its been too long... March 2013 update

well since my last post i actually got very little action, and there is no good reason for it, there was a few calls about small things and some wanted to do trades, but no rescues, till Feb 2013, where i got two, they did come down to trades, but they were rescues non-the-less, due to the first being a tinfoil Barb, that was getting attacked in its old tank, currently healed up and doing fine, it had torn fins and was very stressed. sometime later a friend needed to cull his stock of Africans, i was actually willing to buy them, but he proffered up a trade idea, a rain barrel for 65 juveniles... still trying to ID them, so far i can tell i have Venustus and Johanni, there are three other types that are harder to ID because of their similarity to other strains. if you have any ideas pleas let me know.

Farming WET PET'S?!?!?

ok its not a full breeding thing, i don't have the CHAT for that /CHAT is Slang for CASH/ so i'm realld breeding on the small order.

things i'm planning to breed:
Tilapia: Blue, Nile
Cichlids: Convicts, Angelfish, Texas
Gurami: Bettas
Crustations: Ghost/Glass Shrimp, Marmorkreb Marble Crayfish
Koi
Sturgeon
Paco

my Koi and Sturgeon will be kept in the 18' Diameter 4' tall Above Ground Pool

Tilapia will be Rotated in small stocking pools [assuming i can talk my dad into it] 3-4 8'x30" A.G.Pools chances are it will just be two, the brood stock will be kept in a segmented breeder tank, or if Hybridizing i will keep those in a 10gal breeder tank

Ghost/Glass Shrimp, Crayfish, possible Cherry Shrimp will all be bred in another 8'x30" A.G.Pool i will also grow plants in this pool

Convicts will get the 30gal planted tank

Bettas [half moon, Crowntail] males will be bowled and females will be kept in a planted 20gal tank

angels none adult will be held in a 125gal community tank breeding adults will be kept in a segmented breeder tank probably the other 125gal tank

i will have another planted tank not a breeding thing, possible some aggressive fish like the Exodons, or not, i do like putting my hands in the fishtanks, so i'll prob just keep Cichlids and what not, thank you for reading
1-L

Pause for the cause

i'm taking a little detour from this Koi Food Challenge for a sec, in order to set up a small fish farm, i will do the Koi food challenge but i'll have to do so with a long view plan of attack, and only when Financially feasible

thank you for keeping up with this Blog, it will continue, but as a Vlog, on a start up Urban Fish Farm, i'm hoping i could keep it interesting enough to make it worth writing, keep an eye out for updates and please subscribe, thank you for reading
1-L

HACH the EndGame

LOL I laugh because I knew they would never take responsibility for failing their customers. Most of you reading this already know the story, but I’ll tell it here so others will understand the issue.

Hach a well known and highly regarded product manufacturer of water testing supplies has a brand of test strips called Aquachek test strips it comes an a bottle of 50 with a vial I’ve been using this product for 3 to four months on my ponds and fish tanks I raise Koi and had a few show Koi and a ton of pond Koi, normally I feed my fish 1-2 times a day but due to it being spawning season I started a fattening up regiment to get my Girls up to spawning weight feeding 3 times a day no less that 2 feedings, I needed to insure they where egg heavy, I started this in April so I needed to test my ponds twice a week to insure there was not any unusual Ammonia spikes. And I did my Koi seemed happy outside of a few Flashings [when the Koi go sideways and rubs agents the media along the pond bed] my test always came up 0.0 to 0.5 max, it never went over, so I was surprised when my farther came in and informed me my Koi were all dead.

I tested the water only to see it was 0.5, but that did not sit well with me. I did not distrust the results but my strips for PH, Nitrites, Nitrates and others was limited in my view and hard to read, so I grabbed the API liquid kit and began testing all parameters to see if maybe something else was a fault when every this what good till I got to my Ammonia and Nitrite test, nitrites was mid to high and the ammonia was off the charts, I could not get a reading it was dark green so I divided the test 1:1 pond water:tap water, and it was still off the charts I could not get a reading so I further diluted the test 1:3 Pond:Tap and it finally charted, it was at the top of the chart coming in at 8.0, that’s lethal, that’s like someone tossed in a bottle of ammonia in my pond, but obviously what happened was the water had accumulated Ammonia due to the heavy feedings or 2-3 times a day

I contracted HACH and gave them my results, and filed a complaint, the claimed to have tested the batch and there was nothing wrong, so we went through a lengthy correspondence over this and I even submitted a video [http://blip.tv/file/3736579] proving the strips I had where faulty, they dodged it with half cocked notions so they asked for me to send the remainder to them, and I did same day, really same hour, and emailed them the tracking # on 6/10/10 and today 7/1/10 I received a call the man Ron Merwin, RMerwin@hach.com said “the Desiccant was at 15% moister” and kept repeating this, so I asked “so your saying this was why my test failed” he repeated this 15% business and gave a list of plausible answers, now every strip I tested did the same thing, all of the strips I had 49 in all I used did not work, and I asked him, “so did you test the one I sent back?” Ron stated “yes it worked” so I asked “why would you have to tell me anything about the Desiccant, all you need to say is the Strip you sent back was working and you must have done something wrong” he said “I see” can you the reader of this post tell me why do you think he mentioned the desiccant? Why would he need to if the strip I sent back was in working order? Does this hold water?

