This years PVAS BOWL SHOW is on Saturday July 9, 2022. It is on the second Saturday of July to avoid the 4th of July weekend.
I hope you bring at least one fish to the show. You will learn something about fish keeping along the way by doing so.
I have been taking fish to BOWL SHOW for a very long time and have won some prizes along the way. I have lost a fish or two but not many, from the fish jumping out of the tank or my making a mistake in water quality like forgetting to add dechlorination chemicals or adding too much.
Here are the six things you should know to get your fish to and from a BOWL SHOW without harm to your fish, in other words, a successful BOWL SHOW:
1. Make sure the fish you bring were living in water of the best quality you can provide. If you are doing routine weekly water changes or at least a couple times a month your are providing your fish good water that has little build up of pollutants. If you are doing so, your fish are almost certainly in good shape. If you are not, you can catch up by doing daily or every other day water changes of about 50% for a week and then once a week thereafter. If your fish are living in water with high pollutants levels because of few or infrequent water changes, they are stressed and if caught and placed in good water, the change can result in a bad result, including death or disease.
2. Most fish can simply be caught with a net and bagged or placed in good water in a five-gallon bucket for transport to the show. But if you catch a fish, particularly one with long flowing fins, in a net and it violently struggles when you remove it from the water, the net can cause fin or scale damage. The fish can still be caught in a net but does not have to be removed from the water. The fish can be transferred under water while still in the net into a plastic or glass container. Guppies, angelfish, and most other fish with long flowing fins are best captured in this manner. It is even better if you can figure out how to avoid the net altogether. If your fish does incur fin damage, MELIFIX often will help repair the split overnight.
3. I like to transport my fish to and from the show in a five-gallon bucket. They cannot jump out of a five-gallon bucket if it has only a gallon or two of water in it. Of course, for the BOWL SHOW you can transport your fish in the bowl or tank you are going to show your fish in. Just be sure to cover the bowl or tank with a towel or clear plastic cling wrap held on with a rubber band to prevent the fish from jumping in transport. Also fish are quite docile in the dark, so if you can transport the bucket, bowl or tank with a dark colored towel over it to block out the light, all the better.
4. There is no supplied air at our BOWL SHOWS. Your fish needs oxygen. Fish that breathe air like gouramis, bettas, and corydoras have no problem with this. Other fish like livebearers, tetras, barbs, and cichlids are at your mercy. So be kind and put the fish in water with the maximum surface area and shallowest water that is appropriate for the size of fish you have. Tanks are designed to have the maximum surface area no matter how deep the water is. But you do not have to fill a tank or bowl to the top. The shallower the water is the more oxygen gets to the bottom of the tank. Fish in shallow water (1 to 5 inches deep) can survive for months without aerating the water. Bowls, on the other hand have more or less surface area depending on how full of water they are. Fill them to the level that provides the maximum surface area. If that level is too shallow for your fish, please find a larger bowl.
5. BOWL SHOWS are great for beginners because all the water is usually brought from home. So there is no concern about changes in water quality as when you use the water from the BOWL SHOW location. But if you are bringing a large tank or have a spill and need more water from the site, you need to use the tap water at the site of the BOWL SHOW. It needs to be at about the right temperature, a 5-degree difference does not matter. It needs to be dechlorinated. You need to know how to dechlorinate it if the club has not provided dechlorinated water. I like to use the maximum dechlorination possible. Read the bottle, it will tell you the maximum amount to add per gallon.
6. The thing I like about the liquid dechlorinators that remove chlorine and chloramines is that they also remove ammonia. All animals produce ammonium as a byproduct of metabolism. Mammals convert this ammonia to urea to make it less toxic. Fish just release ammonia out of their gills. In an established aquarium there are bacteria and archaea on the glass, on the substrate, and on the plants that consume ammonia. In a clean bowl or bag or bucket with fresh water, there is not much bacteria or archaea, at least not enough to consume all of the ammonia. Under these conditions the chemicals in the liquid dechlorinators instantly consume the ammonia released by the fish, basically preventing levels of ammonia from rising. And at maximum dosage of liquid dechlorinators this benefit should last for days, even though the BOWL SHOW last for less than a day. I ship fish with this max level of dechlorination chemical, and they are mostly good for 3 days, sometimes longer depending on the number of fish in the bag.
Here’s wishing you a successful BOWL SHOW.
Questions are welcome. Just respond below, and I will try to answer.
Frank Cowherd, BOWL SHOW chairperson.