[lildude]

I am going to write a koi book, kari from pskoi told me to do it, so I am. I really want to get it published, it will be something I will be working on for a long long time.


Here is a preview of "About the Author"

When I was a child I was always mystified by the animal called "Coy", The first time I ever laid eyes on this "Coy" was when I was around 8 or 9 years old in a movie that I long forgotten the title of. Ever since then I was always getting heavy duty trash bags, tearing up my grand parents home and putting in a pond. I did this around 4 or 5 times. Then I gradually grew out of the DIY Pond making habit, but never really forgot my love for "Coy". It was when I was 12 years old that I asked my father for a plastic pond for my birthday from the local Home & Garden store. I think my father was surprised I wasn't asking for another Pokemon game or a computer game. Miraculously he said "Yes". This set me off for atleast a week, I was extremely excited. But this started to die off, soon I changed my mind with a, "Can I have a computer game for my birthday?". My father replied with a quick, "No, you are getting a coy pond". At first I wasn't too excited for getting a coy pond, but that all changed when it was the day of my 13th birthday, Boy, was I excited! My dad and I got into the van and drove off to the Local Home & Garden store. We walked up into the pond section, which seemed to rise up at the very least 35 feet, but I can tell you, it was the most beautiful 35 feet I have ever seen . Pumps, and special chemicals I have never seen occupied this gargantuan amount of space. There it was, the 250 gallon, 18 inch deep Pre-Formed Pond. This would be my first somewhat proper pond I ever had, at that time. After we purchased all of the other needed equipment, such as a pump, an underwater box filter, and this nice looking foutain to connect off of the pumps output. We set off home. It would be another 2 months until the pond would be finished and installed. The outcome was pretty grim to others, but it was beautiful in my eyes. The day that we finished it we set off to our local pet shop, we went to the goldfish section, and saw this tank full of what looked like goldfish, but had barbel's, and the label said "Koi". My Father knew exactly what they were. He said Eric, do you want to get one of these? I said, "Yes" I chose this weird Crimson red, Paper white fish, with a little bit of grey-black on its body. My dad said, "Well dont you think it would be lonely on its own in that big pond?". I said yes, but allowed my father to pick out the second koi, he chose a White and Red koi. We took the koi home and put them in the pond. Months passed, they slowly grew larger and larger. I enjoyed cleaning my pond, which consisted of Emptying it out, Cleaning the filter sponge, and refilling it up again. One day I woke up and went out to my pond, like any other days, too feed my 2 koi. I threw some floating pellets expecting them to dash up and gobble the floating morsels, but nothing happened. I went back inside thinking they were possibly hiding, or sleeping. I came back out. Ran to the pond. Still nothing, I knew someting was up. I grabbed my net and started thrashing it through the water to catch these little buggers, still nothing. Finally I told my father that the koi were no where to be found, and I had no Idea where they could be. My father went outside, and looked around the pond. He noticed the stench in the water that an animal may leave behind. He told me the racoons ate it. I burst into tears, and walked with a frowning face into the house. I would have many more of these tragic episodes in my young koi career.
My first Decent koi pond came when I was 15 years old. It was all of a huge 1100 gallons, and at a adequate 3 1/2 feet deep. I was finally happy to have a pond that the raccoons would not terrorize. I could finally see some real growth in my koi. Instead of going to the local pet store we went to a place that specialized in koi, this place was called "Peters & Sons Koi and Pond Supply". There she was, Kareth is what her name tag said. She said "Hi, what may I help you with today?". I was thoroughly impressed with all the enthusiasm she had for her customers. We said we were looking for koi. She took us into the back, and showed us atleast 25 tanks of koi, each labeled, $20, $35,$50, $100, $200, and so on. I can tell you this, my jaw was dragging at the beauty of these koi, as well as the price. We stayed at the $20 dollar section. We chose 2 koi, one was a Red and White koi, which was "Kohaku" and the other was a White, and black, which was Shiro Utsuri. She bagged our first koi, and tied it off with a latex rubber band, but when she netted our second koi with this weird net that somewhat resembled a sock, the fish jumped out and was flopping on the floor, kareth quickly said, "I cannot sell you this koi, it could get an infection". so there we were chosing out third fish. I let my dad chose the second one. He chose a White, Red, and black one, which was called "sanke". She bagged this one up no problem, she put it in the bag and put oxygen in it, and tied it off. Kareth took us up, back into the store, and my father reached for the