Can you do me a favor? Message Mr. Ron Merwin RMerwin@hach.com at HACH and tell him what you think about this post and whether or not you would in trust your Pond, Swimming Pool, or drinking water to a company that well if something comes up DEAD because you trusted them, they would treat you as they did me. Please, repost and contact HACH on this subject, and guess what the drinking water you drink is tested with these strips, because HACH is highly trusted

Thank you so much for reading this and God bless
Juanell Primus at 1L’s Koi Food Challenge

I-L's Youtube Video Contest

I’m not a rich man, heck, I’m only doing this to Promote my project, parting with $50 ain’t fun, but then again it’s just $50. So here’s how this will work, you are to attempt to read my [likes and interest] section on my [Info] page in a dead pan delivery style at the beginning of the Video you must mention or depict in some way [1-L’s Koi Food Challenge] at the end you must again do the same, the one with the highest [rating] gets the $$ so EZ money, videos must be uploaded by may 10th and winner will be announced on may 20th have fun, and tell your friends to rate your video http://www.facebook.com/juanellp

Iron mountain

1-L’s Fish Rescue

1-L’s Fish Rescue

Pet food

Canopy Tents 10’ wide or larger

Water Tanks

Fish tanks [Leaking, Cracked, Broken, or just Unwanted]

Pumps Water/Air

Filter Media

Crush Coral

Bulkheads [all sizes]

PVC pipes [all sizes]

Plastic Hoses [Pool hoses for out door setups]

Small Above Ground Pools

Did I say Pet Food?

Aquatic Paint [potable cement paint]

Solar power Generators

Lights and Ballast [Actinic, Florescent, Halide]

Eggcrate [no metal]

Plexi-Glass sheets

RO/DI(s)

Screening [Plastic, Charcoal, Fiberglass]

Skimmer(s)

UV Sterilizer(s)

Power Heads

Any and all filter type

Thank you so very much for any and all help, please call or email me Juanell Primus at 407-296-4987 and PowerQuee@cfl.rr.com

Again your Donated Items will not be resold or traded, they will go to bless this Facilities efforts in help Aquatic pet owners avoid abandoning there unwanted pets and keep Florida’s Waterways Free from Blithe and Infestations

thank you

Change of Venue [News… Good & Bad]

Change of Venue [News… Good & Bad]

Shalom my friends, got hit with some news both good and bad my launch date of Feb 22 2010 has been changed to an undetermined one do to a change of venue, due to the Volume of water needed for this project and the possibility of leaks and [you name it] from this and other Aquatic set ups I have running my 14x10’ bed room will not be suitable, so I’ll be taking over the garage. It is over twice the square footing of my room with its own well everything, it’s a garage, I can set up a ro/di by the sink, hang my lighting with out killing the ceiling, open the garage door when ever working with Chems, you name it. And tech’ing the place up with cams and servers is easy. So although I have no launch date due to the move, I’ll have more time to do this right, my dad always says “he even said it this week” measure twice cut once he also likes to say, a wise man counts the cost before he builds, “he said that to me today” so its reckoning time

1-L

How I got Koi-Bit-o'd in my nutt shAck

Wow last night was a massive set back two of my Forums turned really bad KoiShack and Koi-Bito, I promised full disclosure to the Food manufactures and here it is, Koi-Bito was bad from the first Page, if you get a chance to read it you will see, so when a pronounced breeder in the group made a statement that appeared disparaging if you read it you can gleam why I felt that, I called him a racist, [now, knowing otherwise] but at the time that’s how it looked, he changed his tone and verbiage to sound very country, in my world it's slave talk and I felt he was making fun of my race, so I called him on it, he privately [Private Messaged] me and assured me that he meant no harm he was playing up his own accent I’m sure for effect, but he did not get into that, meanwhile the group was tearing into me like a Monkey on a cupcake calling me a Racist, Retarded, and a slue of other things see Koi-Bito for more on that, due to this, members at KoiShack who also where members of Koi-Bito had that Forum SHUT DOWN! Hay such is life, but what disappointed me was how a group of adults went from adults to High School Freshman in 3 hours, it was Glorious, I was the new kid in class and they pushed me in the boys locker room where the Jocks commenced to Rectal Abuse me with no KY, not cool, not cool at all Bito and Shack LOL hay no hard feelings A? it was an Education in moronic.

