In the most recent Koi Club of the Air show on April 27 Dr. Pam Govett, DVM and Dr. Greg Lewbart joined us discussing their specific experience with surgical techniques conducted on injured koi in pursuit of improving their quality of life. Lewbart of North Carolina State University had in a previously Koi Club of the Air interview noted Govett was the point person on the team that conducted several landmark koi surgeries and wrote up the research opportunity in the combined report for the Veterinary Record, a British Journal.
Prominent Tar Heel koi hobbyist David Smothers who sought out the NCSU veterinarian team was given credit for his efforts on behalf of his koi and furthering koi research for others. “I think it is really wonderful to have clients like David Smothers to work with,” Govett said. “He really cares about his koi and is willing to give us the opportunity to perform surgeries that are in some cases unique and novel to fish medicine.” Smothers had several koi that suffered from lightening strikes over time and worked with the veterinarian team at North Carolina State University to perform the surgeries that Govett and Lewbart described in detail in the interview. After in-depth pre-operative testing and anesthesia they installed a metal plate along the vertebral column to straighten it in one described instance. “The procedure actually went extremely well,” Govett noted. “I think we were all very pleased with the initial procedure and initial outcome.” These were landmark surgeries of their sort. “I think that the more we do these surgeries the more successful we might be,” Govett said. Most surgeries on koi prior to this according to the scientific literature have been for tumors, eye removals and other maladies where now such procedures are considered quite routine. They also provided expert advice and opinions on a variety of koi husbandry related issues.

Todo Todorsky reviewed a recent Spring primer written by AKCA Judge Ray Jordan, which was recently published in the Mid Atlantic Koi Club magazine. Also discussed was the recent North Florida Koi Club Young Fish Show and upcoming May 19-20 North Florida Koi Club Pond Tour. About half the number of the fish that show at the Fall show made it into categories at the Young Fish Show. Todorsky touted the auction at the show and other club shows as being a terrific way to redistribute excess fish populations. “The advantage of the auction is people come there that have the facilities already, they know what they are buying, they see the fish, they know that they have a place to keep them for the most part and it is a much better way to go,” Todorsky said.

Dr. Greg Lewbart, professor of Aquatic Animal Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences, North Carolina State University

In the April 14 Koi Club of the Air Show with Dr. Greg Lewbart, professor of Aquatic Animal Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences, North Carolina State University discussed his experience as part of their veterinary medical research team studying koi pain management, drug treatments, blood values, and involvement in development of surgical techniques, materials, and equipment. “I worked in the industry until 1992 when I was hired at NCSU and I started in Jan. of 1993 where my focus is on pet fish or ornamental fish medicine,” Lewbart said. “Tropical fish doesn’t really fit for koi since they are temperate. I also work with other aquatic animal species including amphibians, reptiles, even invertebrates, and occasionally sea turtles, and marine mammals now. So lots of different things, but koi probably comprise half of our clinical load with fish. In other words, most of our pet owned or privately owned fish cases that come through the door at NCSU or that we see in the field are koi or koi pond related.”
They have a lot of brainpower and human capital to draw from in furthering koi research at NCSU. “Our main goal is teaching veterinary students and a lot of them have an interest in fish, certainly more every year,” Lewbart said. “One of the interests is companion animal medicine, exotic animal medicine and people graduating are going to be working with client owned pets and want to know how to incorporate many different species into their practice including fish that has a big area of growth in the last few years.”

This is in depth hard scientific research into koi biology at NCSU. “We are trying to figure out things like if we are going to give koi this antibiotic what is the best route to give it, how frequently should we give it, and what blood levels are we looking for, and what pathogens including bacteria will be sensitive,” Lewbart said. “So we call that pharmaco-kinetics. It is sort of a branch of pharmacology. We are trying to establish some baseline information on what is a healthy koi. If a veterinarian comes to your pond and they want to draw some blood and see how the different organ systems are working just like if an owner goes to their physician or they bring their dog to the small animal veterinarian. There are these huge databases out there that they can plug numbers into and say, oh yea the liver looks good, kidneys look good, the heart looks good, muscle looks good. Well there is not a lot of that information out there for fish. It is growing and I’m trying to help contribute to that.”

Lewbart further provided documentation on several subjects that are available at the Koi Club of the Air including “Building a Fish Anesthesia Delivery System,” which does just that. This five-page resource descriptively lays out the necessary components and proper technique for construction (with pictures) of a workable system at minimal expense. There is a section included on general considerations for anesthesia, types, concentrations, and risk factors. A caveat is however, Lewbart does recommend that qualified veterinarian staff should carry out invasive surgical procedures conducted on pets.

Other resources Lewbart made available include, “Evaluation of a method of intracoelomic catheterization in koi”, “Plasma biochemical reference intervals for koi”, “Behavioral and Clinical Pathology Changes in Koi Carp (Cyprinus carpio) Subjected to Anesthesia and Surgery with and without Intra-Operative Analgesics”, and “Evaluation of the tissue reactions in the skin and body wall of koi (Cyprinus carpio) to five suture materials.”
For further information from Dr. Greg Lewbart contact him at greg_lewbart@ncsu.edu or call 919-513-6439.

