Show 2003

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Our thanks to Ivan Dibble for allowing the club to use this report he put together. His initial intention was to send this report as an email to his fish-keeping friends all over the world but once I saw it I knew it would look good on the web. Well done Ivan and thanks again.

Hi All,

Here is a little something that I have put together on OUR LOCAL OPEN SHOW this year. I did it primarily for a few friends overseas that were interested in how we organised our open show and what they looked like, but I thought that you might like to see it too.

Let's start with the show schedule. On it's outside cover you will find most of the important information you need to take part in the show

These are one day shows which start about 9-0 am in the morning with the booking in of the exhibits. This stops around 12-30 p.m. when the judging should start

Looking inside we find amongst all the adverts, club info and other things, are the show classes for this show. I say it this way as different clubs can have different classes, as long as they stay within the long list of those recommended by the F.B.A.S.

So ours look like this with all the class abbreviations for all 36 classes.

So if we are going to enter that great little fish of ours then we have to get out our show tanks and decide just what fish we are going to enter

Note the special separated Tanks for some of the more territorial species of fish in Pairs and breeding classes.

Don't forget we have to provide all our own Tanks and our show rules dictate that you must only use containers with four flat sides and please ignore the labels that I have shown on these tanks, they are there just to show you the types of tanks and what they are used for.As there are 3 main way our fish are shown. For example you can enter either a single fish of either sex as one entry. Or you can enter your fish in matched sexed pairs.Or finally you can put them in as a Breeders team. In this last class the fish should be two sexed pairs from a single clutch of young born of one female on the same date. The date of birth must be shown and this becomes part of the judging.

The normal labelling would be like this below. When you book your fish in you get given the label on the top left corner of the tank and that's where it MUST be placed. And if you are good enough to deserve it you can see in the centre where the judges place there award sticker too. The label on the right is at the exhibitors choice but the judges do like to see it as information to the public, who are allowed in to view the show once judging is finished.

Once we arrive at the show and book the entries in we then hand them over to the designated stewards to put them on the show benches as the public and exhibitors are discouraged from viewing them before the Judging is finished, so that the fish have time to settle down before judging.

While this is going on the Judges will decide amongst themselves who is going to judge what, as they are supposed to be able to judge any class of fish. But of course that often gives rise to a lot of controversy. The judges are from a board of judges trained by The Federation of British Aquarists and come from various parts of the country. Naturally thought a club putting on a show does get a choice of those on their list and one tends to chose those who live nearest. Although a Judge may not judge at his own clubs show.

Meanwhile in the canteen the wives are preparing the food for the day to sell to the visitors. But the judges get theirs free along with payment for their services.

Once the Judging has started then the auction will also soon get underway. And you can put forward any Fish or Aquatic accessories to be auctioned.

We tend to get visitors or exhibitors from about 200 miles around like our friend here Jim Griffith ( Centre) just returned from Canada with his new friends and club from the West Cornwall Fish Keepers in the far south west of England, this year again we also had people from the Extreme east of the country and the north.

As well as the Auction there are a number of other things you can do. There are stands put on by Club members and others who wish to sell fish like our friend here.

and there are also stands put on by the specialist organisations like the BKA here.

You can also buy yourself some new show tanks or place an order for something bigger with Brian here a hobbyist who makes cheap "made to measure" and very good tanks of all sizes for everyone who wants them.

By which time the judging will be well under way and the judging sheets will be going up so that you can see how those prize exhibits of yours have done. I just happened to spot these while looking through one of the show tanks.

Any way here is a closer look at one of them so you can see how the fish is judged by 5 different criteria. Where they are awarded points out of 20. The all are added together to give the final score. This is how single fish are judged. For pairs you would change the "Body" column to read "Matching".You would also do this for the breeders class but in the case of the breeders, Size too would change to "Size for Age" and you must show the date of birth on the entry label

Now here is a look at some of the class winners

1st

1st

1st

1st

1st

1st

1st

1st

1st

2nd

And just for a change here is a second place. That's right it is the Crown Betta that I brought home. In fact I took 1st 2nd & 3rd with them. I am surprised that he got anywhere at all as "Crown Tails" do not feature in out standards

2nd

Finally here is a man you may have heard me mention. My mate Don Kenwood. Well he only put 2 fish in the show but managed to do the impossible with one of them a Female Gambusia rhizophorae. He not only won the single fish entry in the livebearer class but he also took best fish in show with it,

And her it is.

1st and Best of Show

Well that's about it I hope you found it interesting. So now there is no excuse, so why not lets see your fish at our next show. Don't forget if you want any help then just contact us, that's what we are here for!!!!!!!!!!!!

All the Best

Ivan H Dibble.