http://koishack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19406

http://www.koi-bito.com/forum/main-forum/11215-1-l-s-koi-food-challenge.html

Joe's Original Concerns

Hello

We were thinking along the same lines. We too thought about some more testing . You did not specify what foods you are using for the tests or the methods for control and replicate studies. I would be interested in talking to you about this. I'm sure it will attract a lot of attention and get a lot of scrutiny so it is important to make it as factual and fair for all involved. I think you will find that the Blackwater Gold Diet will perform very well. It is fed to our young fry and our very best breeders after spawning.

Some things that will affect the koi growth besides the food will be

1. Presence of natural foods- Will these tanks be outside? with they have access to chironomid larvae ( blood worms) for the local ever present population?

2. Sunlight - Algae growth? - Koi are omnivores and will continually graze.

3. Will the tanks be scrubbed clean of any bio floc daily?

4 Will the fish be "fresh" small young of the year fish ready for continued growth ... or could they be fish that have been crowded and slowed / delayed growth to meet market demands?

5. Are the fish the same varieties from the same spawns from the same pond? I can put a asagi and chagoi against a showa and win with the chagoi even when feeding the chagoi dog food . They grow faster.

6. Will the tanks be on the same filter system? Heated and constant?

A lot of nutritional tests are done each year with fish . You may be able to do some research on peer reviewed papers sponsored by the Aquaculture Engineering Society.

There are many things to consider. I would be happy to offer my opinion and some gold food for the tests

All the Best,

Joe Pawlak
President
Blackwater Creek Koi Farms Inc
Aquatic Nutrition Inc
www.koiretailer.com
koisale.com
www.Aquaticnutrition.com

President - NOGGA
National Ornamental Goldfish Growers Association

Top Tanks

Bottom tanks

Feelin Kinda Koi

I'm trying to keep myself in the game, I’ve been running around earth and sky looking for Affordable Resin and Fiberglass Mat... this seems to be my Achilles' heel I’m running up on January and near one sloppy box set up, we got the Wood and Glass, I guess I can start on general construction, but where's the fun in that? do you like the new Logo?

This is What i'm Talking About!@!@!

Need Resin and Fiberglass any info will help

just picked up two *150gal tanks [who’s glass 6'x22"* will be used for the project] got them both for $80 one I picked up for $60 and the other for $20, was totally willing to pay $100 each, now I’m in need of finding Fiberglass mat/cloth and Resin found 120yrds 38" wide mat for $150.00 and 5gal's of resin for $125.00 if any one knows of a better deal let me know PowerQuee@cfl.rr.com and if any of my techi friends have any fiberglass & resin to donate to a fellow Techno-nerd let me know, this junk ain’t cheap

Chat with Joe update

As I said this test is jumping off in January, what you’re looking at is an evolving project, my critics have leveled several honest questions that lead me to re-evaluate this thing, as mentioned in the first post, your input will be considered and any analytical Data you feel warranted will be added. This is my project but it’s for you, so you get a say. By the by, Critique only makes things stronger, so please tell me what’s up, I don’t want a failing or useless project, Dig it!

Project updates
1) There will be no Control food, Called Joe P today and he said, and I might be misunderstanding this quote “let them all go up against each other” so in my view a control would just get in the way of Data collection and grind the process down. So it’s all Head-to-Head

2) Several members of the Koi chat rooms have voiced how scientific can this be if you’re only running it once, so were doing multiple Open-label trials now. And now it will be the top polled 8 Koi foods no control and the parameters will be spelled out

3) Not sure if any one caught it, before but the same statements keep popping up, four tanks, each holding five, two “approximate” inch Koi all tanks will have the same weight of Koi, so mass gained will be properly measured.

4) My pollution view has been modified, Joe mentioned that Koi food high in proteins will give off more ammonia from the Koi because there metabolizing the proteins better in some foods far more than others, so those flux are actually a good thing, so the Ammo, Nitrite, Nitrate will be measured, but just for over all data, not as a pollution issue.

5) Skimmites and D.O.C collected and already mentioned, but 1st filter pad will be dried and weighed and replaced bi-monthly, Skimmites might also be dehydrated for weighing purposes.



