The 1st International Guppy Championship was jointly organized by Zoo Zajac GmbH and World Guppy Association.

This successful competition and show was held at Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord in Germany from the 30th September to 3rd October.

The venue was originally an iron refinery which was disused for about 15years and redeveloped. The show was held in a hall of 60,000 square feet with the heaters on due to the cold ambient temperature.

2 rooms were build on the second level of the hall with guest speakers providing lectures for some attendees of the show.

The guppy competition-exhibition was located at the back of the hall before the stage. The layout was in a spiral, with the delta and fantail entries placed on the outermost. With about 700 entries from various countries, it took visitors and also the judges some time to view the captivating guppies.

There are 12 classes:

Some of the entries

An international panel of 15 judges was invited to judge the entries. Each entry was judged independently by each judge and the points were added then averaged. After 2 days of judging, the show champion (82 points) entered by Mr. Gernot Kaden emerged. Congratulations!

Name-list of judges 1. Luke Roebuck (USA) 2. Frank Chang (USA) 3. Rodrigo Ziviani (BRAZIL) 4. Valdu Carvalho (BRAZIL) 5. Eddie Lee (TAIWAN) 6. Boguslaw Micinski (POLAND) 7. Janusz Oziomek (POLAND) 8. Willi Kosa (GERMANY) 9. Gernot Kaden (GERMANY) 10. Jens Bergner (GERMANY) 11. Peter Raschke (GERMANY) 12. Fujiwara (JAPAN) 13. Ishima (JAPAN) 14. Noboru Iwasaki (JAPAN) 15. Chris Ng (SINGAPORE)

At the end of the show on 3rd October, the prize presentation and the auction were held. Many grinning faces were spotted; I guess that everyone was happy that their guppies had won a trophy and a prize. Some of the winners won 2 trophies in a category.

The auction was another much excited event. Everyone was bidding for the guppy-of-their-dreams. Some of the more desirable varieties were hotly bided, with the winning bidder forking out their money happily to the auction assistants. I am very happy with the guppies I won in the auction too!!!

In addition to the guppy competition, there was a fair where pet products were being exhibited and traded. This is similar to Aquarama in Singapore although the scale and focus is different.

Fish foods, equipment, accessories and live fishes were traded or exhibited.

I was fascinated by the discus, apistogramma, shrimps, plecostomas, goldfishes and other catfishes on sale. There was also a showcase of wild bettas and other labyrinth fishes.

One of the innovative filtration systems I saw was a tubular, modular system by a German company. It is simple in concept and manufacture but effective. Maybe we could improvise one suited for our guppy systems

The European Halfmoon Betta Breeders Club (EHBC) also had their competition at the same venue. There were many varieties of betta entries with fin forms of half moons, plakats and crowntails. They had an auction too! It is an exciting auction too, especially with the charismatic auctioneer.

Some personalities:

	Rodrigo Ziviani, Valdu Carvalho, Gunter Kother & Luke Roebuck
	Ömer Gülmez, hard at work as usual
	Chris Ng, Robert Gall & Rodrigo

I like to extend my thanks to Mr Zajac, and Omer for inviting me to attend this show. The hospitality provided by Mr Zajac, Ms Kathi and Stefan is great. I am also pleased to meet fellow guppy enthusiasts like Rodrigo, Valdu, Jens Bergner, Robert, Gernot Kaden, Willi Kosa, Gunter Kother, Eddie Lee, Luke Roebuck, Frank Chang, Mr. Fujiwara, Mr Ishima, Mr. Iwasaki and many many more. Sorry, that I cannot remember everyone but the memories are in my mind.