March PRESIDENT S MESSAGE Ellen Evans. Sakai Seminar. Membership. April Auction. Inside this issue:

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1 March 2008 PRESIDENT S MESSAGE Ellen Evans Sakai Seminar Despite the inclement weather, everyone had a great time at the February Sakai Seminar. We ended up with 50 attendees, about half of whom were CKC members. The seminar encouraged some new people to join our club, so a big Welcome! to all you new members reading this. This event raised nearly $1000 for our club and there are so many people to thank. Thanks especially to Russell and Kari Peters from Peters and Sons Koi and Pond Supply, without whom none of this would have taken place. Thanks to everyone who came some from as far as Oregon and Washington. Thanks to Mr. Sakai for spending two days teaching us. Thanks to the volunteers who helped with set-up and registration table (Ed Thomas, Cody and Karen Turtle, Kirk Evans, Garry Chin, Kari Peters, Marilee Marshall) and for those who were able to stay and help clean-up and break down on Sunday (Erwin Santos, Larry Gill, Ed Thomas, Kirk Evans, and myself). Thank you to Cody Turtle for painting a beautiful watercolor of two of Mr. Sakai s favorite koi to show Mr. Sakai our appreciation. I apologize if I am leaving anyone out it was nearly a month ago at this point. Pictures of the event and all the beautiful koi of Mr. Sakai s that Russell brought for the judging competition are at our website. Congratulations to Judy Linnebach for having the best judging eye in the competition! Judy was fortunate enough to win the grand prize, a jumbo 2 year old Showa valued at $3000. For more details on what was taught at the seminar if you missed it, come to this month s meeting at Lincoln Koi Farm! Membership If you recall, in January I summarized that we had ended 2007 with an official roster of 97 member families. I am pleased to report that 61 of these families have renewed their membership and we have 9 new member families, for a total of 72 member families and we are only 3 months into the new year. Of the families who have not renewed, many have been active members for years and I assume they will renew soon. The password to the members-only part of the website has now been changed and only current members will receive the new password. This is the first newsletter that is accessible only to current members. This is meant to encourage prompt renewals in the future and to keep member information (addresses, phone numbers, etc) private from the general public. The roster is kept online at the password-protected members-only section of the website, and the roster now tracks the expiration date of everyone s membership. April Auction Next month will be our annual koi auction. In a deviation from the past, it is being held in April at Pauline Sakai s home in Roseville. This is to allow people to foist off unwanted fish from their pond so that they have room for new fish that they can acquire during club s buying trip to local dealers in May. Pauline generously offered her patio since Mary Beth Avila, our usual auction host, would potentially have a very muddy yard depending on the weather in April. The auction is open to club members who would like to sell fish. Half of your profit you get to keep and the other half goes to the club. Dealers are welcome to donate healthy fish but will receive no profit from the sale. Dealers may not purchase koi at the auction. I would like to allow non-club members to buy fish in order to increase the number of buyers. This would be another deviation from the past, so we can discuss everyone s opinion at the March meeting. To prevent overwhelming Pauline and her neighbors, I would propose to advertise the event to the public, but withhold Pauline s address and only allow a certain number of non-club members who RSVP to me. At any rate, we need fish for the auction! Please Jim Phillips (hairbear@infostations.net) how many koi you will be bringing so that he can plan for the appropriate amount of tanks. Inside this issue: Pres. Message 1 Sakai Seminar Pics 2 KHA Corner 3, 7 Announcements 4 Member Profile 5-6 Financial Stuff 8 Club Calendar 9 Go to p. 5 to find out why this pair of Mandarin ducks is relevant to this month s newsletter! Next Meeting Info 10-11

2 Page 2 Mar 2008 Sakai Seminar Pictures Ellen Evans / Garry Chin See more pictures like these at this month s March meeting! During set-up we were all drooling over these jumbo 2 year olds as soon as Russell unloaded them! Fifty attendees learned what sets great koi apart and what to look for to predict good future potential. Everyone braved torrential rain to participate in the judging contest. Cody Turtle presented a beautiful watercolor koi painting of two of Mr. Sakai s favorite fish to Mr. Sakai as a thank-you gift. Judy Linnebach won the judging contest grand prize! To which of these baby kohaku or showa would you award first place? We all learned that judging can be difficult, subjective, and exhausting!!! Many of these tosai are still available at Peters and Sons Koi in Martinez, CA.