The Koi will be of assorted but each tank will have the same color of Koi, Joe Said these would be good to run Midori-Goi “green”, Chagoi “tea-color” or “brown”, Kohaku “red-white’, Oringi-Goi “orange” [not sure if he mentioned orange, but he might have just said Cha “tea” then Brown and in my head cha and orange ??? I don’t know so it could be Cha and Ma] and I believe Sanki. These will be from the same Genetic stock “parentage”

Each tank would have the same Koi of five color class, this will give us an insight of the coloring up of the premium stocks, and since some of these Koi foods actually don’t carry a Premium/Choice/Select grade food, they will be nixed that’s a sad thing but its what’s up, and what’s cool in the streetz, feel me?!

please participate

you just stumbled in on a little scientific/entertainment page that will spend the next two years researching 10 of the top Koi food manufactures as chosen by you, up until, December 1st you will have a chance to voice your opinion as to what Koi food is chosen by voting in this online poll off to the right of the screen if the food you favor is not listed you may send an email to PowerQuee@cfl.rr.com, and your vote will count, any un-polled selection will be posted in my twitter, you can also follow that to the right of the screen, please participate in the poll, we need this to be as honest as possible, because I am bias as a Koi Hoddiest.

to clarify

Ok I’ve been asked a few times what good is this Vlog if it’s not scientific Id-Est, its not provable science, I’m not repeating the test with the same foods, and genetics come into play when you’re studying living things there is a certainty amount or a total amount of randomness to such a study.

All totally “Valid!” I did try to address this on the Koi Shack site, but I did not want to run the risk of playing Ye old pickle licking contest, by way of my words make more since than yours! no me! Blabady, blab douche baggery! So I decided to list my list of benefits here, to lower the amount of volume, if you can dig that.


The science is there, this is just not double blind, or extraneous data. How much are you feeding your fish over how much your feeding your filtration. Three times a day these Koi will be fed portioned meals. During these meals the filter will be shut down for an hour, so what ever was taken into the filters will be what exits the fish. Not well made Premium food utilized enzymes claming it should metabolize rather clean, minimal waist.

Since each tank will be equipped with there own filtration system, the filtration systems will be composed of a sump, containing 4 sections.
1) Bio Balls
2) Poly Fiber Filter Sheet [to be removed once a week and photographed]
3) Carbon filter [activated charcoal pads]
4) Protein Shimmer [who’s return will be pumped back to the tank]

Skimmites will be Photographed, weighed and logged, along with this I will periodically log ammonia spikes, Ph levels, Oxygen, Nitrites, Nitrates, Alkalinity, Hardness, Salinity, Phosphates, and Copper. This will chart the Pollution aspect of Koi foods… sins these parameters are changed by fish waist and effects stocking rates, and general water quality; why not ask how does Food A effect pollution over Food B.

This is the vicious circle you never see or think about, oh I just want to feed my fish, but why are they growing so slow, why does my neighbor have a crazy over stock pond and he gets better yield? What the deal with that, why is his water more clear, why does my skimmer have to work so hard to just get cloudy yellow water. Then again some of that does due to plant matter, but even so, with this study you will see how much the food contributes to this.

The Objective

Virtually Real World of Koi, if five Koi are given ample room to grow and top quality water purification to live in, will food prove to be a factor in there color and size?
Starting in January I will attempt to study the effects of various brands of Koi food. I will use the premium grade Koi Food of the top three brands. As a control I will use a store brand fish food formulated for Koi. For six months a select number of hand picked Nishikigoi will be kept in a controlled environment.
The Six fish tanks diagramed below (4 tanks @ 200 Gallons) will house 5 Koi per tank, or 1 Koi per 40 Gallons of water.
above design may change

1 Premium Brand TBA
2 Premium Brand TBA
3 Premium Brand TBA
4 Control food source

The Premium Brand food will be chosen by the poll taken on this website so please voice your opinion http://1lkoi.blogspot.com/ and http://koishack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=18699

On the Virtually Real World of Koi, I will log information on water quality, including photos of the filter system during changes to track waste. This will be a Vlog Blog so the reader will not only get access to photos and data, but actually view streaming content of the subjects themselves such as feeding frenzy behavior.

Data to be collected:
Water Quality
Chlorine, Oxygen, Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, pH, Alkalinity, Hardness, Salinity, Phosphates, and Copper.
Obviously some of these parameters will stabilize, but they’re listed for the sake of full disclosure.

If there is data that you think should be listed per your own analysis, please post it and I will gladly include it as a part of this compilation.
Thank you for reading, and please check back often, page is being updated daily.
Source material and research data:

This Vlog will focus mostly on pollution, pollution effects stock rate, Koi are dirty fish like aquatic pigs, so if these foods claim to be formulated “so Koi can metabolize it better than all other Koi foods” as they all seem to boast, lets test that. If you feed your Koi 5oz of Premium Koi food what comes out as waist is fed to your filter, and if that’s cool with you, then you don’t need to follow this, but if your like me and need to know what going to your filter instead of your fish, then by all means stick around, I’m not pulling any punches here.