The 19th Annual Northwest Koi and Goldfish Club Show

I attended the Northwest Koi and Goldfish Club show in Portland Oregon in late July 1999. What a quality event. I have heard good things about the San Antonio show, but it is hard to believe anyone could surpass the ambiance of the Portland show. I had also attended this show 2 years earlier; see that article for a discussion of the show location.

There were 69 goldfish and somewhere around 250 Koi at the show. The quality of the goldfish was generally excellent and I was led to believe the Koi were also of uniformly high quality. Tony Reynolds judged the goldfish; he selected a panda (or magpie, as he called it) Butterfly Moor as Grand Champion and a Bristol Shubunkin as Reserve Grand Champion. See the links below for show winners and other scenes from the show.

I spent some time talking with Tony (we have some shared Internet interests). I was interested in his judging method. He has developed a simple point system and form that can be used to evaluate all varieties. The method combines aspects of the GFSA judging guidelines and the British goldfish standards. Seems pretty straightforward and eliminates some of the subjectiveness in variety-to-variety comparison (while still retaining the necessary mystery points for things like "deportment"). Hopefully I can spend more time on this subject elsewhere on this site.

I attended the Saturday night banquet and also spent some time on Monday helping the clean-up crew disinfect and pack the Koi tanks for storage for next year's show. The banquet was fun and I like this show's tradition of projecting images of the winning fish up on a screen while the judges provide a commentary on their merits. This year the awards were silverplate items, a change from the previous two years' Chinese porcelain.

At the clean-up I got to see Morris and Jeannie Bush's really impressive Koi ponds. I also met Jerry Karo, who does the NWKGC web page (a kindred spirit!). A fun time. If you plan to attend one of these events, take the time to establish some local contacts before you go. Having someone who can take you around and introduce people or point out fish really adds to the interest level. In this case, the goldfish area was closed from 10AM to 4PM Saturday while the goldfish were judged (and the Koi areas for a similar time period). So meeting people is the alternate activity.

Here are goldfish pictures from the show, covering most of the major winners (NB: the show was English-style with multiple fish in each tank. As a result, in some cases there were several similar fish in the tank, and I can't say for certain which was the winner [though I certainly have an opinion ;)], so you will have to make your best guess):

Grand Champion and Best Telescope Eye: Panda Butterfly Moor owned by Wayne King

Edonishiki	First Lionhead: red owned by Wayne King	First Lionhead: red owned by Wayne King	Young Champion, First Pearscale: Hamanishiki owned by Scott and Jane Taylor
First Oddities, David Lathrop Award: lutino Telescope Eye owned by Larry and Pat Christensen	First Calico Oranda over 3 inches: owned by Larry and Pat Christensen	Third Telescope Eye: white Telescope Eye	Third Telescope Eye: white Telescope Eye
Third Fantail and Ryukin under 3 inches: calico Ryukin	Second Lionhead: red and white Lionhead (my favorite fish in this show)	Second Telescope Eye: chocolate Butterfly Tail Telescope Eye	Second High Head: calico Oranda
Red and white Pearscales	Red and white Pearscales	Red and white Pearscales	Red and white Ryukin
Sarassa Comet	Black Moor, red and white Oranda	Reserve Grand Champion, First Singletail: Bristol Shubunkin owned by Valerie Burtson	Shubunkin again (these guys are hard to photograph!)
First Black Moor, Second Black Moor, Second Fantail and Ryukin over 3 inches: Moors and red and white Ryukins owned by Loretta Gertson	Another view of Loretta's fish	First Fantail and Ryukin under 3 inches: red and white Ryukin	First High Head: red cap Oranda
Third High Head: calico Oranda	First Ranchu over 3 inches: black Ranchu	Calico Ryukin	First Ranchu under 3 inches: red and white nacreous Ranchu
First Fantail and Ryukin over 3 inches, Bill Parsonsen Award: red and white Ryukin (with red nose); Chairman's Award: calico Ryukin (all owned by Larry and Pat Christensen)	Another view of Larry and Pat's Ryukins	Red and white Lionhead	Red and white Ranchu
Red and white Ranchu	Tony Reynolds, judging these excellent fish	Black and white Oranda	Mystery fish: blue Oranda? Ryukin? Wen Yu? Fantail?
Calico Ryukin

If some of these fish seem like they have run out of energy, well, they've had a long day of it. Probably as much stimulation in a few hours as they would normally get in a month. One thing that really impressed me was the complete lack of feces in the show tanks; you should fast show fish for a week before showing them, to help minimize their ammonia output. The people who exhibited at this show all clearly knew this and were conscientious about it.