Koi Ahoy Volume 29 – Number 10, October 2017
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Camellia Koi Club Koi Ahoy Volume 29 – Number 10, October 2017 Board Meeting & General Meeting, Sam Niebank, th President October 29 , at the Pond of John and Linda, 107 Copper Creek Dr., Folsom CA 95630 Bob Haugland, The Board meets at noon, General meeting and multiple activities Editor at 1pm. Pauline Sakai, This is a Pond Warming. Please feel free to bring a gift as John Photos and Linda have recently built their pond and this will be the first time the club has seen it. Bring your camera and a folding chair. You’re going to need that folding chair. Agenda for Meeting: Discuss X-Mas Party Here’s your google map URL: CKC Koi of the Year https://www.google.com/maps/place/107+Copper+Creek+Dr,+Folsom,+CA+95630/ 2018 Club Planning @38.7088405,- 121.1923957,650m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x809ae174704c0571:0x1e2eddd7b 2795b6b!8m2!3d38.7088405!4d-121.190207 2017 is coming to a Close! WOW what a Year! From holding our 2nd Bi Annual Pond Tour to holding our First Koi Show in 7 years, we have accomplished a GREAT deal this year. In addition to holding these great events we have also increased our membership with many new families. This alone would have made 2017 a successful year for the club. As we grow our membership it is important to think about the future of the club as we remember the past and where the club has come from. So while we sit back and appreciate what the club has accomplished this year it is also important that we pay the proper respects to our past. With that I would ask that all club members take a few minutes to simply appreciate those who have come before us to pave the path for such a great club. As we complete the year with our traditional Holiday celebration I would invite all of our members to think about those things they would like to club to accomplish over the next year. Bring those ideas to the meetings and share them with your club members, if this year has taught us anything it’s that we can do whatever we put our minds to. Sam Niebank – CKC President Koi Ahoy Page 2 of 15 Thank you” and “Good Bye” to our Club’s Founding Fathers Camellia Koi Club, the Greater Sacramento Area By Pauline Sakai I’ve been a member of the Camellia Koi Club (CKC) for thirty years and am now considered an “old timer”. I owe a lot of my love of koi and the hobby to our club’s founding fathers. The club owes its start to Ken Gray, who sadly, passed away recently joining other founding members (see below). In sharing this news with our club membership I became aware that not many of our current members knew Ken. However, those who knew him considered him a leader, a teacher, a friend and an inspiration. Through Ken’s coaching and many visits to ponds under construction, hopeful club members Ken Gray, 85 became owners of ponds that were more suited to the hobby of koi Apr 16, 1932 – keeping (as opposed to water gardening). Sep 7, 2017 Ken was so instrumental in the creation of the Camellia Koi 1980 – CKC Founding father Club, his story needed to be shared and remembered. Ken cultivated his love of koi in his late forties. He built his first pond and according 1982 – CKC President to his wife Jeanne, learned from his many mistakes, i.e. no bottom 1982 – Koi Person of the Year drain, inferior filtration, etc. At this point there were no clubs and 1991, 1992 – President of the very few koi dealers in Northern California. So, Jeanne tells me they Sacramento Valley Chapter sought out like minded koi “kichi” persons in Southern California and of ZNA even visited Fred Tonai, former Golden State Fisheries owner (Elk 2001 – Koi Person of the Grove) when he was located in Santa Rosa to gain wisdom. Armed Year, with wife Jeanne. with new knowledge from these interactions and his own mistake,s Lifetime CKC Membership he built his final pond which he enjoyed for 30+ years. honoree Still wanting to share and learn from fellow hobbyists, Ken reached out to those in the local region. The first meeting was held at the Gray’s home in Elk Grove. Within a year, the CKC was formed (1980) by four founding fathers, Lloyd Walters, 1st President, Jim Richardson co-author of the by-laws and whose daughter designed our club logo and Ron Brown, our first Koi Ahoy newsletter editor and later resident koi breeder. Smartly, the club’s bylaws were formulated with the mission statement