3 Page 3 Mar 2008 KHA Corner Jerry Kyle, Koi Health Advisor ( KHA ) This Month In The Koi Pond Or, Is It Spring Yet? It s getting warmer. Not much, but warmer is warmer. My koi are again getting excited when they see me. I m the food guy who can read lips when they mouth, Feed me, feed me, feed me! This brings up an interesting topic. Last month I attended the Toshio Sakai In Seminar event in Pleasanton, CA, organized by Russell and Kari Peters of Peters & Sons Koi as part of their continuing support of the hobby and local area koi clubs. Mr. Toshio Sakai, a highly regarded koi judge, is best known for the development of his Matsunosuke blood line of koi. These koi normally grow to be a meter and more in size. A meter is 39 inches and these koi often grow bigger than that. It was difficult for me to visualize a koi of 44 inches in length but in his presentation we saw a slide show of huge koi being lifted out of the mud ponds by the smaller in stature Japanese men as they struggled to lift them. Toshio Sakai knows about feeding koi and he got my attention when he talked about the health aspects of seasonal feeding. He said in Japan feeding in May and June goes to reproduction. Summer food goes to growth. Fall food goes to fat. He does not support pond heating in winter as it confuses nature s cycle. In nature as the water warms up in the summer it triggers growth and he feeds heavily for three months to take advantage of the massive growth that can take place with nutrition going mostly to growth. He then feeds a very high protein diet consisting of 1/3 silkworm. In the fall he backs off as growth slows and nutrition goes primarily to fat as the koi get ready for winter and, just as in humans, overly fat is not healthy. Winter feeding is minimal as koi enter their hibernation (torpor) period and need minimal food as they expend minimal energy. We are soon to enter spring and our koi are going to want more food. If we feed heavily, Mr. Sakai says we will not get more growth. We will get more eggs which is a good thing for the koi we select to spawn but of no value to the ones we do not spawn. Spawning is stressful and may easily cause damage to a nice koi. I also remember the mess made by six large females last year who were huge with eggs as they all spawned at once. Mr. Sakai suggests I do feed more to support a higher energy need and to support the immune system in the spring but not so much to create fat egg filled bellies. Once they get the (hopefully lighter) spawning out of the way and nutrition goes to growth I will feed them at least 10% of their body weight every day. I know koi are by nature foragers and grazers. They are best served if they are fed continually a little at a time all day. In the summer, especially if feeding for growth, an automatic feeder that dribbles out a little every hour of the day is better than overloading the gut two or three times a day. Overfeeding and overfilling the gut at any one time is another problem and will be dealt with in a later article. Stay tuned.

4 Page 4 Mar 2008 ANNOUNCEMENTS 2008 ANNUAL POND TOUR Work on the May 31, 2008 Pond Tour is underway. Ponds are being evaluated to determine the line-up. If you would like to volunteer to assist as a docent at one of the houses on the day of the tour, please contact Dan Alarid, at (916) or calarid@frontiernet.net. Volunteers will get their own free, private tour ahead of time to make up for their time commitment on the day of the event, and there will be a thank-you pizza party for volunteers in the evening after the tour! Tickets will be on sale at April meeting, on club website, and at local garden centers. Ticket cost: $10/person for club members, or $15 for member family (2 adults plus any kids) $15/person for general public, or $20 for family. Remember, the pond tour is the Saturday after Memorial Day!!! Got Pox? UC Davis played a strong role in the discovery of Koi Herpes Virus and subsequent KHV research. While UCD s Dr. Scott Weber, who spoke at the UC Davis FISH Health Seminar in January, plans on continuing the university s KHV research (begun by Dr. Ron Hedricks) with his students, he is also interested in studying the Carp Pox virus (aka Koi Pox) further. Dr. Scott Weber is looking for koi who are known to be infected with Koi Pox and are displaying really gross lesions as a result. If you have one or more fish that fit the bill, please contact Thomas Waltzek at tomwaltzek@gmail.com. He and Dr. Weber would be interested in scraping your fish for a sample. Carp pox appears as clear waxy spots on the fins and tail of koi and goldfish. While it is not harmful, it can be unsightly. Fish do not die from carp pox. It is a cold water virus that will heal on its own once the water warms back up. In some cases it returns every winter when the water is cold and clears on its own once the water warms back up. Others report it never returns and others reports it returns every winter. No one "in the know" seems to know why it return in some fish and never returns in other fish. From Free Koi Jim Phillips is looking for homes for several large (up to 18 ) pond quality fish. Please call him at (916) or him at hairbear@infostations.net is you are interested. Juvenile koi mainly suffer with Carp Pox as maturity provides greater immunity, although some older koi can still develop the disease if not subjected to it when young. Treatment is unnecessary unless a koi becomes covered in tumours if this happens isolate it in a slowly warmed tank until the condition improves. From

