BAS Annual Show - 1900 As Remembered by a Goldfish Person

BAS ANNUAL SHOW - 1900
AS REMEMBERED BY A GOLDFISH PERSON
By:  Anita Hovanesian, BAS
Published in The Daphnian, March, 1991

For me the excitement started early - the day before.  As most of my little fishy “people” live outside, I had to catch them all and get prepared ahead of time.  Thank were set up with plastic bags in them the night before and numerous attempts were made to catch my finny friends.  They were very uncooperative.

Finally, I waited until it got dark outside and came out with a flashlight in one had and a net in the other.  Surprisingly the fish were still awake (show jitters!) and kept burrowing under the plants.  About one hour later, after being soaked from head to foot, all the fish were caught and placed in a “kiddie pool” to wait until morning.  The pool was covered with screen mesh, and the water was aerated with an air line from my fish-room blower.  Two German Shepherd dogs loudly voiced their disprovement of the fact that their pool was not off limits.

The morning arrived with a pounding headache - probably a combination of being so wet and cold earlier along with show excitement.  The tanks were brought outside alongside the dogs’ pool and the fish were carefully transferred into them by hand along with the same water they were in.  (I prefer to put my fish into the show tank the day of the show - not earlier).  Everything was loaded up into the truck and we were off!

Setup went fairly smoothly considering the fact that I had 16 entries.  Eight of them were tropical’s which were safely in their bowls with Tetra brilliant filters already attached by suction cups.  All that was needed was an air pump and extra line.  They were already in their tanks, but needed to be released from the plastic bags.  Corner box filters with fluff and Ammocarg were put in place and anchored with airline suction cups.  I used a double piston pump for air and had plenty to spare.  Clear covers were put on the tanks as goldfish should be judged from above also for symmetry of fins.  The covers were loosely taped in place, and all was finally ready by 12:30 or so.

Many new friends were made and lots of teaching was done with the general public.  I still get a thrill out of hearing, “ooh Mommy, look at the big, fat, pregnant one!”  (my Pearlscale) or “Oh my, I didn’t know that they have black goldfish.”  Sometimes one can hear them say, “Is that really a goldfish?  He’s so pretty.”  I just stand there silently and snicker to myself as I can remember the comments I made to my mother many years ago during my first visit to an aquarium shop.

Judging was finally over and the results were in.  Some of my little golden friends had done well and others had not.  It was time to breed some new fish for next years show as some of my trusty winners were becoming older and losing their vibrant colors.  All in all I can’t complain, but “Champ”, my Bristol Shubunkin who was finally dethroned after a 3 year reign, vowed to return with one of his sons!

Breakdown went quickly and without incident.  Everyone was put back in their bags and transported home in their respective tanks.  The bags were floated in my ponds for about an hour as the outside temperature was very code.  As I released them all back into their ponds, I could swear I head one say, “I’ll be back - just lookout!”