The Koi America 2005 "Premier Goldfish Show"

Koi America

This event was sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Koi Club (MAKC) and held in Chantilly Virginia 12-14 August 2005. It is one of the largest Koi exhibitions in the US, as well as a pond and garden expo. The event has many, many elements and events that make it a great show to attend. For goldfish people, a new dimension was added in 2005, with a goldfish show.

The Premier Goldfish Show

The show was aptly named the "Premier Goldfish Show". It is the first goldfish show held by the MAKC at their Koi America event. But it also attracted 62 entries from 12 exhibitors, was held in the spacious Dulles Expo Center, and had one of the most experienced GFSA judges presiding. So it was a "premier" event.

GFSA Involvement

The GFSA sponsored the Reserve Grand Champion award. Also, Peter Ponzio, who is a board member and has held almost all of the GFSA offices (including chairman) in the past, served ably as the judge and also presented a seminar on goldfish and goldfish judging. Jim Castillo served as the goldfish chairman and handled the logistics and benching of this show.

Being careful not to overstate the GFSA involvement (the MAKC made all of the arrangements and did all of the work to host this excellent show, with encouragement from the GFSA), this is nonetheless the kind of event that the Society likes to see held and is happy to participate in. The judge was a GFSA judge, who applied the GFSA breed guidelines, the GFSA was able to sponsor a trophy, and the goldfish show chairman submitted photos and a nice note of appreciation to the GFSA for the Report.

There is a general feeling in the Society that this kind of event is very good for the hobby and very beneficial to the GFSA. In particular, if the Society can offer support in the form of trained judges and award sponsorships, while local societies actually do the work to put on the show, then it will be possible to have more shows and to have more consistent results and expectations. Hopefully we will be able to report on more of these events in the future.

Scenes from the show and show winners follow below (click on the images to see the full picture). For an explanation of the class terms and placing, see the bottom of the page.

	A shot of the overall exhibit area, including the judge Peter Ponzio explaining the show and results to some spectators		The Winners' Board listing all the goldfish classes in the show and who won each. The full list is below.
	The Grand Champion.		The Reserve Grand Champion.
	Another look at the Reserve Grand Champion (photo courtesy of Jim Castillo).		Judges' Kingyo Award for Mature goldfish, given to a a calico Ranchu.
	Judges' Kingyo Award for Young goldfish, given to a Moor (photo courtesy of Jim Castillo).	Another look at the Judges Kingyo Award - Mature	The calico Ranchu again (photo courtesy of Jim Castillo).
	Best Oranda - Mature.		Best Mature Ranchu and Best Pearlscale (photo courtesy of Jim Castillo).
Another look at the Best Mature Oranda	(photo courtesy of Jim Castillo)		Best Mature Telescope, awarded to a Moor (photo courtesy of Jim Castillo).
	Best Singletail, awarded to an American Shubunkin (photo courtesy of Jim Castillo).		Best Young Oranda (photo courtesy of Jim Castillo).
	Best Young Ranchu (photo courtesy of Jim Castillo).		Best Young Ryukin (photo courtesy of Jim Castillo).
	Best Young Special Variety, awarded to a red Tosakin (photo courtesy of Jim Castillo).		Award for Most Unusual, to a brown Egg-Phoenix (photo courtesy of Jim Castillo).
	A big red Ranchu entered in the show.		A nice red and white Ryukin entered in the show.

The classes use the term "mature" and "young". While the intent is to allow less mature fish compete only with each other, which class a fish falls in is determined solely by size. A fish with a body length of 3-inches or greater is considered "mature" and any fish with a body length smaller than 3-inches is classed as "young".

This show also used the "move up" process for placing fish. In this approach, when a fish in a class (say "Mature Oranda") is moved to a higher level, above the varietal class award, then the next fish is moved up into the best in class place. So, for example, if the top Oranda takes the Judges Kingyo Award, then the next best Oranda would receive the Best Oranda class award. This approach ensures that as many quality fish as possible can be recognized in the awards.

Here is the full Winners' Board listing of who placed in each class (courtesy of Wayne Orchard, the MAKC exhibition chair):

Koi America 2005: Premier Goldfish Show