Don’t be Koi – use solar panels to keep your fish warm

For many householders spending £11,000 on solar panels is a long-term investment to reduce their ever-increasing energy bills.

But Potteries resident Steve Pendleton paid that amount – so he could look after his beloved 60 Japanese koi carp.

“The panels will reduce our domestic bills as well,” said the pre-delivery inspection worker at JCB at Rocester, “but the main reason was to keep four water pumps, two air pumps and two UV clarifiers going for 365 days a year to look after the fish in the back garden.”

Good filtration to provide quality water is vital as 55-year-old Steve found out when he first began keeping koi 28 years ago and lost his first three fish immediately.

He wasn’t going to let that setback beat him as he admits his hobby became an obsession.

The married man with two daughters did a five-year course on fish health in Northampton spending one Sunday a month there in lectures and the rest of the time studying at home.

The effort paid off as some of his koi carp are 25 years old.

Ten years ago the family decided to move from their home in Lombardy Grove, Meir.

“But we had to find a house with a garden big enough to build a pond,” admitted Steve.

Eventually they bought a home in Lightwood, Longton, where Steve kept his precious fish in a temporary tank for two years while he spent every spare moment moving 200 tons of earth by hand to build a 27ft by 11ft wide pond containing 6,000 gallons of water.

He was planning to hire a digger, but he had an accident at work and by the time he was fit again the temporary tank had been set up so he could not get a machine past the back gate.

“I wanted to dig down to eight foot deep but I had to stop when I hit solid rock at six feet,” admitted Steve. “The neighbours thought I was mad.”

As Steve became fanatical about his hobby he joined the Potteries and District Japanese Koi Carp Club and he exhibited at shows at Trentham Gardens winning a couple of Best in Show titles.

“However, I stopped going as the fish were getting too stressed,” said Steve. “They struggled to acclimatise in their pond again after being taken to shows. The fish sulked, turned red and kept their fins tucked in.”

Instead he joined trips to other clubs around the country visiting up to nine ponds at a time.

But Steve has even had to give that up now. Four years ago he started a weekend business, Peng Koi at Unit 5, Beaufort Mill, Beaufort Road, Longton, selling fish and all the food and accessories.

He is helped by his 75-year-old dad, Bill, who lives in Weston Coyney, and his older daughter 27-year-old Vikki from Adderley Green.

“When Vikki was younger she used to complain ‘we’re not going to that fish place again’,” recalled Steve. “Now she is much more interested and become very knowledgeable.”

But how has his wife, Sandra, survived her husband’s obsession with the fish during their 31-year marriage?

“I am not interested in his hobby but life is too short and I let him enjoy himself,” she laughed. “He could be down the pub seven nights a week; at least I know where he is.”

But 52-year-old Sandra, a children’s worker whose hobby is running a wedding stationery business, Raffinato, with her friend Wendy Byrom, has had to be patient.

“Every year Steve says he will do the jobs around the house when he sorted the fish out.

“But he never does; every year he does something new to the pond and the garden.”

Recently he took his love of Japan further when he planted 20 bonsai trees near the pond to give the garden an eastern look.

This October he will achieve a 28-year dream when he joins three friends and other fanatical fish lovers for a ten-day trip to visit the mud ponds at Nagata in Japan, home of the koi carp.

“We are having one day off from the koi – to go sight seeing,” admitted Steve.

Sandra quickly reminded him: “I let you go to Japan and you agreed that in exchange you would take me on a cruise in 2013.”

Fortunately, Steve’s investment in solar panels fitted by Noreus Ltd on Staffordshire Technology Park, Stafford, 01782 756995, is already paying off.

The energy bills for his house have gone down, which will help towards paying for that cruise.