Good luck to all participating in the Durban Koi show this weekend :

Durban is bright & sunny , may the best koi win !

Hi Ahmed
And so say all of us.

Roy

Net die beste vir KZN Skou.

Stumble have you entered

Good luck to all and yes may the best koi win. Can't wait for our show here in the cape and good chance I might be home for it

Good luck to all KZN SHOW participants.

Here in the S Cape we've had some decent rain lately and our dam is almost 50% full, so hopefully we will have a show again next year.

I visited Dream Koi in KZN a few months back and I had an opportunity to purchase a very nice Kohaku and a very special Shining Rose Sanke, well I passed on both and made another pick with future jumbo growth in mind.

Was my desision a good one

Kohaku RGC Gauteng
Sanke RGC KZN

I will have to wait another year to get the answer.

Just got off the phone with Karl and more of his resuts.

Grand Champion B an 80cm Goshiki
Mature Grand Champion ... Kohaku
Supreme size 6... Sanke

His stocking level says to me, more hobbyist had a picking problem.

Well done to the winners. Karl had a truck load of trophies.

Hi Stumble Did you enjoy the jumbo's on display.
Not an easy task to keep them in good shape, so you should feel inspired to show next year.

Please please can we see some pics well done to all

Hi,

Some pics from the KZN Show - not of any winners (which were stunning by the way) but of koi I spotted at dealers stands that you and I as koi keepers would really like in our ponds and could afford ........

Firstly - looking after the water quality - water expert from SAKKS Reggie Phillips



Judges briefing and meeting before the judging




Doitsu Ochiba (metalic) 45 cm at Koi4u




Sanke - beautiful white etc but this fish had a certain lustre and skin quality which is hard to find also from Koi4u about 45 - 48 cm





I had a long hard look at this fish for my collection its a ginrin Showa, 30 cm long and only one year old. A sibbling of this fish from Japan was bought by a Durban koi collector last year and that fish is now 60 cm and was on show. From Coast Jackson of Sakura.




70 cm Assagi - it looks stunning with a clear head and the scales have become red instead of blue. But each scale has the blue net pattern of an Assagi.




A really good Shiro Utsuri about 35 cm - perhaps a little too much black on the fins but really good white and a bargin at only R850 - would make a good fish in any koi keepers pond. From Koi4u stand




I wish I had a bigger pond .....

Regards,
Chris

Hi Chris

I see Neville is debating the airpump usage in koi ponds. What is your opinion regarding the luster and skin quality of those winning Koi.

In my opinion to keep Koi outside Japan in prestine conditions, water quality and water management should be of the highest standard to achiieve the results I had the pleasure of seeing earlier this year and at the 2009 KZN show.

Well I can only hope to manage my pond, once fully matured to deliver Koi with that skin quality, I still have losts to learn, maybe next year

Should Ernst and Drikus share more secrets it might be sooner.

Hi Bobby,

I will look at the air pump debate some time or the other.

The skin quality and lustre on the winning fish at the KZN show was excellent (or they would not have won!)

My opinion of lustre is that is it mostly genetics and is something that koi keepers should really try to find in koi they buy. When you do find it in a koi it is like a neon light going on. That Sanke in the above picture had it and so did that ginrin Showa.

Really good lustre is not common and adds a great deal of price to a koi.

When you visit a koi collection and the guy is over stocked with low quality koi try to persuade him to remove all the low quality koi and keep the ones with good body shapes, colour and lustre. If he does that you will notice an immediate improvement in the visual appearance of the total collection. There are too many koi around that have very poor quality skin – they just are dull.

Poor nutrition can contribute to a lack of lustre by the way. The wrong ingredients and too much carbohydrate can leave fatty deposits in the body AND just under the skin. This thin fatty deposit under the skin causes the white and other colours to look – well, not so good/dull (because that’s the colour of fat) – and the overall lustre to recedes.

I agree with you in that water quality is one of the keys to getting good skin quality (and growth) - (and health).

But always remember that a poor quality koi will always remain a poor quality koi whereas a good quality koi MAY develop into a very good koi.

I really wish I could visit your show and meet everyone – but perhaps next time.

Chris