minimum the algae growth then boom you have what is called "bloom conditions. As long as these conditions are good for algae the soup stays thick and green. Water changes may help, but some municipalities have chloramine in the water which will feed the beast. You could let it run it's course, but it could continue through summer if there are no plants to consume the nutrients. Now, how can you be fertilizing the plants (and algae) while expecting the plants to out compete the algae for nutrients? Simply put, shade is the key here. The lilies will eventually hit that magic 70% surface coverage and the algae will be starved for light. In the absence of lilies you could provide a shading structure over the pond. There are even dye additives that will accomplish this. I'd stay away from chemical treatments that kill the algae as that would only load the system with dead decaying organic material and start the process all over again. I like to simply strain the algae from the water by placing a basket of polyester floss at the base of the waterfall or return. Simply wring it out or discard it when clogged and full of green ooze. Another popular treatment is the Ultraviolet (UV) sterilizer which zaps the cells as they pass through a tube of ultraviolet light. The UV also kills bacteria (good and bad so install it after your biofilter) and other unicellular pathogens. The trick here is to mechanically remove the algae faster than it is reproducing (remember that doubling rate). Oh yeah, if you’re raising fry indoors and want green water to feed them, good luck; it's near impossible to get good green algae blooms in the low level light and sterile clean culture water conditions of indoor cultures.
Bob Heagey Bonsai Koi Ponds , http://home1.gte/bonsai
Hi Koi Lovers - President |
Office of Sec. - Anne |