wallet, only to be interrupted by the, " Don't worry about it, it's on the house" said by Kareth. My fathers, and My Jaw dropped in amazement. I wondered, "why is she doing this?", so I asked why, she replied with a, " I am impressed by the Knowledge for koi you have, and am proud to see young people like you in this hobby." I was even more impressed with the enthusiasm and extreme politeness that this woman shined. Kareth told us that to float the bag in the pond for 45 minutes to insure the fish would'nt be shocked by the temperature change, and to let a little water in to help balance out the pH to the fish. We went home and did exactly what she wanted. Many months passed by, Raccoon free. My koi collection grew even more in those months, while spending my time in front of a 22" inch computer screen on a koi forum I heard about. I quickly learned even more koi names, I learned their pH, Nitrite, Nitrate, Ammonia preferences. Many more months would pass, it was until after my 16th birthday that my koi started to flash, (this is a term used by koi hobbyist when koi scratch on rough sides of the pond to relieve pain, or an irritant), I was sad to see my koi getting scratched, and developing cuts and bruises on their skin. I told my father was was happening and he told me to Email Kareth and ask her what may be wrong. She told me to come on in at the shop, and there, she would give further instructions. We came into the store the next day, and apparently excited to see us again. I cant help to say, that I was excited too! She lent us a microscope, and a koi healthbook, as well as taught me and my dad how to put a koi in anesthia. I had heard of this, but only thought it was performed during a surgery, or something like that. We purchased the koi anesthetics, and left only to get home and quickly start performing scrapings on our koi, this is a term used when one scraps the protective coating on a koi to see what is irritating it. I put the biopsy sample on the slide, and looked at it under the microscope, only to see nothing but dots and bubbles that werent moving. We went back the next day, and told kareth, and Russ, which I had personally met that day, that we couldnt find anything. We talked there for hours, talking about how filtration should be for a koi pond, and how water quality affected bacteria, and Fungal population in the pond. We all thought it was weird that we did not find anything on the koi. so they gave us some medicine that would treat a broad range of bacteria and funguses. We left and put the medicine in the pond, a couple of weeks later, the koi were happy, and feasting again. Months would pass, with very frequent visits to kareth & Russ's koi store until the next memorable even of my koi obsession.
It was the day after my 17th birthday when I went to my very first koi show held by Camellia Koi club of Northern California. Kareth and Russ invited me to attend the show to hear a speech by an extremely famous koi breeder named, Toshio Sakai, and to recieve a mystery present. They even allowed me to hold a 15 minute conversation with this man. I used my poor skills gathered up by a 2 year course in japanese, to say, "Boku wa Erikku desu" followed by a nice 10 second pause then,"Hajimemashite", which meant "I am Eric, Nice to meet you". Sakai-San and his Translator laughed hysterically at the quite humorous moment. I just stood there in amazement to having get to meet such a famous person in the koi world at such an immature time in my koi life. I thought to myself, "Am I worthy to be in the presence of this man?" I carried on a relatively short conversation, provided who this man was. After talking to him, Kareth and Russ both took me to their booth and showed me a beautiful "showa" koi that was swimming gracefully, and effortlessly in their tank. They said it was a gift from them to me for my 17th birthday, and to help my learn Sakai-sans new Matsunosuke showa bloodline. I was estatice when Sakai-san himself was bagging up my fish? I was now really in amazement, I thought to myself, "Am I worthy being served by this man, and Is my koi even worthy of being bagged by this man?" My nerves were tingling, I got light headed a bit. It took me a while to actually calm down. I think my heart skipped a beat a couple of times that day. Months would pass, and I would visit Peters & Sons Koi and Pond Supply atleast a couple more times. My koi became sick again, due to my inability to quarantine my newly aquired koi. I once again borrowed the microscope and was given as a gift the koi health handbook that I used atleast a year before. I can tell you, this wonderful couple continues to amaze me in the unheard of care and enthusiasm that I can only wish to have! I also that day met some pretty knowledgeable people, especially one who was purchasing some down right beautiful koi. This man actually took the time to talk to a beginner like me, and showed me some unique characteristics about his newly acquired koi.
This leaves me to an end of this section of my book. because of only one reason. I have not yet experienced the future. so I am forced to end this section, as of this time because I have not yet experienced anything more meaningful that I can mention.