Following lengthy discussions with KOI CARP and KOI magazines the BKKS Council has signed a new contract with KOI magazine which will start on the 1st June 2007.

All BKKS members whose membership subscription ends before the 21st April 2007 will have KOI CARP magazine as part of their £35 membership package, and will continue to receive Koi Carp until their subscription year ends. They can then renew as shown below.

BKKS members whose membership subscription ends after the 21st April 2007 will receive KOI magazine as part of their £35 membership package.

This act contains information concerning the running of Koi shows, in particular:

Pet fairs

Pet fairs will not be permitted to sell animals in the course of a business. There will be exceptions to this in cases where it involves the selling of koi carp, racing pigeons and poultry. Pet fairs that involve the selling of koi carp, racing pigeons and poultry in the course of a business will need to obtain a licence from the local authority.

Time has flown by so quickly that I had not realised that I am nearly half way through my term of office as The BKKS Chairman. I have had a really interesting time speaking at several meetings and travelling around the county getting to know many of you. I have had interesting conversations with many people and hope that I have learnt what our membership would like to see happen within the BKKS Society.

All life forms require nitrogen compounds in one form or another, i.e. proteins and nucleic acids (either of two complex acids found in all living cells) combining with proteins to form nucleoproteins. Like all living creatures, fish give of waste products in various sorts. These nitrogenous waste products break down into Ammonia (NH3), which is highly toxic to fish. In nature, the volume of water per fish is extremely high; therefore waste products become diluted to low concentrations and are usually not a problem to fish.

Water in nature is rarely pure as in the “distilled water” sense; it contains dissolved salts, buffers, nutrients etc, with the exact concentrations depending on the local conditions. Fish have evolved over millions of years to the specific water conditions in their native habitat, and may be unable to survive in a significantly different environment.

Water has four major measurable properties that are commonly used to characterize its chemistry:

(a) pH (b) Buffer capacity (KH, Alkalinity) (c) General Hardness (d) Salinity

(a) pH