She’s back… and better than ever before! At first I was put on the wrong track and by observing this “one meter plus specimen”. My first thoughts were that the Scandinavian hobbyist Thorsten Nagelsky had won his next Jumbo Champion title with his Mukashi ogon. This was not the case and yet I have met this mighty Mukashi Ogon before?!

“The fish was taken out of the show and rumours about the fish being lifeless were going around”

In Appeltern (Netherlands) that time, three years back in 2010, was the showground where the colossus from Koicenter Tiel made a unfortunate tilt in her show vat. The temperature at that time lead to serious proportions for her;The fish was taken out of the show and rumours about the fish being lifeless were going around. Now, the stream of rumours have been permanently ended now. The magisterial Mukashi swims around here in blazing healthiness. Her nose is a little bit short, but hey. Who cares, the animal is almost 105cm! The shine and her scales are still properly and simply looks beautiful. Take a look at the pictures below how she looked that time on the Koi Show. Undisputed a recovery that goes further than only that. What a animal is it now; This Koi says ‘blob’ instead of ‘blup’.. Joachim Luisman may be proud about the care that is granted for his Koi to bring it to where it is now. Joachim is very thankful for the adequate care that has taken place for the Mukashi on the show that time and it felt good to bring the Koi here for a comeback.

Vertigo – yes I can call her by first name now – swims all knowing, however also in full innocence around in the blue champions vat. The looks of this Kohaku are still sublimely. It is pleasent to meet her again after a year and I am happy to see that she’s doing so great, even while residing in a hobbyists pond. The charm is mainly based on the formidable body that looks from head to tail strong, but also streamlined and subtle. Especially the proportion between the size and form are completely correct.  Take a look at the video…

Regarding the skin quality she is not in show technical perfect state. The beni is not deep red as it should be on a show, but it actually looks very soft. It is in all honesty better to be called orange. On the other hand the pigmentation isn’t bad. It is thick, meaning that the colour is present in sufficient layers of the scales. The colour is not too fragile and, not unimportantly, very equal. Soon you will see a video-interview with the Japanese breeders on what their opinion is on this point. Vertigo was named after the hit song by U2. The owner is a big fan of the band.

‘otherwise I could have been caught’

The pattern is magnificent which makes her who she is. As yondan Kohaku, which describes the Koi has four red patterns in her appearance, she is a feast for the eyes. It’s a good thing the fish is in a big show vat, where the water level is not too high; otherwise I could have been caught in leaning too far in an attempt to kiss the fish. It remains one of the best ever seen in the Netherlands. Vertigo: Congratulations girl!

The 3rd edition of the All European Shinkokai is over now. As we all know with Koi shows, time really flies fast throughout the event. The seven judges, including five Japanese Koi breeders, decided these eleven Koi to be the winners of the Major Awards. Have a look and enjoy the 11 best Koi of the 3rd European Shinkokai that was organized by the KOI2000 society.

Grand Champion – Harry van der Hout (geleverd door Danny’s Koi Café).

Supreme Champion – Jean Hoorne (geleverd door Danny’s Koi Café).

Jumbo Champion (± 105 cm) – Koicenter Tiel

Mature Champion – Philip Poppe (handled by Kokugyo Koi ‘t Viske)

Adult Champion – Koi Kichi World

Best Tategoi – Elna Koi

Best Male Koi – Papegaai en Koicentrum van Keulen

Best Wakagoi (beste Koi t/m 60 cm) – Sven Larsson (geleverd door Danny’s Koi Café)

Young Champion – RelaxZen

Baby Champion – Quality Koi

Most Unique Koi – Hans van Domburg

The 3rd All European Shinkokai is held at a new venue, but the Grand Champion remained the same. Harry van der Hout took with his Maruten Yondon Kohaku from Sakai Fish Farm which listens to the name Vertigo, the title again! This very imposing Kohaku, supplied by Danny’s Koi Café, is prepared in the pond of the owner and looks like this: 

This is already one thing that I/you as a reader benefit from since the start of the KoiQuestion Grow-out challenge in Germany. After the ‘lottery’ day (the day when the Dainichi tosai Showa where given away to their new owners) I have brought a visit to one of the contenders of the competition. This was the pond of Paul and Michaela.

At the moment that I had entered the property of Paul and Michaela I did not expect to see a pond like this. After a walk through a big garage / working place I honestly was quite impressed. The first thing that I noticed was the calm and peaceful environment that was created by the design and water flow of the pond. A naturally shaped pond with some plants in the back, a decent density of Koi swimming around and the calm and slow surface movement of the water. Some impressive Koi, like a Dainichi Showa from the Sayuri bloodline and a big Shiro Utsuri were the eye-catchers of this pond for me. but what for a lot of people will be even more interesting, is the technique behind this pond.

The pond is covered by canvas to protect the fish against sunburn.

The nice and naturally lined pond will let anyone relaxe when they sit beside it.

Swimming is allowed!

You will be surprised by the technique behind this pond. Did you ever thought this would be filtering the pond?

The heart of the pond starts at the drum filter, UV light whereby later oxygen is added through an oxygen generator. The blue round thing on the wall is a buffer tank where pure oxygen gas is stored. Also a ozonator is installed and used when needed. The small black box in the right of the oxygen generator is a battery which will be able to let the air pumps run for 4 hours in times of electricity failure.

pH, redox potential, DO (dissolved oxygen concentration) and conductivity are measured continuously.

The biological part of the pond is a moving bed filter.

Two Linn pumps pump the water back into the pond. The heat exchanger is connected to a heat pump that takes heat energy from the air and is able to convert it to 5.5 times the heat energy!

And last but not least: a plant filter which is nicely integrated in the garden!

