Articles and Help from North Wales Koi Club

With the ever increasing problem of Koi thefts, with thieves using more devious ways of finding potential targets, Google Earth and Google Street View. Koi keepers should be looking at ways of protecting their Koi not only with better security around their Home and pond, but with identification of the Koi if they happen to be stolen.

Micro chipping has been around for a while, which is an effective way of identifying Koi but this can be invasive to the Koi having a microchip inserted beneath the skin with the possibility of infection.
Now a new technique has been developed, were Koi can be fingerprinted using their unique DNA, as has been done for dogs and cats.
A similar price to that of getting a pet micro chipped, but is less invasive, less stressful and provides irrefutable evidence that cannot be tampered with, as to the ownership of the pet.
The DNA samples can be securely stored and will always remain the property of the Koi owner. Details will be stored onto a database and the owner will be provided with a unique sample ID number. Therefore if the fish should ever get stolen, they can provide the police with this number and should DNA evidence ever be required to prove ownership, this will provide irrefutable evidence in identifying their Koi should it be stolen and later found and especially in cases where there is dispute over ownership the sample will be sent to the appropriate authority on the owners behalf. The sample will be securely stored and will be available to the police or investigating authority upon demand.
A DNA sample, in the form of a non-invasive mouth swab or scale, which will be purified and treated for storage for up to 30 years, and entered onto a database.

Watch this Space for more details.

This years G&S Competition will be Exclusive Sankes from Richdon Koi, the koi are now in quarantine at Richdon Koi, and by all accounts are very good quality. The club have secured 24 Koi and at the present time 21 have been sold, the spare 3 if not sold by selection day will be used for Club raffle Koi, or if any other members would like to view and purchase 1 of the remaining Koi they can still enter the Competition.

Update - 18th April -The selection has taken place.

Here are photo’s of the Koi that were available for selection, the quality was Excellent even for the Members that were last to choose.
The Koi were then taken away by their new owners to Grown and Nutured for the next 12 months, when they will then be re-photographed and judged by Richard Jones of Richdon Koi.

And some close ups of Koi that were selected

Dave Wilson
NWKC Secretary.

The koi last year were Richdon Koi supplied Chagoi from Marudo, good luck to those who have taken part.
I hope everyone has been growing their Chagoi’s over the last Winter, these Koi will be photographed and judged later on this year.
By all accounts there are some quite sizeable Chagoi’s, so it will interesting to compare them to the ones from the same shipment that have been grown on at Richdon Koi apparently some of these are getting on towards 27ins in length.

During this last Summer, Dave Wilson has been visiting members ponds, Photographing the ponds and gardens for this competition.
At the last monthly meeting, the members voted on what they deemed to be the NWKC 2009 Pond of the Year.
A slide show was presented first, and then printed photographs were available for closer examination. Each member was given a slip of paper to vote their First, Second and Third Choice. The results were compiled and adjudicated by Colin Jones.
The results are as follows:

In First Place - 2009 Pond of the Year Competition: Martin and Mags Rocliffe.
With their superb Garden and Pond. Well done Martin and Mags.

In Second Place - 2009 Pond of the year Competition: Dave and Sue Wilson.
A new pond build in an superb setting. Well done Dave and Sue.

In Third Place -2009 Pond of the Year Competition: Phil and Cynthia Lunt.
A nice pond in a lovely garden, well done Phil and Cynthia.

Thanks to everyone who took part, the photographs that are featured here and also all the others that were taken throughout the Summer will be used in compiling the NWKC 2010 Calendar, if you require a Calendar for next year get in touch with the Club Secretary who is taking orders now, get your orders in soon and you will not be dissapointed.

Hope you have enjoyed the Ponds and Gardens.

Dave Wilson
NWKC Membership Sec.

At the last club meeting a slide show was presented with the results of the 2008-2009 Grow and Show competition, also on the night the club members voted for the 2009 Club Champion from these Grow and Show koi.
The Koi had been previously judged by Richard Jones of Richdon Koi, who had supplied the Exclusive Kohaku in the Spring of 2008.

The prize for the Koi with the best Body Shape and Quality, was awarded to Koi No 12 owned by Ken and Jean Williams, although the Koi had not put on a massive amount of growth, the quality of the skin was quite amazing.
Well done to Ken and Jean.

Grow and Show Koi No 12. June 2008 Size 18cm - September 2009 Size 35cm

The prize for the Koi with the best Growth Achievement was awarded to Koi No 11 owned by Ian Mooney and Sue Roberts, this Koi had put on significant growth and Body Shape and will be a real presence in the pond.
Well done to Ian and Sue.

Grow and Show Koi No 11. June 2008 Size 19cm - September 2009 Size 51cm

The next award was for Club Champion which was voted for on the night by the club members, this was quite a close run thing and the eventual winner was Koi No 9 owned by Graham and Trish Giles, this koi has grown nicely over the previous 12 months with quite an unique pattern was the favourite of the club members.
Well done to Graham and Trish.

