Hi Everyone!  Time is rapidly approaching for the fish show November 4. Which means there will be a lot of information to cover at the Oct. meeting, we will need members to help in various areas to ensure the show runs smoothly. The presentation for this meeting will be on catching and transporting fish to the show. If you haven't submitted a tank reservation and would like to show please contact any of the board members. Also, remember to get your reservations in for the Awards Banquet. We always have a great time and generally have a lot of nice raffle and door prize items, this can often compensate for the price of the banquet even if you do not have fish being judged in the show.

We had approximately 25 members who attended the Atlanta Show. I've had several phone calls and also some comments at the show about how active and well represented our club was. There were 16 members who gathered on Friday evening and went out to Longhorn's for dinner.

It all started because of Sushi. She didn't have that name then, she didn't have any name at all. Just a feeder comet 8 for a buck at the local pet store. Bought her to feed to an albino Oscar named Ernie, who did have a name and also quite an appetite. Nothing was special about Sushi, except that Ernie didn't eat her like he did all the other comets. Perhaps Ernie wanted some company, since he was all alone in his tank, and suppressed his hunger to keep this not-so-special comet as a pet. Bigger and bigger grew Sushi over the next few seasons, so big that I worried that Ernie might change his mind about having her as a pet and kill her instead as a fair-sized rival. So to her own tank went Sushi, and a few other fish to keep her from being lonely as her former master.

Sushi kept growing, and I moved her in turn to larger and larger tanks. By now she was starting to become a little bit special to me, having been with me so long, though I still had no urge to name a fish of such humble heritage. Not quite a pet, but still something to be cared for and watched for signs of hunger or distress.

Something about Sushi kept calling to me at times, even though I had no idea what that call might be. Over the next few years, as Sushi continued to flourish with only a few sad days when her former master passed away, her calling to me grew stronger. She transformed into a robust and elegantly finned beauty, nothing like I had ever had in one of my tanks before. Too large, I thought. Too large to live in four glass walls in spite of all my rearranging to accommodate her as well as I could. And still she called to me, and still I felt her call but did not understand.

A few months ago, while at a birthday party for my father at my childhood house, I went next door to give best wishes to an old neighbor. As we visited, he showed me some new exotic plants that he was growing in his backyard ponds. Ponds. Ponds. Ponds. As we approached the water, I saw lush hyacinths, lily pads, water iris and parrot's feather. I knew the names of none of these, but how I marveled at their vivid waxy green and delicate fronds. And then among the lustrous green boats and lacy sails I saw the fish. They came and crowded and begged to be fed with little "O" mouths and jumped and writhed and wiggled and looked so alive and bright and. . . . happy. Happy? Happy goldfish? How absurd! But there it was in front of me in one bright orange and white and calico wriggling ball of delight. I marveled out loud as my neighbor stooped with a handful of food and dipped into the water and fed and fussed and petted. "They love their pond," he said with a beaming smile. Their pond. Their pond. Their pond. I have always had a great deal of pride on my tanks, and how well I attend to my scaly pets, but at that moment I felt a flush of shame. My fish didn't act like his, didn't act the way his did at all. Could they possibly be. . . . unhappy? Just as absurd, but again, right there in front of me. I thought of Sushi at that moment and pictured her in my mind. A pond. A pond. A pond. A pond? Now after patient years of calling out to me, I heard her! Now I understood! Now I knew what to do!

The summer break from teaching school came a few weeks later, and then it began. Digging by day and reading at night. Learning, digging, learning, planning, learning, digging. Every shovel full was a little closer to the answer for my silently calling Sushi. And call she did - A Pond, A Pond, A Pond. I hear you now, little fish, and I'm working as fast as I can. A few weeks later and 5 cubic yards of earth were missing, and in their place was one thousand gallons of water and sweat surrounded by 10,000 pounds of rock. Not yet time for Sushi, though, for first the plants and then the 8 for a buck cheapies to cycle and then to see if it all will work the way I have learned it must. And still she calls - A Pond, A Pond, A Pond.

A few weeks later it all looks good. Now. Net her, into the bowl of tank water, and then to float the bowl in the pond. And now, the moment of truth. In she goes! A look around, a little wiggle of the fins, a longer look around, a longer wiggle of the fins, and then a trip around the edge to explore her new and non-rectangular world. A few days later I noticed that she was pushing the hyacinths around and coming to the top and splashing with her fins like a porpoise. I asked the mailman if his did that. See, he had started stopping by and eating his lunch in my front yard when he had a little time on his route - he has a pond. He said that his did that, too. I asked him if that meant that the fish was happy. He said he thought that' s what it meant. Then, then I gave her a name. Sushi. Former Oscar food promoted to Oscar pet and gradually gliding into my heart so she could patiently, patiently call to me. She reached me. I did it. Happy fish.

Kitty Litter has many benefits for koi ponds as described in a long discussion thread on clays on this site, and in a long article under Chris's column if you click up Chris on the home page of this web site. Note in Chris's column that one pound of kitty litter per 2000 gallons of water clears stringy algae and really clears the water overnight. Do expect the water to become very muddy in seconds, then will clear up in about 24 hours. The subject is never labeled kitty litter, it is labeled some type of clay, Bentonite or that other long name for the same kind of clay, but what they are discussing is cheap kitty litter.

The kitty litter is the equivalent of those quite expensive products called Refine and Refresh which are touted to be so great for koi ponds. The essence of this treatment is to turn our recirculating koi ponds into the equivalent of mud ponds by adding enough clay of the right type so the correct mineral content leaches into the water to provide optimum koi health. Please note that Chris Neaves also recommends coating the food with kitty litter to get the minerals directly into the koi through their food. Chris hires koi food formulated with clay content in South Africa where he lives to provide better koi health if I read his messages correctly.

