The last day (for now)

Today was very busy. After the usual fish checks and feeding, I was taught how to bag fish properly. I say this because when Mark went to Japan to work for 6 months, this is how he was taught and they were very rigid about the correct way to do things (to be fair, my experience of Japanese methods has tended to be that they are effective and look good, so they had a right to be rigid)

I also learned about sashi and kiwa (the edges of red markings on koi) and how to retro-fit an air-driven return. More on them another day.

'Not much' says you? 'Let's begin with the bagging' says I...

1. Open out the bags (one inside the other) and find the seams.

2. Insert thumbs to depth

3.  Then use fingers to curl the top of the bag over

4. ‘Snap’ the bag so that it folds over in a neat line

5. Turn the bag until you hold it in the middle then ‘snap’ out again, using the same routine with thumbs and fingers. Rinse and repeat until you have a short bag with a thick rim.

6. Now catch your fish

7. He's done this before

8. Carefully into the basket, still underwater

9. Hey Presto

10.  Put the bag into the furthest end of the basket and slide it slowly along towards the fish. The water (and the fish) should enter the bag.

11. Like so

12. Gather the end of the bag, hold it securely and lift the fish to check underneath

13.  Pause for a good long look into each other's eyes (optional)

14. Place bagged fish in the bagging station (a suitable bath, in this case) and separate the inner and outer bags.

15. Gather together the edge of the inner bag in a fan shape in one hand

16. Gently squash the air out of it

17. Make a hole in the centre of the fan (which should have neatly extended as the bag was squashed)

18. Add oxygen so the fish can breathe. It should last up to 36 hours in this way (though ideally it will be in its new home long before then)

19. Now bunch the gathers and straighten them

20. Twist them tightly in a clockwise direction

21. You should end up with a natural loop that you can see through - if you can't see through it, the twists are too loose and the bag may come undone in transit!

22. Holding an elastic band with your thumb, wrap the leading edge repeatedly around the twist until you can loop the last bit over. It will be neat.

23. Push the loop firmly down and gather the outer bag around it, using the same method

24. Make sure the air's all gone

25. More twisting, looping and 'laccy banding

26. Voila! One bagged fish ready to transport

27. This is called a 'hard' bag, because the amount of oxygen makes the bag rigid. A 'soft' bag has slightly less oxygen, allowing the bag to conform to the shape of a box for transporting.

...and unbagging

1. Float your fish in your pond so that it can get accustomed to the temperature. You might want to drip-feed some of your pond water into the bag to accustom it to your water quality. This will likely be in your quarantine tank.

[A note on quarantine - this is a wise precaution to avoid introducing diseases or parasites into your pond, thereby protecting your established fish. Quarantine should last around 6-8 weeks, during which you will ideally heat-ramp your fish to ensure that no nasties appear once the temperature is optimum for them. This is mainly to protect against KHV. Choose some 'naive' fish (not your most expensive!) which you *know* haven't been exposed to KHV to buddy up with the newbie. In this way, if the newbie is an asymptomatic carrier of the virus, your naive fish should display symptoms if it is there to be caught.]

2. Once acclimatised, undo the loops and twists and 'laccy bands

3. Roll down the edges of the bag

4. To create a floating bowl

5. Carefully remove your fish, checking it's ok

6. A gentle splosh and your fish is safely in it's new home

I think I'll come back tomorrow and tell you about the air-drive return and the colours - that was a BIG lesson.