When it comes to these manmade pools of quiet and reflection, the advice of the 38-year-old father of four is sought by private and corporate clients in Cebu, Manila, Iloilo and Cagayan. In the landscaping business, he often works in tandem with his cousin, renowned architect Jaime Chua.
While Jaime selects the plant varieties and designs the layout of the landscape, Eric ensures the hardscape harmonizes with the aesthetics and operational requirements sustaining the mini-ecosystem.
Eric is quick to dispel the misconception that creating a pond is just spadework, cement and water. Ideally, the homeowner or client should include the envisioned pond in the plan at the outset. This does away with the cost of later destroying a part of the garden to excavate and move earth when a pond occurs only as an afterthought.
Eric also clarifies that pond-making requires skills not found among pool builders. “Planning and appropriate equipment ensure the proper filtration of ponds,” he advises.
Clear and running water is essential in a fishpond. Unlike a lily pond, which has water plants as the focal point, a fishpond can be the showcase of a breed highly prized by collectors around the world: the koi.
Literally meaning “brocaded carp,” according to wikipedia, this ornamental variety of the common carp has a physical appearance prized by breeders and collectors, many of them men, since the Chinese Qing Dynasty and the Japanese Yayoi Period in the 17th century.
A koi collector himself, Eric points out that girth and size, vibrancy of color and unique markings or pattern display to fullest advantage the qualities of friendship, love and luck traditionally associated with this fish. Among the varieties valued by collectors are the Kohaku, a white-skinned koi with a red pattern; Showa Sanshoku or Showa, a black-skinned variety with a red and white pattern; and Ogon, which is of one solid color, whether regular or metallic red, orange, platinum, yellow or cream.
While the Philippine-bred variety is smaller and less voluminous, and thus cheaper, the Japanese specimens that are selected after six to seven meticulous culling emerge as the “cream of the crop” from millions of inferior spawns, and thus demand top rates among enthusiasts worldwide.
Eric says that top-tier koi, measuring more than a meter in length and aged about five years, command six-figure sums in pesos. Collectors do not allow their specimens to breed as the frequent bumping during the mating mars the fish scales.
Since a large koi consumes a kilo of feeds a week, he points out that a pond of koi must be well-filtered to keep it regularly free of waste matter and the build-up of ammonia. Although koi reach their prime at the age of five to seven years, a clean, well-maintained pond and proper nutrition can make a fish reach its golden years, at 70.
Since the end is intertwined with the beginning, Eric repeats what can be excellent mantra for fish and man: do it right the first time.