5 Page 5 Mar 2008 Member Profile Woody & Sharon Schon Editor s Note: I ve been wanting to start a section of the newsletter that profiles different members and their ponds in an attempt for us to all get to know one another better. Not all of our 100 member families can make it to every meeting, so many of us remain mysterious strangers, names on the roster that faithfully renew their dues year after year but that you may not recognize. I m excited to have had the opportunity to do the first one. However, I am not exactly looking for more club activities to pile on my plate! Let me know if you would be interested in taking on this opportunity. It s a great way to see ponds and meet other local koi enthusiasts. It just requires a digital camera, an hour or less each month to go interview an agreeable club member and take pictures of their pond, and then another hour to write up the profile for the newsletter and it to me with your best pictures attached. It s my job as editor to worry about the final layout.. me if this sounds fun to you!!! Woody and Sharon Schon have been club members for the past three years and owned koi for the last five. They entered the hobby as an indirect result of Woody s work as a fish biologist with Sacramento Yolo Mosquito Vector Control and also because of their previous volunteer work with Wildlife Care Association. The Schons initially dug a 3000 decorative gallon pond in their backyard (no jets, bottom drain, etc) and were soon hosting some large bullfrogs Woody encountered on the job and brought home. The bullfrogs liked to eat crawdads and the whole family enjoyed watching the feast! The Schons helped the WCA with duck rehabilitation were asked if they could bring home a tame pair of Wood ducks (which turned out to be Mandarins) since they had a pond. More ducks arrived and the yard became a regular duck aviary complete with large nesting boxes mounted on the trees. Their German Shepherd, Angie, is friendly with the Mandarins and also with Wood Ducks, and can differentiate them from unwanted Mallard interlopers that land in the yard, who she chases off. A friend gave the Schons some koi to go along with their pond. Overnight the koi responded to their new environment by spawning and suddenly the Schons had to go into full-on koi mode! They retrofitted the pond so that it had all the filters and equipment required for koi. The ducks continued to enjoy the pond at one point 9 pairs of ducks and all their chicks! All that duck poop required Woody to clean the filter every day, so he cut the number

6 Page 6 Mar 2008 Member Profile Woody & Sharon Schon moved suddenly and slapped the little fish with its tail. There were some decorative tree stumps sticking up out of the pond and the little fish flew into a stump and was killed. Soon afterwards fish began dying, and the dealer that had sold it to them received reports from other customers of fish suddenly dying as well. They lost all their fish and had to embark on an aggressive nuking of the drained pond by scrubbing with bleach and, alternatively, lime, plus letting it sit dry for a very long time. Woody now keeps koi in quarantine for several months, sometimes up to a year, to avoid a repeat of this tragedy. He stresses the importance of letting the quarantine water get above 75F. of nesting boxes down to four in subsequent years. The Schons say the most important thing they d emphasize to others is Quarantine! a lesson they learned the hard way when they introduced one new fish to their pond without any quarantine and ended up with what they are pretty sure was KHV. Woody and Sharon described an unusual encounter that they insist was so incredible they would not believe it if they had not seen it with their own eyes. The resident large fish in their pond did not like the little newcomer that they had introduced without a quarantine, and one of the big fish Later a formal-style, 7300 gallon pond was added to accommodate even more koi. The shallow creek bed (pictured at right) is where all their filter discharge water goes, and a pump recirculates it to create a flowing stream that the ducks can enjoy. Woody continues to breed some of his larger koi and is beginning to offer koi for sale to mitigate the cost of my electric bill. He just started Elk Grove Koi. Keep an eye out for him in the future!