The description of montmorillonite is :- one of a number of clay minerals within the Smectite Group. It forms by weathering or hydrothermal alteration of other aluminum-rich minerals, and is particularly common in altered volcanic ashes called bentonites. The description of bentonite is :- a native, colloidal, hydrated, non-metallic mineral of the Smectite Group that is primarily composed of the mineral montmorillonite.

Marketing of various brand names using the different terminology for the same thing, in the same text, is often responsible for the confusion that arises. Montmorillonite was named after its discovery locality, Montmorillon, France in the 1800's. Bentonite was named after Fort Benton, Montana, near which it was discovered. It is typically white, grey, or buff in color but may have tints of yellow, pink, or blue. Montmorillonite has a pearly or dull luster and is translucent. Montmorillonite clays are mined in various parts of the world. Whilst some are of excellent quality others are not very pure. Because montmorillonite clay is used as a human health food as well as in the fish industry, claims by health experts make interesting reading. An average mineral analysis of Montmorillonite by health experts demonstrate it contains no less than 67 minerals, including vital trace minerals. Recently it has been recognized and utilized by the cosmetic industry and by soil experts, who value it as an exceptionally good agricultural enhancement: crops grow faster, taste better, and are more resistant to disease.

There are several forms of montmorillonite available on the market. Some products are a pure montmorillonite clay. Others are a less pure form and have to be processed to remove and eliminate impurities they are mined with. Some claim to have bacteria additives. Some may have additives to the clay such as extra minerals, above what is naturally found in the clay. Whilst others are a montmorillonite clay /zeolite powder formulations.

Montmorillonite clays, depending of the chemical composition and purity, enhances water quality, replenish and enhance minerals and remove certain unwanted wastes. The uses and benefits go further than this. Montmorillonite improves the luster and skin quality of koi as well as heightening the color. Added to food it is claimed to aid digestion and increase the koi's ability to assimilate the vitamins and minerals required in their diet. Some claims are made that organic waste such as DOC will be removed from the pond. The ionic exchange capacity is increased. i.e. The scum on the pond can be reduced and perhaps eliminated by using Montmorillonite. The idea that Montmorillonite clays could be used in the emineralisation of ponds originate in Japan. Natural mud ponds are lined with bentonite to seal them. It was also discovered that feeding small quantities to koi and occasionally bathing then in it or adding regulated dosages to the pond resulted in wonderful and significant effects on their color and luster. Montmorillonite can be easily added to your daily ration of food. This is an excellent idea as it will replicate the koi feeding continuously off minute mineral rich particles on the floor of mud dams.

For the koi hobbyist montmorillonite is used directly in the pond water each week in the recommended dosage. Some types disperse more easily than others. Some have to be mixed with water before application whilst others can be sprinkled directly onto the pond surface. The pond will clear in about 6 - 10 hours, depending on the amount of organic material in the pond, but the montmorillonite will remain active. Do not be worried in a new pond if the water does not clear in a day or two. Also the clay can be mixed with the food. Coat damp pellets lightly with montmorillonite. Feed a few times a week. Chris Neaves

Additional Information: Dosages for montmorillonite:

Use the recommended dosage on the packet of the product you have bought. I use 10 grams per 1000 liters (about a heaped teaspoon) twice a week. But I must relate a story. About a year ago I was using some montmorillonite on the pond and I left the opened packet with about a kilogram in it at the edge of the pond. The family Doberman did the right thing by examining this unknown object and the packet was pushed into the pond. So I had an instant dosage of about a kilogram of montmorillonite in 20000 liters of water. The results: The next day the pond was stunning. Absolutely crystal clear. The fish were happy - they had not even flashed or tried to escape the montmorillonite cloud advancing on them in the pond. Interestingly - where the montmorillonite had fallen to the floor of the pond (only 80cm deep by the way) and formed clumps, the algae died there a day or two later. So to be quite candid the dosage I use is often higher than one teaspoon per 1000 liters. However, if you use montmorillonitemore than once a week keep to the lower dosage. I also tried this method of eliminating long blanket weed type algae on the floor of a pond of a friend of mine some years ago. The system was shut down so the water became still. Coarse salt was thrown into the pond as though we were throwing fertilizer on a field. The salt was allowed to sink to the bottom and lay in the algae for several hours. The system was then started up - and a day or two later the algae died. The Calcium Bentonite would work the best (does not clump as much as sodium bentonite). Although both work very well.

Please remember when buying the kitty litter that you are looking for "INGREDIENTS, CLAY" Kitty Litter. In our local PetSmart store in Charleston, WV, there is only one particular kind of kitty litter with the right ingredient, the brand name is Precious Cat but you must read the label, some kinds of Precious Cat kitty litter contains perfumes and the like which you do not want in your koi pond.

Sometimes locally here in West Virginia, we put the kitty litter in nylon hose and put the nylon hose full of kitty litter near the stringy algae we are trying to kill, sometimes we just dump it loose in the pond and let it go wherever it wishes. It depends on what we are trying to do with it. With a really good mechanical filter system, I like just dumping it over the side of the pond, within a day as Chris Neaves posts in his article on this site the clay is cleared up and the pond is simply gorgeous. If the pond has marginal mechanical filtration, or the stringy algae is at a particular spot such as a waterfall, we put it nylon hose and drop the hose at the stringy algae site. Try various ways and see what works for your system. Roddy Conrad

Here is some more specific stuff on what kind of kitty litter to use in the pond for the string algae. Wal-Mart has a brand of kitty litter, apparently only carried by Wal-Mart since it is their special brand, which is clearly labeled as Bentonite clay, the preferred kind of clay to add to fish ponds. It's brand name is 'Special Kitty', in a 25 pound red colored bag (unscented), costing $5 for the 25 pound bag. Rod.