As most of you know I had a fish health crises a few weeks ago and had 11 koi die. Happily three lived and are healing up nicely. Some of you also know I have a dog named Amy who is a hunting dog and I "trained" her to stay out of the pond and she was good for a month or so but in the last few days I have found her in the pond on a few occasions and had to keep her indoor when she is outside without supervision. Well, this afternoon as my husband and I were doing our outdoor work of weeding and trimming hedges and grass cutting we had Amy was locked in the house. I was called away for a few minutes from the back yard were the pond is and was shocked to return and she this huge bird wading into my pod. I ran outside and it immediately flew away but I thought I caught a glimpse of it's beak moving in a eating motion (I keep telling myself it was drinking not eating). I saw only one of the three fish in the pond immediately after the heron incident but haven't seen that one or the other two ever since. I have no evidence that the other 2 fish are gone but have a sinking feeling that they are. How long does a fish take to become off guard after a heron is in the pond? When my dog went in it would only take an hour or so.
I've got my fingers crossed that they survived and are just great at "hide and seek." My plants are still small and there isn't a lot for them to hide under (except a lot of rock shelfs and my homemade version of koi caves).
Fish are finally healthy but now I have a heron!!!!!
So sorry about all your loses, but I know the Heron must really be the last straw. I'm having some problems but not like yours, again you sure have my sympthy hope you didn't loose all. Katherine
How frustrating. And now that he knows where lunch is, he will keep returning. You can break the cycle by netting, using fishing line, or somethng like that for a couple weeks until he goes elsewhere.
How is it that the netting will keep him from at least spearing the fish??? I mean I'm thinking he can get his beak in but just wouldn't be able to open it to get the fish and then eat it??? Can't these birds just tear through the netting???
Sorry for so many questions, I'm new to pond gardening and I'm just about to dig a pond.
Janet
I use bird/deer netting. It is a nylon netting that you usually put over your fruit or tomatoes to keep the birds off them.You can get it at home depot or Lowes and it is cheap.Comes in 50 and 100 feet rolls. The herons wont come near it. Couple weeks and they will go elsewhere and not keep your place on their itinerary.
And, as mentioned on several other threads, you can string fishing line across the pond. They apparently don't like it... feet get tangled in it. Thankfully it's working for us. (knocking wood!)
Brenda
I feel so stupid because I knew all about the heron and the fishing line-my MIL has a pond and I helped her fishing line the perimeter of the pond about 10 years ago so I feel experienced. . . My water was so tea/muddy looking for the longest time that I never saw any need but now that I am using different bacteria the pond is crystal clear and apparently the heron saw them. I know one is left in the pond (the least prettiest but the biggest survival of the pond crises - she had a huge ulcer that is healing up nicely). I call her she because she is named Goldilocks but I think she's a he! Anyway she is the shyest of the three and I saw her after the heron left the pond. I haven't seen her since but without the other fish she isn't coming out.
Sniff . . .
Oh, good luck, Mothermole... I know it is heartbreaking. We have lost some to the herons, but not since we put up the fishing line.
Brenda
Linda, So sorry to hear all your troubles with the Koi. You may want to get some gold fish for the enjoyment of having fish. When all the kinks get worked out than you can add more Koi. The two can co- exist. Best of luck and so sorry for you bad experiences.
More Heron News!!!
I am puppy watching a 7 week old long haired german shepard and the little dear needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Guess who (or what) was in my pond at 3 am? A heron! I don't think there are any fish left in the pond. I went in the pond yesterday to trim some plants and to feed the lillies and usually my being in there spooks the fish to swimming around but nothing happened. I guess I am starting out all new with my fish. First I set up the fishing wire and see if I can mess that bird up a bit. Anyone have that water sensor thingy that squirts moving targets? Does it work well?
The "scarecrow" is the "thingy" I was referring to. Also, anyone use the electric wire fence to shock unwanted animals? I would love to know the outcomes of these products?
I picked some of my new fish today. They are holding them and scoping them for me for the next two weeks while I work on the heron issue. They said it takes between 2-4 weeks to change the behavior of the heron. The fish I picked out (credit from the store for the fish that died) were biggies (12 " premium plus except for two that I just "had to have"). Some are already hand tame and one actually swam into the department managers hand and actually seemed to enjoy being pet by me-weird! He wasn't the prettiest but I liked his attitude!
Anyway-gotta go and figure out how to convince that bird to go someplace else for his "carry out meal".
MM,
My husband recently installed the water thingy. Along with that, he put in a decoy of a heron. We haven't had any problems since he has done these things. I wanted to put in the fishing line like so many have indicated on this forum - however, I was overruled.
So far, so good. What really surprises me is that none of the fish have acted scared in any way since the episode with the heron. We have no way of knowing how many times we had been visited by the heron, as we were in Boston for 4 or 5 days and noticed the missing fish after we had returned.
It is interesting you found the heron in the middle of the night. I thought they usually fed at dusk and dawn. I do know we have heard the water thingy go off during the course of a night several times and we figured it was probably the neighbors cat. Now I am wondering.
I also wonder if hand feeding the koi has made them more vulnerable to the attack of a heron. I have stopped hand feeding mine as a result of this.
Carolyn
Sorry to hear about the heron but happy you are getting new fish. You must have a great store near you for your fish to be that tame. All we have around here are garden/landscape centers. They wouldn't know what scoping a fish meant.
