Water Gardening: NOW I know why my fish keep disappearing., 1 by LeawoodGardener

LeawoodGardener wrote:
For the last four years I've tried to keep fish in my two ponds, but they keep disappearing. I'd had a pond at my previous house so when I bought this house, a pond was a necessity. Foolishly, I stocked it with exotic beauties I'd bought on the internet and had shipped air-express. Within two weeks, only one small fish remained. Undaunted, I bought some small koi at a local pet store and re-stocked the pond, only to have them disappear within a few days.

I wanted fish to keep down the mosquito population, so I bought a sack of 10-cent feeders and threw them in. They seemed ok, lasted the rest of the summer and reproduced. The next spring, they were bigger and seemed like I'd solved the problem - then they began disappearing.

I thought it might be a raccoon, but I never could see any evidence. One day I saw a pre-historic looking bird flying around above my house. From my seat on the patio, I saw it land in the top of a tree in front of my house - I'd never seen anything like it, but when I described it to a friend, he said, "It must be a heron. I'm surprised he would venture into town though - they usually stay in the country by lakes and streams." That was two years ago. Two or three times each year I buy bags of 'feeders' and put them in both ponds (I have two now) and watch the fish become accustomed to me, come when I feed them, then lose them as they get larger.

Last week I was in my kitchen when I looked out the window and saw this predator land. I grabbed my camera and took a couple photos before he got 'spooked' and flew off. Now I KNOW who's eating my fish! (I'm told herons are protected by state law, so I won't discourage him - the pet store owner who sells me 'feeders' says herons have discovered urban centers ALSO contain ponds, where the hunting is easy and the catch is TASTY.)