Recommended Speakers
Duncan Griffiths
Subjects
  • Parasites life cycles and treatments
  • Koi internal anatomy – how the various organs function
  • Koi physiology and health related issues
About

Duncan wrote “Advanced Koi Diagnosis and Treatments” which is a highly recommended addition to the library of any hobbyist who is interested in koi health. He also started the Koi Quest forum where he has gained a reputation for passing on his accumulated knowledge on koi health and giving reliable and comprehensive advice to hobbyists whose koi have health issues. He now teaches an advanced koi health course for the online teaching organisation Koi Organisation International.

Dean Dimarco
Subjects
  • Koi nutrition and feeding
  • Koi pond filtration
  • Pond treatments – water chemistry or health
Availability
Monday to Thursday evenings, preferable for bookings North of London
About

Dean has been keeping koi for fifteen years as a hobbyist and has been involved in the industry professionally for eight years, working for Hikari and, more recently, as UK Sales Manager for Evolution Aqua. He now heads a new Aquatics Company, Aqua Source Products Ltd, supplying dry goods to the aquatic trade. Dean has been giving talks to koi clubs for the past seven years, with the main topic being Koi Nutrition, which is his specialist subject. His talks are done with his hobbyist hat on, and with much humour! He is widely respected in the trade for his extensive knowledge of all aspects of feeding koi. He is also happy talking about other subjects, such as filtration and pond treatments etc.

Dr David Pool
Subjects
  • Koi feeding – and how it impacts health, water quality and colouration
  • What is wrong with my Koi?
About

David has been involved in fish-keeping for over 45 years and turned a hobby into a career. He studied Zoology at the University of Liverpool, specialising in Freshwater Fisheries Biology, then three years studying for a PhD on diseases of carp and other freshwater fish. David spent 25 years working for Tetra, initially running their Information Centre then marketing before becoming the UK Managing Director for 10 years. Author of three books plus over 250 articles on koi and fishkeeping and has promoted fishkeeping on radio, television and in talks throughout the world. David is Chairman of the AQUA trade show and a Director of OATA. In 2013 he founded FishScience which develops and distributes aquarium, pond and koi foods, based on natural ingredients.

Mark Davies
Subjects
  • The history of Cuttlebrook Koi Farm and how he and Lisa built it
  • Breeding koi
  • Koi diseases
  • Koi genealogy
  • Filtration
Availability
November to March
About

Mark attended Sparsholt College from 1983 to 1985 where he studied fish farming, water chemistry, geology, fish farm construction techniques, fish health and disease diagnosis. During his time at Sparsholt, he worked on several fish farms in the UK and also on carp farms in France and Hungary. When Mark set up Cuttlebrook Koi Farm it had ponds but no electricity, mains water or sewage facilities. By dogged persistence and support from his wife, Lisa, he has turned it into the successful koi farm that it is today.

Nicholas Stinton (CEFAS)
Subjects
  • Cefas and the control of serious notifiable diseases
  • KHV (the facts!)
  • Aquatic Animal Diseases
Availability
Weekday evenings only (plenty of notice is required)
About

The Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI) is the official service for the control of serious diseases in aquatic animals in England and Wales. We act on behalf of Defra and the Welsh Government and are based at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas). We are responsible for preventing the introduction and spread of serious diseases in fish, shellfish and crustacea. We aim to send the inspector responsible for the area the club is in so they have the most relevant person delivering talks. We don’t charge and just try to arrange evening talks alongside an inspector’s regular work in the area. It is difficult to give these talks at weekends as we have limited resources. Please make bookings early to allow us time to schedule them along with our normal work in that area.

Syd Mitchell
Subjects
  • Pond construction and filtration equipment design
  • How the choice of equipment affects water quality
  • Water quality and testing
  • Koi physiology, health, diseases and treatments
  • Water samples also taken away after talks, analysed and a full report and advice sent back
Availability
All day seminars or weekend and evening club presentations
About

Over thirty years of designing and installing filtration and water quality control equipment for the leisure industry followed by studying koi physiology and health since 2006 has given Syd a lot to talk about. He has both OATA Advanced Diplomas. Hanna Instruments asked him to specify the koi kit for their new electronic tester and write the koi keeping booklet that accompanies it. He has written over 100 magazine articles and, consequently, was recruited by the online teaching organisation Koi Organisation International to teach courses in Water Quality and Advanced Filtration and to write new courses plus technical papers and books for their website store.

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Recommended Speaker

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