There are big fish, like the colorful...
There are big fish, like the colorful Japanese koi that hobbyists raise with loving care in back-yard ponds, and there are little fish, like the silvery grunion that flock to California shores for their annual mating dance. Both will get their share of attention in the South Bay today.
Prized Japanese koi will show their colors at the Gardena Civic Center from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today, the final day of the 17th annual U.S. District Zen Nippon Airinkai Koi Show. Hobbyists from California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Hawaii will show more than 600 of the Japanese brocaded carp, which can grow to more than two feet. Judges from Japan will choose the outstanding fish in 14 categories based on shape, appearance and intensity of colors.
Charlie Seu, a vice president of the Zen Nippon Southern California Chapter, which is sponsoring the show, said koi can cost several thousand dollars depending on size and color. The favored combinations? Red and white, white and red with black spots and black with white and red spots.
And the koi certainly are pampered. Their owners give them nutritious food and lavish money on lovely back-yard ponds where the koi swim serenely in the cleanest water.
“It’s a way of life, like religion,” Seu said. “You just get captivated by the fish.”
The Gardena complex is at 1700 W. 162nd St., and the show is free.
With the sardine-size grunion just beginning to turn up on sandy beaches, the Cabrillo Marine Museum in San Pedro will hold its first “Meet the Grunion” event of the year at 8 tonight.
A film on the grunion run--a mating ritual that takes place between now and the end of July--will be shown at 9 p.m. Then everyone will go out on the beach to watch the grunion wriggle ashore.
In the so-called beach mating dance, female grunion swim ashore on the wet sand and burrow backward to lay their eggs--up to 3,000 at a time. Males follow and fertilize the eggs.
“It’s a wonder to watch these fish,” said Larry Fukuhara, museum programs director. “Just the idea of seeing a fish come completely out of the water is very foreign.”
Few species of fish in the world leave the water, and grunion are the only examples in Southern California.
Grunion watchers should dress warmly and bring a flashlight. The museum is at 3720 Stephen White Drive. The program is free, but beach parking is $5.50. Information about other “Meet the Grunion” nights between March and July is available at 548-7562.