7 Page 7 Mar 2008 KHA Corner PART II Jerry Kyle, Koi Health Advisor ( KHA ) This Month In The Koi Pond Or, Is It Spring Yet? I know I have Epistylis in my pond. I accidentally found it when I was looking through my scope at stuff I scraped off the wall of the prefilter last month as part of Dr Strange s Common Bacterial of Koi Diseases course. I have never found it on a fish but may have seen it as off white tufts of growth that I mistook for a fungus. Doc Johnson tells us a fish has to be darn near dead to be infected by a fungus. He indicates Epistylis usually does not kill koi but cause the koi to be less competitive in getting food. That could reduce available energy to handle stressors and lead to other problems. He calls it the great fungus imitator. Last month I advocated a good pond flushing to get rid of any excess mulm as that is where Epistylis hangs out. That and a good water change is usually enough to get rid of the threat of this parasite and since that is where Costia hangs out we get two birds with one stone. Isn t it amazing how many things we study in koi health reflect back to the basics of keeping the system clean as part of good water quality and good koi health? I do not believe in hitting (and unnecessarily stressing) a pond with Formalin products or Potassium Permanganate as a just in case I have something remedy but I do support the limited use of salt. It will clear most if not all ciliated protozoan pathogens. It will easily kill my Epistylis while it is getting Ich, Trichodina, Chilodonella, Costia, Scyphidia, and may greatly reduce flukes. Get the picture? It is easy and relatively safe and cheap. First get a salt testing kit. I find the cheapest salt that works well is solar salt found at hardware stores. Get the one that is just plain salt with no additives. First day salt to 0.1%, day two to 0.2%, and day three to 0.3%. Hold it there for two weeks. As our koi begin to become more active with the warming up of spring every little thing seems to become a stressor. Salt is a great stress reducer and helps smooth out the transition into spring. After two weeks reduce the salt with regular water changes. By summer the salt will be gone. Some hobbyists like salt so much they leave it in the pond all year. They cite stress reduction and ciliated pathogen reduction. They might be correct at first but while the salt may get almost all of the troublemakers it may not get every single little one and that one that survives, while all by itself is of little consequence, may live and reproduce others like itself that are also salt tolerant. In time salt tolerant producing salt tolerant producing more salt tolerant pathogens create an even more serious situation. One which a little salt will no longer cure. If you are one of those doing this, stop it. You may be creating a monster. A number of years ago the Japanese would hold their koi for export in salted ponds. It seemed a fine thing to do until one day the industry realized we were importing koi with highly resistant strains of pathogens. Strains that were extremely difficult to deal with. It took years to correct the problem. Today we do not advocate salt year around. Salting my pond will be beneficial and easy. If I had an already salted pond I would have to salt at a more dangerous level and stress the koi more instead of soothing them. I like keeping things simple. Normally, salt for two weeks and then water changes. In the spring, coming out of winter, we may hold at.03% salt for a month but then water changes. At the January Koi Health Seminar sponsored by the University of Georgia we got the latest word on water changes. As more vets are getting involved with koi, knowledge is expanding, the old best information is no longer the best, and we need to take a look at how we handle water changes. That is another big story. Stay tuned.

8 Page 8 Mar CKC Budget We will be voting to confirm the proposed 2008 club budget at the March meeting. The full budget will be presented at that meeting. The main points are summarized below to give everyone a preview. Carry-over from 2007: $ General Membership Revenue (dues): $35 x 100 memberships: $3500 General Club Expenses (includes misc. supplies, meeting host stipend, newsletter expenses): -$2475 Public Relations (advertising, promoting general club awareness): -$750 Club Store (Need to restock on inventory this year; budget conservatively assumes that we will not sell as much as we buy. Need supplies for store. New T-shirts for show expected to break even. Income from store events such as raffle and show auction taken into account separately for those events.) : -$ Club Supplies, aka Equipment (need to purchase more show tanks to eliminate need to borrow tanks from other clubs in order to have 30 tanks at our show. Also includes water test kits and water treatment chemicals.): -$2500 Library (small allocation to purchase new books): -$300 Pond Tour (expected net income): $2845 Koi Show (expected net income): $3815 Holiday Banquet (tickets sold to this event but club chips in a bit to defray cost): -$200 April Koi Auction (expected net income): $180 Spring Buying Trip: (members buy $10 tickets to ensure accurate headcount and defray cost of club-provided lunch): $100 Sakai Seminar (expected net income): $1075 Bottom line: Expected net income of $ FEBRUARY 2008 FINANCIAL SUMMARY Beginning of 2008 balance was $ Beginning of Feb. Balance: $ Income: $ Expenses: -$ End of February Balance: $ Continued to receive income from Sakai Seminar registrations, dues renewals, and new memberships. Majority of expenses were related to Sakai Seminar banquet, gifts, supplies, etc.