I really like this pond, in two ways: the style and the technique behind it. This is how a Koi pond should be designed and controlled in my opinion. I think the KoiQuestion Grow-out Showa will have a great possibility to develop himself to its full potential in this pond. Hope to see him back soon in the pond (now the fish is in a quarantine tank). Enjoy this Summer Paul and Michaela!

A beautiful pond, in both style as technique!

At the end of my stay it was also time for the last big activity of the year for Dainichi, namely: Ikeage! The ‘holy’ harvest of a Koi breeder. At the time I was harvesting a jumbo pond in the Kawaguchi area. Within this area there are many Koi farms, such as Hirasawa Marusei, Maruhiru (son of Marusei) Choguro and Miyatora. Not a long time after we have started lifting the Koi, an Ornafish car with inside driver Chris and Stefano Rivola passed by. And ofcourse, came back! I had the luck both are good camera men, so I could finally get some pictures of myself doing the harvest! Also Stefano was lucky, as he was allowed to help a bit with the pulling of the net and bringing the Koi to the truck.

Me harvesting a particular Sanke… Picture made by Stefano Rivola

When looking back at the pictures that were made from me, I noticed that one of the nicest pictures (the one above) was from a Koi that I already knew for a longer time. This Koi was purchased by a Dutch hobbyist the year before, and I even bowled it up for him in the Koi house. And now, on the last Interkoi (13 & 14 april 2013) I saw her again, winning a second prize:

A Sanke I will not soon forget about!

A lot of European Koi-fanatics know next to nothing about the American Koi-scene. That surely doesn’t mean that this scene does not exist. On the contrary, a substantial amount of ZNA Koishows are organised annually on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. There surely are a lot of beautiful nishikoigoi there as well. Check out this piece of video that was posted on Koi-Bito forum. It shows us this years Mature Champion, a very nice Kindai Showa.

Following pictures were published on the ZNA NorCal website. These former Grand Champions really could be competitive on a European Koishow.

The next video, also made by Victor Tran, shows us the new Grand Champion as well as the Reserve Champion. The Kohaku came in first. The Reserve Champion won the Grand Champion title in 2008 and 2010. Both fish are owned by David Tran. Congratulations Mr. Tran!

Big names that will be present at the 3rd edition of the All European Shinkokai Koi Show, you cannot deny that! The show, which will be held on 10, 11 and 12 May this year seems to become a great success. The show moved from outdoor to indoor (De Broodfabriek in Rijswijk, the Netherlands) and that gave the opportunity to include a Bonsai show. But who will be part of the judging team? You can read it here!

The effort of Ornafish and KoiQuestion resulted in the following list of Japanese breeders and well-known persons in the scene:

- Toshihiro Hirasawa (Marudo)
- Yasuyuki Tanaka (Maruju)
- Hiroki Ueno (Ueno Koi Farm)
- Yuji Tanaka (Okawa)
- Chikara Nogami (Nogami Koi Farm)
- Mike Snaden (Engeland)
- Josef Bertram (Duitsland)

Toshihiro Hirasawa is the son of Hisashi and soon will take over the Marudo Koi Farm. It will be a special meeting with him, since Marudo was the farm that introduced the life of a Koi breeder to me.

Toshihiro at work

Yasuyuki Tanaka is the middle of the three Tanaka brothers that are all working on the Maruju Koi Farm. Maruju is known for its Tancho Kohaku, but is also more and more excelling with their unusual Showa.

Hiroki Ueno is the boss of the Ueno Koi Farm, which is based on the South Western island Kyushu. His speciality is also Showa and that became clear on the last All Japan Koi Show where one of his Showa won the third place overall (Best Jumbo Go-Sanke)!

Hiroki Ueno together with Tjaard from KoiKichiWorld

Best Jumbo Go-Sanke (3rd prize) on the 2013 All Japan Koi Show, bred by Ueno

Yuji Tanaka from the Okawa Koi Farm, which is also based on Kyushu,  I met this month at the 7th KOI-S Festival in Indonesia. He is a very modest and well-mannered breeder, able to speak English.

Yuji Tanaka van Okawa werkt zich in het zweet

Chikara Nogami is the 20 year old son of Hisato Nogami and will most probably will his debute on an international Koi Show.

Chikara Nogami showing the tablet which was used during judging on the All Japan Show this year

And from the Japanese we go to the European judges: Mike Snaden is a Koi phenomenon from the UK, where he runs his business Yume Koi. He speaks Japanese and is at least three months a year in Japan to be able to select the best Koi. He is also known for his knowledge about Koi development in combination with the reversed osmosis system.

Mike Snaden

Josef Bertram is a German Koi dealer who comes for ages in the land of the rising sun to select Koi. If I am correct, he even bought a Kohaku at Dainichi which he kept growing there for a while and is now a parent Koi there. It seems to me that his Koi eye is allright then!

Josef Bertram is lifting a jumbo together with Takehiro Omosako on the Interkoi 2011

Can we expect you on the 3rd edition of the All European Shinkokai which is held on 10, 11 and 12 May?

When it comes to Koi, a picture is – even though its brilliant – actually not sufficient. It is about the movements of the tail through the water which gives it such a peaceful impression. In this compilation video we once more have the Major Awards of the Interkoi Show of 2013 for you. Press play and start dreaming…

‘…And of course the editing, the control of the sound and suchlike are certainly no easy tasks’

Remy is KQ’s camera man and recently we bought a new camera to improve the video quality. Also the feeling between the cameraman and the Koi is important to get nice footage. And of course the editing, the control of the sound and suchlike are certainly no easy tasks. This way we would like to thank you Remy for all the dedication in mastering the skills of making these videos to share with the Koi hobbyists worldwide.