Todorsky and Hawley discussed in that show the tendency for pet owners increasing interest in producing recipes for dog and cat food after the deaths associated with tainted pet food containing wheat gluten. Todorsky has been heading an effort to accumulate koi food recipes and the relationship of this effort to the broader news topic.

The hosts also discussed techniques for hand feeding koi and what to do as koi spawn as this is the season for such. Osmo-regulation was also explained.

Dick & Betty Roemer pondside

In the March 24 Koi Club of the Air Show Dick & Betty Roemer discuss the ground breaking computer program Dick produced years ago and its updates for judging koi shows and Betty's involvement as one of the founders of the Mid Atlantic Koi Club organization. “I think the first version of the program was used for the koi show that we had in Philadelphia in 1995,” Dick Roemer said. “I had been working with things like Excel Spreadsheet programs and I realized that what I wanted to do for a Koi Club Show couldn’t be done with Excel. So I looked around and learned about Microsoft Access, which is a database program and figured that is what I needed to be able to do what I needed to do to keep track of everything. There is an enormous amount of stuff to keep track of especially at an English Style show where you have the fish broken up into six or seven or eight different size categories and 14 to 16 different varieties that make for a large number of sections on the matrix.”

Move ups and the various precise forms were described and explained. “It is very complicated,” Dick said. “Over the course of all the years since 1995 I keep adding and tinkering and trying to figure out ways to make it easier for the guy to use the program.” The program is customizable. “There is a very elaborate setup section to the program where you tell the program how your show is organized,” Dick said. “One of the things I learned very early on from Norm Meck is to have everything on as a selection process using drop-down lists in Access such that once you type in the correct spelling for Hikari-Moyo, for example you never have to type it again and all you can do is select it.”

The program has gone through tremendous change over the years and recent times is no exception. “I’ve just gone through a very major revision in the program in the way that the program displays digital pictures,” Dick said. “It’s long had the capability to input digital pictures of the fish at the time of benching and Sherri (White) is the one who has taken that to new heights by only using digital pictures of the fish and not using paper copies of the fish pictures in a notebook. She has had me create a report, that again once all the fish are benched and all the pictures are entered you push a button and it will print out all the pictures of all the fish in a particular tank. And then she puts those on each tank, the pictures of all the fish in that tank with their size and variety indicated. The judges can then go through and use those as memory aids along with the judging form, which they can also use to note the decisions they have made.”

Another change has been, “,…after the judging is over with and after everything has been done there is another new report that was just done again at Sherri’s request that again you push a button and it will print out a picture of all the winners in a particular tank,” Dick said. Roemer worked for several months with advice from a programming member of the ZNA So-Cal club developing the system for displaying pictures. And Sherri White used this latest version of the system at the recent Central Florida Koi Show.

For updates on the system where clubs may have an older version they need to call Roemer or send him an email. “The program is very much a live operation,” Dick said. “I’m making changes to it all the time. Dick also requests that those who use the program provide him feedback on how the program might be made easier for them to use in order that he might pursue solutions from those observations. From such suggestions Dick makes updates that can then be provided to those wanting them as additions to the program or entire new versions all sent at no charge. Dick Roemer is truly one of the amazing people who has volunteered much and continues to do so for the koi hobby.

Betty Roemer, a founder of MAKC organization addressed the founding of MAKC from her first meeting with several koi keepers in Philadelphia and a couple of other people back in 1986. “Basically we got together and decided to do it,” Betty said. “It sounded kind of silly to start a club with people from all these different places (including Philadelphia, Virginia, New Jersey, and more).” Resources such as locally applicable literature were in short supply in those early days. High quality koi dealers were also sparse on the East Coast, all of which resulted in frustration and the impetus for starting MAKC.

“We had our first show at Lily Ponds in Maryland and I think only one or two people had ever seen a koi show before,” Betty said. And due to the sprawling nature of knowledge in the region the club decided to organize into south, central, and northern chapters. “We needed the financial basis to have a show,” Betty said. “But we couldn’t have a show because we didn’t have any money. And if we had a whole bunch of little clubs nobody would have any money and we couldn’t do anything. So we figured if we had a central club and treasury and then chapters in the different areas to function to the well being of the people in those areas then it would work..”

Todorsky asked about the method of affiliating with MAKC and Betty and Dick noted there were no stringent rules and that various clubs have benefited from affiliation. The clubs share resources. “The name of the game is to share knowledge,” Betty said. “That is always how it has been.” And surely it will continue as MAKC is a leading koi organization in the U.S. putting on a premier show event annually and producing a first rate monthly glossy magazine publication.
Dick and Betty Roemer can be reached by email at roroemer@mchsi.com and of MAKC at www.makc.com

Todorsky and Hawley also discussed changes in the format of Koi Club of the Air from having separate “Pond Tech and Koi Talk” sections to a format incorporating more generally those sections in “Koi Chat.” In that introductory Koi Chat the hosts discussed concerns for koi keeping related to coming out of Winter into Spring including differentials in such matters relative to geographic region relative to temperature, time, and duration.