as follows: “The purpose of the Club will be to promote, create, and enlarge the hobby of keeping, breeding, appreciating, and exhibiting Koi; to disseminate information about the above to the membership; to engage in educational and social activities related to our purposes; and to acquire and own such property as may be necessary for any or all of the foregoing purposes.” A San Francisco club member told me that Ken greatly helped to educate their club on how to put on a Koi Show. AKCA Judge, Larry Gill, called Ken a beloved friend. They shared many koi critiquing conversations over the years. Ken loved his koi and showing them. He was very successful and was well known to koi hobbyist throughout California. In the early days when AKCA Judges were being cultivated, Ken’s name came up as a candidate, but he declined because he was color-blind. Jeanne said it was a wonder that he was able to select such high quality koi despite his visual disability. Advising other club members New members would join the CKC with an interest in learning about koi and building a pond. He was always there offering help and encouragement. He researched, watched what others did, and paid attention to what worked best, and what was most important, he learned the “whys”, and shared with others which made him a great teacher. In the early days of the club, there was very little written information about pond building or koi keeping, i.e. bubble bead filters were non- existent and the Internet was new. It’s a lot of work and money to build a pond so Ken shared what he knew so that you only needed to build one pond in your lifetime. Here is a sampling of pearls of wisdom that Ken shared with members. Koi Ahoy Page 3 of 15 Jerry Kyle: "Make it bigger". He said, “Everyone who builds a pond ends up wishing it was bigger. Bigger is better. Bigger filters are more effective. Deeper ponds have healthier fish. Bigger volume has more of a safety factor if a problem arises. Bigger Koi have bigger beauty“. Dan Alarid: “Make it deep enough (6’) and long enough for my yard size. Steep sides - to ensure predators could not easily get my fish. Two 4” bottom drains”. I purchased an early bubble-bead filter, and Ken wisely recommended selecting one rated for twice my pond’s volume. I consider him a true pioneer of the hobby and will never forget him for the assistance he gave me. Pauline Sakai: Ken told me, “Make the biggest one you think you’ll ever want and have a filter as big as you can make it. That way as the fish get larger you can accommodate their growth and have large fish. Locate the pond close to the house so that you see and observe your fish every day”. See the photo of my pond with its 3-tiered waterfall. The bottom stone of the waterfall is just above the pond’s surface to minimize the ripples on the water’s surface. It was one of Ken’s biggest joys to help hobbyists and the recipient member's joy to be a benefactor of Ken's wisdom and caring. Ken was an inspiration and many of us appreciated and still appreciate all he did for his neighbors, friends, club members, and hobby. We will remember him for what he did but, primarily, for what he was. Because of Ken’s love of koi, his legacy lives on in the form of the Camellia Koi Club, with a vigorous membership, new friends made and the increasing enjoyment of the koi hobby. Ken we are so sorry you are gone. You were special. You will be missed by many, with much love. Koi Ahoy Page 4 of 15 CKC Koi of the Year Voting The fish pictured below were participants in the Taste of Excellence Koi Show. They are all members Koi. Please take a minute and review the Koi and vote on your favorite. Each Household get 1 vote so please discuss and be ready to provide your vote either by email to [email protected] or place your vote at the October Meeting. Use the number below the fish to identify your selection. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Koi Ahoy Page 5 of 15 7 8 9 10 11 12 Koi Ahoy Page 6 of 15 13 14 15 16 17 18 Koi Ahoy Page 7 of 15 19 20 21 22 23 24 Koi Ahoy Page 8 of 15 25 26 27 28 29 30 Koi Ahoy Page 9 of 15 31 32 33 AKCA Koi of the Year The Koi of the Year contest was created by the AKCA for individual AKCA Member clubs to honor their best koi. This entry should be a koi determined by the club to be their best of the best, not necessarily the same koi winning in a koi show – not necessarily even a koi that was entered in a koi show.