Well, I have finally encountered something that I was not really prepared for! My neighbor came across the street this morning and told me to check on my fish, so I did. I started out with 2 koi and 4 shebunkins, this morning all that were left were the two koi. She told me that all that she had left (well, as much as she could find) were two of her fish also (she had 13 prior to today). She found one dead on the rocks on the side of her pond with a big hole in it's head laying next to a small pile of bluish-gray feathers, like someone or something had taken a spear and stabbed the fish. I am not sure of the possibility of this being a crane or a large bird of prey, but it just may be! Has anyone else in Ohio experienced the demise of their fish due to cranes? I guess it's time to put up ugly streamers across my pond.
It's a sad day!
Bummer, Dave! You'd think a bird would eat the fish and not leave them there, but maybe they're picky. Were all the fish accounted for, dead and alive?
You could try fine-mesh bird netting (like used on fruit trees) over it; from a distance it doesn't show much at all.
We spotted a big blue heron in our yard and flying about in the winter. You can't miss that thing-standing about 4' tall in the back yard!! We also have raccoons, opossum and a number of other creatures. I know with raccoons you can build the edge up higher and make sure your ledges are not so shallow they can step down to 'fish'. I am sorry about your fishies. Ours are all named and the kids are SO sad when one goes missing!
GW,
Only one dead one was found. I have only the two koi left, and Stacey has only 3 babies left. All other's have not been found, so I am assuming that the bird had a feast this morning. I went and bought some shiny streamers today, and strung them up across the pond on a string so they fly in the wind. I saw this in a Water Gardening book just yesterday -- how ironic!
So sorry to hear about the loss of your fishies KC. We've been lucky so far (2 years pond is in)
I'm not sure why we did it, but we have our preformed sitting right by our house, so close, it's under the window awning. Maybe because of this, we haven't had any misfortunes. Some of our other neighbors have had ponds and lost their fish to Blue and White Herons, yes the 4 foot tall ones. Their ponds were set up closer to the back boundaries of their yards.
These birds are very persistent, and clever. I have seen them stand very still watching the mother Muscovy ducks with their trailing 12 baby ducklings, waiting for the last baby to pass, then snatch it up. So catching a fish in a pond is a piece of cake.
:^(
Molly
I'm so sorry. I've been fighting a raccoon for several weeks. So far we've gotten 2 but I know there's at least one more. I hope you find out what your up against.
The first year I had my big pond I bought 12 two year old Koi. They survived through our Montana winter well only to be eaten by a Great Blue Heron. I lost all the colorful ones first and then when I finally saw the culprit stealing my fish I put netting over the whole pond which wasn't necessary because my pond is 4.5 feet deep at it's deepest and Herons don't wade that deep. The Heron was using my plant shelves in the pond to fish from. So I netted all the edges of my pond as far out into the pond as I could using container gardens to secure the netting outside the pond. Then I gave myself a "Scarecrow" for Mother's Day and that took care of the Herons and their fledglings who liked the goldfish ponds. The netting is all I have on the goldfish ponds.
The "Scarecrow" is a water sprinkler that has a motion sensor in it to go off when something gets too near the pond. That includes me if I don't remember to turn it off while I work around it.
I purchased a few Koi (not cheap) and haven't lost a one.
This summer, we were visited by 4 juvenile raccoons....before they even made it to the pond, my Anatolian Shepherd killed them all. Their mother wasn't too smart telling them to fish at our place.
edited for typos
This message was edited Aug 4, 2004 6:43 AM
Sorry to hear of your loss.
We have had success in keeping the Herons at bay with a floating Gator. Also size does matter the pond, we think needs to be 2 ft. deep at a minimum, also there should be plenty of plants to cover the surface and provide a level of protection to the fish.
This message was edited Aug 4, 2004 3:26 PM
