monthly pictures 2009

show quality koi
January
Clarke and I once again headed down to Virginia for the 4th. year in a row to see the koi harvest at Ray Abell's place. As always, lots of great fish and a good time. It's pretty rare to see the number of fish of this caliber all in one place. I have over 40 pics you can view on this page
pond plants
February
This is a picture of Wayne's pond taken during the Summer of 2008. It has really grown in with the amazing plantings -Wayne has put in
akca koi seminar
March
As updated in the news section, I just returned from a trip to San Diego for the AKCA Seminar. It was my 6th, my first dates back to 1993 and the last one I attended was in 2001 in Houston, Texas. It was a great time and I plan to upload a page with video and more pictures. Mike, who will be returning this year to work at Clarke Koi, had a great time and improved his knowledge base as well

The 3rd. smaller picture above features Ray Abel discussing the importance of the tail tube
metallic koi
April
This is a nice Yamato that we just sold. The fish has a great sheen, not totally evident from this photograph. The pattern is solid and the sumi should develop further. The doitsu and metallic features make for a striking fish

small koi toronto
May
This is a picture of our latest koi shipment. Fish of this caliber sell for between $ 80 - 135.00. Click here to see more pictures
June
This is a picture of our latest koi shipment. Fish of this caliber sell for between $ 225 - 335.00
pond stone work
July
Our first pond of the season has just been completed. A lot of planting will be done to soften the rock and improve the aesthetics. This pond has no bottom drain and will house just a few goldfish. A skimmer feeds a flow through filter that returns to the waterfall. I expect this pond will look very good once the softscaping has matured - hopefully I will get a chance to return and take some more photos

water hyacinth flower
August
This is a shot of a water hyacinth flowering in the pond in front of our shop. The flowering period is brief and uncommon, lasting just a few days with a peak of only 1-2. I took this shot with my new canon 35mm L lens @ f-stop 1.4
koi mouth rot
September
This poor little Kikoryu has developed mouth rot. This type of bacterial infection can come on quickly and smaller fish succumb much easier than their larger brethren. Beside medicated food and salt, we are also treating with kanamyacin
toronto goldfish pond
October
This is one of our builds from this year. A 6 x 10 pond, about 3.5 feet deep with a bottom drain and external vortex filtration. It houses 3 goldfish and we will be covering it for the Winter in the next week or so
slow motion waterfalls
November
It was really nice this past Summer to visit a pond I helped construct about 5 years ago. Everything had matured nicely and the fish were doing great. This pond has a bottom drain with external vortex filtration, AquaUV and original dolphin pump
fish with ick
December
This fish has a serious case of ick. It broke very quickly and you can see the damage done. A couple days of potassium to reduce the numbers while a steady increase in salinity up to close to 0.7% was implemented. "7 for 7" has proven successful for us and our clients. I hope to get some videos up on the site of various parasites this Winter