fish pond predators

[Lrptls]

outside we have a small fish pond, we had 6 large gold fish in it and now they are all gone. wev had them about a year, they were fine last summer and they were in a fish tank for the winter. but now things are eating them. i would guess its a few things but the one we witnessed was a duck. we have alot of things around here, different birds that eat fish, raccoons, cats and so on. is there any thing we could put outside to scare them away or is there any thing else we could do? thanks for any help (and i know there just gold fish and we are going to buy more but my grandparents got atached to them)

[chameo_liz]

buy thin black netting that keeps birds out of fruit trees and place it over top of the pond, you wont really notice that its there

Kris

[samurai]

put your conda in the pond....no more ducks

[SnakeyeZ]

I heard a story once similiar to yours...it ended by them draining the pool to find a snapping turtle sitting on the bottom of it. Not the greatest advice..lol

-Rich

[corr]

There is a motion sensor made for sprinklers... it supposed to work pretty good. Whenever something goes close to the pond it gets sprayed!

[zero&stich]

A net could be dangerious to wildlife though. I will definately keep the animals out, but what if they get tangled in it?

Not a good situation.

[Lrptls]

thanks for the advice every one. our pond is REALLY shallow so we can definetly see any thing in the bottom. the net idea scares me too, i really dont want to find a dead creature in the pond and know its my fault. our pond is right by a busy road and i kind of dont want to find my beautiful anaconda smushed on the road (dont worry i know you were kidding). i think the best idea so far is the sprinklers, hopefully that will scare the birds away too.

[Wizwise2000]

It's a raccoon. Buy a trap and trap him, then kill him. Or take him somewhere and let him go.

Shane

[Lrptls]

wow...harsh... also i said i saw a duck take what i thought was the last fish but actually we have 2 left! they are just so scared and hide all the time we didnt even know they were in there. not that im against traping a raccoon but there wouldnt be a point in moving him, they are every where around here and id never kill any thing unless it was to feed to one of my pets.

[Blue_Blood]

Do you have blue herons in the area? They'll wipe out a pond pretty quick. You can always set up some decoys in and around the pond( tacky but effective). Also citronella spray works very well at keeping furry critters like raccons away.

[Linds]

Originally posted by Blue_Blood
Do you have blue herons in the area?

You can say that again :p Our neighbours pond needs to be restocked constantly.

[Lrptls]

blue herons are every where here, im positive they did some damage to our fishies. we put a fake owl out by the pond so far.

[Blue_Blood]

Try a fake blue heron, They don't like to feed together so they tend to pass on the pond if it looks like its already occupied. But there are exceptions. Also fake canada geeses have been known to work with scaring herons.

Cheers
matt

[havenbounce]

Dog hair works wonders.