Can't wait to see pictures of your new babies:)
I go to Lurveys in DesPlaines/ParkRidge IL. The fish are beautiful but more importantly the manager of the department, Scott Larsen is the main reason I go there. He really knows his stuff and knows how to order fish. He doesn't own the store (it's a HUGE garden center) but has the leeway to act like he owns it within reason. The only part of my fish crises that was easy is getting the new ones without arguing with the management about size, color and quantity and I am happy about that.
Mothermole, what did you use to get your pond clear btw??? My new pond in full sun, I am sick of the green water and algae. I have to clean out my skimmer pads every few days.
I bought a new package of bacteria and a new brand and it works great (I don't recall the name of it but wrote about it on another post-it's a commonly used item here). I think my old bacteria was off. I add a little more than it says to but it keeps everything clear and not tea colored. I don't have any algae problems in my pond anymore but really didn't have any really). My pond is in full sun but has matured since Spring and I have a ton of plants in there to counter attack the algae. I actually got a lot of the plants from wonderful people like yourself on this site. Most didn't want anything in return and was I so grateful (after all the expenses I have had with the pond and sick koi and vet and supplies . . . ) Next year I hope to do the same for others as my plants grow. I am actually looking into a smallish greenhouse for the winter for all my waterplants outside of my zone. I am in zone 5.
Anyone here ever buy a greenhouse from Costco?
mothermole:
I really feel for you after reading about all your heartaches. Glad to hear you have a knowledgeable person to work with as that is some joy and hope that all go well for you when the new ones come home.
I'm just getting a pond started and my neighbor has netting over her pond to keep the stinking birds out she even has a deco one and hasn't lost any so far.
I'm not planning to have any fish as I have no where to put them in the winter and I still am learning about the plants.
Janet
Janet-if you dig your pond deep enough they can overwinter in the pond.
A heron got six out of 8 goldfish and shubunkins in my small goldfish pond. It got one small koi ( I only had it about 20 hours) and speared two others in the koi pond. This was two weeks ago. I netted the small pond and got a heron decoy plus rolled up netting along the pond edges for the big koi pond. So far so good. Sort of. There were three other night time attempts. I would find the netting pulled into the pond and tangled up. The speared koi are healing up ok. One was a little dicey at first but looks real good now. This is the worst I've ever had it. And I have had it. I netting for the rest of the season.
But the netting is so ugly . . . I hate that I would have to "uglify" the pond with netting but may have to do that. I ordered the scarecrow off amazon and added fishing net around the pond but I don't have any fish in there at the moment.
Fish line... not ugly...
does anyone have a picture of the fish line??? I'm not really sure, or I just can't get a picture in my head of what yall are talkin about.
If you have a picture please post.
mothermole, just the thought of digging a pond to begin with troubling as I've still not allotted the time to do it... We picked up a really cheap swimming pool for the grandson and I'm halfway thinking that when he returns home in two weeks that I just might make that into a pond....LOL I just don't dig... not my thing... that is why all my new flower beds are raised and there was no removal of grass before starting the beds, just layed newspaper and fabric down and then the new soil....
so ya see why the idea (good as it is) just isn't that tempting to me...LOL
Janet
If you look closely in this picture, the fishing line is running horizontally across the front edge of the pond. We have learned to string it all the way around the edges of the pond, we run it between the malibu lights (using some stones in between to keep it taught)... a bit like a spider web around the edges. Hope that helps!
Brenda
Brenda: Approx. how high is the fishing line? Does it have to be fishing line or can white string work for a few days until I can find my fishing line? (I strung white string . . .) Just to be safe I also put in netting and a beach floaty and a scare crow and anything else that I can think of-I brought home new fish today :)
mothermole, I think the idea is to make it difficult for the somewhat clumsy heron to enter the pond. Our fish line varies in height, but around 2" - 6" above the pond... I don't think it matters much, just so long as it can trip them. I don't know if white string would work, but I don't see why not, just not very pretty.
Mothermole:
That is some incredible pond. I was just going to ask what the purpose was behind the line, as I just figured the bird would land directly in the water???? So it seems they just land somewhere else then walk to the ponds to help themself. Ok now I'm understanding why your string the line the way you do. Sorry just a little slow when it comes to this new avenue.
But as I've said before I don't plan on any fish (at least for this year or next..... who knows after that.
I'm just so thrilled as one of my new water pond plants looks like it is going to make it as the bloom is now opening. I'm going out and take a picture every 15 minutes to have a record for my garden journal.
Here is what it looked like.... I didn't know they that when they are about to bloom that they do it so fast as when I was moving the temp holding for it this morning it was just about closed and now......
Janet
How exciting!! And yes, at least the big herons that we get here walk to the pond after landing.
Brenda
Janet: V. Pretty flower-what is it?
I went to menards today for a push broom to sweep my patio and happened upon some "deer control" fencing for plants. I bought these 4 foot stakes and the netting and am going to use it for heron control for a while until I feel confident my fish are safe and then I will remove the fencing and put heavy gage fishing line in it's place.
Also, a local garden center near my home has electric pond fencing guards at half price. This store used to be more pond orientated but isn't anymore. The electric fencing was approx. $69.00 which isn't a bad price in my opinion for the pleasure of seeing herons getting a small zap . . .
"pleasure of seeing herons getting a small zap"
sorry to laugh but just the image that came to my mind seeing this happen was too funny. It really isn't funny but sometimes animals need to be taught a lesson..
Janet
mothermole - Couldn't resist showing you the photo of the koi in my pond. We have herons also, but my koi are as big as geese and weigh about 25 lbs so they are heron proof now.
mygardens. Beautiful shot of your Koi and the Goose. Love it!