		Mr. Cuong Ly (right) won his battle in Maine to keep his koi.
Aqua-One one of the Anderson-Biosystems line of products discussed.

In the March 10 Koi Club of the Air Show Todorsky and Hawley discussed numerous other koi related news such as an update on Mr. Ly's victory in Maine, Australian consideration of releasing KHV into their environment to kill carp, and the recent Koi World magazine coverage of Todorsky's planned Koi Recipe Book. There was mention of the Central Florida Koi Show, the ZNA So-Cal Show, the ZNA Nor-Cal Show, the North Florida Young Fish Show, the Oklahoma Show, the Nishiki Orange County Koi Club Show, the Greater Louisville Koi & Goldfish Society Show, the Indiana Koi & Water Garden Pond Tour, and more. The hosts also discussed procedures for transporting koi to shows. Zooplankton and phytoplankton benefits in the koi diet were discussed prompted by a news story and previously published scientific journal material.

Bill Brannon, product representative for Anderson Biosystems joined the Koi Club of the Air crew to discuss the benefits of products they manufacture and distribute including Aqua-One and Koibiotic. Anderson Biosytems is a biotech manufacturing company that produces a number of all-natural microbial based products that clean up environmental messes for the automotive/industrial industry, restaurants, and agriculture.
This is a professional scientifically oriented company that has in place Quality Assurance standards that many hobbyists might not commonly associate with producers of filter-start-up bacteria and related products. “We refer to some of the other companies out there as bathtub brewers,” Brannon said. “Not to necessarily pick on anybody, but there seems to be a proliferation of bacterial type products. And even though it is fairly easy to brew bacteria it is not so easy to produce a safe consistent product that has a decent shelf life and is going to be a product that will work well for you every time you pick it up off the shelf. That is something that we pride ourselves on is our QA and really producing a top-notch product.” They employ biochemists developing products like Aqua-One. “The situation in the commercial realm that has driven people to feel like the products that they are buying aren’t good, don’t work, aren’t consistent, aren’t honestly, and consistently represented, and has driven them to feel like they have to brew their own product that is the sort of environment that caused us to want to get into this and to do it differently,” Brannon said. “We are a science company first and foremost. And we set out to make the very best product we could and then looked to see if there was a market for it. Maybe that is a crazy way to go about doing it, but that’s really the way Aqua-One came about.” It is a liquid product (like all of Anderson-Biosystems bacterial based products due to the improved viability of the bacteria in liquid form) consisting of 22 strains of beneficial bacteria that go after the nitrogen and phosphorus in your pond. Those are the key triggers for the main problems that we ponders have with our water quality.”
Unlike other startup bacteria products commonly found on the market that have pungent odors Aqua-One is odorless. “Our belief is that with the products that do have the very distinctive odor we believe there are a couple of reasons for that,” Brannon said. “It could either be an anesthetic or preservative that is used. Or it could be the fact that they have actually chosen to use some hydrogen sulfide producing bacteria to include those species in their product to do part of the conversion of the nitrogen cycle. As those bacteria do their thing they actually produce H2S, which has got that rotten egg smell. We know what those bacteria are chosen for and we believe that we found some species that are much better at doing that part of the nitrogen cycle that don’t produce H2S.”
In working with numerous commercial koi-breeding operation Anderson Biosystems as been able to take stock of important trends in how their bacteria interact and displace other harmful strains of bacteria harmful to koi. “We knew that there is something that happens in nature called competitive inhibition,” Brannon said. “And that is basically that if you can get enough of very, very high populations of very strong species of healthy bacteria they will naturally out compete the pathogens for the available food source in the water. And that is what we have seen happen consistently with the product.”
Aqua-One is referred to as a clarifier. “As far as reducing the turbidity or cloudiness of the water sort of a neat thing happens,” Brannon said. “These bacteria tend to want to grab a hold of something be that the sides of your pond, your plant roots or biofilter media. That also applies to suspended particles in the water. The bacteria will tend to colonize on those and as their colonies grow they are increasing the weight of those particles and making them more prone to wanting to precipitate or settle out of the water. So that is one of the mechanisms by which the product can clear the water.”
Amazingly, Aqua-One works year round and in salt as well as freshwater systems! Brannon explained in detail how such unusual results occur.
In the evolution of their company bacteria collected from various places around the globe found their way into these products. “Our microbiologists have literally been all over the world and been to some of the craziest environments you can imagine where they has taken water and soil samples and isolated particular strains of bacteria that have adapted to their hostile environments and become really tough,” Brannon said. “They have proven to be very, very good at doing their specific thing.” Anderson-Biosystems has a library of over 300 strains of bacteria they have isolated purposes for many of which are in products they market for various applications.
For more on Anderson Biosystems visit the easy to remember website domain name www.algaesucks.com, which redirects you to their main site or visit it directly at www.andersonbio.com.