9 Page 9 Mar Club Calendar Please note that these locations/topics are subject to change. Be sure to check the newsletter or website each month for the most current meeting information. DATE TOPIC LOCATION January 27, 2008 Pond Fish Symposium UC Davis (Davis, CA) February 24, 2008 Toshio Sakai Seminar Sheraton, Pleasanton, CA March 30, 2008 Budget, Sakai Seminar Redux Lincoln Koi Farm (Lincoln) April 27, 2008 Annual Koi Auction Sakai s (Roseville) May TBA 2008 Annual Buying Trip Local Dealers May 31, 2008 Spring Pond Tour Sacramento and North Area (Natomas/Roseville/Granite Bay) June 29, 2008 Water Plants/Landscaping Around Your Pond Flora Tropicana (Elk Grove) July 27, 2008 Dr. Scott Weber, DVM (tentative) Need host! August 31, 2008 PRE-KOI SHOW WORK PARTY & ANNUAL POTLUCK Avila s (Rio Linda) September October 26 November 23 December TBA ANNUAL KOI SHOW TBA TBA ANNUAL HOLIDAY DINNER PLACER COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS Torres (Roseville) Need host! Buca de Beppo (Sacramento) If you would like to host a meeting, please contact Ellen Evans at kde2@comcast.net. Meeting hosts get $40 to buy some snacks and drinks, and members bring snacks and their own chairs. For wet months it is a good idea to have enough indoor space to squeeze people in case of rain. UPCOMING REGIONAL EVENTS (Koi and more ) March 15-16: 34th Annual ZNA SoCal Koi Show & Festival Gardena, CA donkobash@aol.com April 12 & 13, 19 & 20: Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival April 12 & 13: Bonsai Show and Sale, American Bonsai Association of Sacramento. 10am-4pm with demos at 2:30 each day McKinley Blvd (Sacramento Garden and Arts Center), Sacramento.

10 Page 10 Mar 2008 Directions to March Meeting Parking at Lincoln Koi is restricted to about 8 cars. In order to not overwhelm our host s property, we encourage members to meet up beforehand at Lowes (535 S State Highway 65, Lincoln, CA 95648) and groups can carpool the nine miles to the koi farm, with the last group leaving at 12:45. To Lowes from South Area: Take Highway 80 East to CA-65 North exit towards Marysville/Lincoln. Continue 9 miles until you see Lowes. Park your car and look for people in the parking lot who look like they would rather be buying koi than lumber and PVC pipe. Try to wear a club shirt to be easily identified with our club!!! From Lowes to Lincoln Koi Farm: 1. Go north on CA-65 N toward Ferrari Ranch Rd 0.4 mi 2. Turn right at Ferrari Ranch Rd 1.2 mi 3. Turn left at CA mi 4. Turn right at E Ave 0.7 mi 5. Turn right at E 12th St 0.2 mi 6. Turn left at Mccourtney Rd 5.1 mi 7. Turn right at Kilaga Springs Rd 0.6 mi 8. Turn left at N Kilaga Springs Rd 0.6 mi 9. Turn left to stay on N Kilaga Springs Rd 0.2 mi You make a right off of McCourtney Rd onto Kilaga Springs Rd (Old turkey ranch on left side of KS Road so start slowing down or you'll miss the turn off) At the "Y" take the left side which is N. KS. That road will look like it dead ends but it continues on the right and is now a dirt road. If you went straight, you'd end up at someone's ranch. **The first house when you enter the dirt road that goes to Lincoln Koi Farm dislikes people driving too fast and creating dust. The speed limit is 10 mph. Please drive slowly and carefully to avoid too much dust so that Lincoln Koi can keep a good relationship with their neighbors!

11 Page 11 Mar 2008 Board of Directors President: Ellen Evans Vice President: Heather Marshall Treasurer: Alison Torres Secretary: Kirk Evans Tim Bauer Jim Phillips Scott Salem Duane Carlson Koi Ahoy Editor Ellen Evans Webmaster Ellen Evans Next Meeting Members are welcome to attend the Board of Directors meeting at 12:00. Please bring your own chair. Please bring snacks to share!!! March 30: Budget Vote, Sakai Seminar Redux Lincoln Koi Farm 5790 N Kilaga Springs Road Lincoln, CA (916) In March we will meet at Lincoln Koi Farm. We will have our budget vote and I will do my best to present what Mr. Sakai discussed in Pleasanton, hopefully with slides so that those who could not attend can still benefit. from the seminar. Other seminar attendees are welcome to share their impressions as well. I know many of our club members couldn t make it to the Sakai seminar, but would still be interested in hearing about the lectures and seeing pictures of his koi. Lincoln Koi Farm has koi that have been imported from Japan and those koi should be out of quarantine and available for sale by the time of this meeting. Most of us have not been to this farm and will enjoy the tour of it the owner is willing to give. See p. 9 inside for map & directions. Ellen Evans nd Ave Sacramento, CA 95817