Grow and Show Koi 9. June 2008 Size 19cm - September 2009 Size 47cm

A big thank you to Richard Jones of Richdon Koi for supplying the Koi and also judging them,
to Dave Wilson for taking the time to photograph the Koi, and not least to the Members who took part.

NWKC 2009

Photo Show 2008

On Tuesday night 4th November, many of the NWKS members gathered for the annual Photo Show awards night at the Farmer’s Arms’, Rhuallt. Throughout September & October Dave S Wilson had been ’snapping away’ at koi from 13 separate ponds. In total 46 fish were photographed, totalling nearly 200 meters worth of Baby, Adult and Jumbo Koi !

Over the past few years NWKS has been lucky enough to establish close ties with several companies involved with Koi keeping.

Evolution Aqua
Richdon Koi
Koi Magazine
Koi Carp Magazine

Once again our commercial friends came up trumps by donating prizes for our Photo Show, so a big Thank you to them all.

Evolution Aqua (Mike Shaw) donated two Airtech 90 air pumps and 4 tubs of EA Show and EA Health foods which were awarded to the First places & Runners up in the Adult Gosanke and Adult Non Gosanke categories as well as Grand Champion.

Richard and Donna Jones from Richdon Koi offered several tubs of their superb Nutrikoi Paste, Performance and Growth Koi foods which were awarded to the Baby, Jumbo and Novelty Koi classes.

Koi Magazine provided annual subscriptions to their magazine for the Winners of the “Chairman’s Choice” section.

Koi Carp Magazine provided the Winner and Runner up of the NWKS Friendship Award 12 months subscription to the magazine.

Our competition was judged by Greg Sutton who people may know as a moderator from the www.koihelp.co.uk bulletin board. Greg has a wealth of knowledge about Koi health, varieties and judging. Despite the distance from Greg’s home in the Midlands to N Wales he insisted on being there on the night to present the awards and provide helpful summaries & advice. A superb effort and much appreciated.

The evening went off fantastically, with the usual banter and good humour from the audience aimed mainly at the Master of Ceremonies (i.e. Me!) and some of the Winners.

Some of the winning koi were of a size and quality that many of us only dream of, and were perhaps out of the price range of many hobbyists. Interestingly though, many of our winning Koi and the Runners up from the smaller size categories were from the ‘Bargain basement’ tanks of various Koi dealers. It just goes to prove that a Koi costing around £50 can be brought on to a size and quality that can win prizes at club level. I fully expect to see some of the placed Baby and Adult koi winning the NWKS Jumbo or GC in the future.
Congratulations and “da iawn” for our winners and a huge North Wales Koi Society “Diolch yn fawr” Thank you to our sponsors for their continued support.

Martin Rocliffe
Chairman NWKS

Grand Champion 74cm Kohaku owned by Colin Jones

Gosanke Champion 45cm Showa owned by Dave S.Wilson.

Non Gosanke Champion 47cm Shiro Utsuri owned by Dave(jock)Wilson.

Baby Champion 33cm Kohaku owned by Colin Jones

Jumbo Champion 66cm Shiro Utsuri owned by Colin Jones

Club Champion 47cm Showa owned by Dave S.Wilson

Novelty Koi 37cm Doistu Sanke owned by Martin Rocliffe.

Chairmans Choice Gosanke 51cm Kohaku owned by Steve Rogers

Chairmans Choice non Gosanke 50cm Kujaku owned by Robert Ford.

The NWKS Grow and Show (G&S) Selection Day; thankfully the meticulous planning paid off.

On Saturday 21st, Dave S Wilson and Ian Mooney drove down to Richdon Koi and collected our

(more…)

Dear NWKS,

The response to the proposed Grow & Show competition this year has been fantastic. So far 16 Koi have been ordered by NWKS members, and a few more are expected.
(more…)

In the next couple of weeks, we will be asking members if they are going to enter this years Photo Competition.
You can enter a maximum of 5 Koi, which will be photographed and then judged independently.

There are a good selection of prizes to be won. Watch this post for updates.

Last years competition was a great success, we are hoping this years will be even better.

• Grand Champion
• Best Go-Sanke
• Best Non Go-Sanke
• Best Baby/Young Koi 10 -35cm
• Best Jumbo 56cm +
• Club Champion (Favorite Koi voted by NWKS members)
• NWKS Friendship Award (Koi and Owner showing Best Spirit Throughout)
• Best Novelty Koi
• Chairmans Choice

The North Wales Koi Society marked its return to holding monthly meetings at the “Farmer’s Arms” pub, Rhaullt with a superb presentation given by Jasper Kuijper, Commercial Director for Evolution Aqua (EA).

The club has enjoyed the support of EA in the past with sponsorship of the Koi Photo Show and of course technical advice for members using NEXUS, EazyPod etc. Jasper’s talk was a much anticipated bonus.

(more…)