My goldfish pond

[CometKeith]

Hey CE, That's so sad about your sister's koi. We live between several large green areas that have a lot of wildlife and there are a lot of very large trees around us. There are lots of raccoons, possums, and skunks close to us. Even an occasional coyote or fox.The raccoons are the most aggressive hunters around us but they only look for large snails in the pond. I stopped getting trap door snails and they don't even come to the pond any more.They leave the fish alone and they won't go deeper than 1 foot or so of water. We actually have lots of peregrine falcons here. I see them all the time hunting rabbits and all sorts of birds. Sometimes I see them flying around with animals in their mouths or even catching small birds in mid air. It's not unusual to hear them when i am sitting by my pond so I'm sure they see our fish.They have never gone after our fish. There are also a lot of cats around. Once is a while I see a hawk but never by my pond. We did have two ducks that visited last year and tons of squirrels, and small birds and of course my green frogs that live in the pond. I don't think I have ever had a fish go missing except for once when I found one in the rocks that must have jumped to get away from aggressive males. Of everything you mentioned the only ones we don't have is herons. The only ones I have seen are north of us and usually they are around waterways. So no herons equals no missing fish.That's logical right? My guess is it has to be a heron that is stealing her fish.

 

[addy1]

We have hawks and falcons, they ignore the pond. Racoons, never bother it. Heron, yep...........only stopped coming by for snacks after the wide weave net was put up.

 

[j.w]

I agree, heron as we have the same, some raccoons, hawks, eagles but the only one who I have ever seen come to the pond is the heron and if your sister puts up one of the wide weave nets like addy mentioned and that I have also she will have such peace in knowing that her pets are safe. You can see right through it very easily.

Pond pic w/o net:

Pond pic w/net:

Not hard to put up either. I put up a thread in DIY on how I did mine: https://www.gardenpondforum.com/threads/heron-netting-101.13205/

 

[CountryEscape]

I like the way you used clips to the posts, so if you need to work in the pond, you can simply unclip it and drop it down. But, you have netting over the top of the pond, too, right, or just the sides? Seems like I can see it in the middle covering the ponds. Now, I'm wondering, since the herons land and walk in, is it necessary to put OVER the ponds, too, or mainly on the sides? So far, knock on wood, I've never lost a fish to any type of predator, so there is good to living out here in the wide blue yonder!

 

[CometKeith]

CE, now I have another question about the rest of your comment that if she can't keep her fish safe then she shouldn't have them? It's an interesting philosophical question. Because my pond is outdoors and there are obviously things I can't control there are additions and subtractions to the wildlife in and around the pond all the time. At what point is someone letting nature take it's course and at what point is someone being cruel?

 

[j.w]

I like the way you used clips to the posts, so if you need to work in the pond, you can simply unclip it and drop it down. But, you have netting over the top of the pond, too, right, or just the sides? Seems like I can see it in the middle covering the ponds. Now, I'm wondering, since the herons land and walk in, is it necessary to put OVER the ponds, too, or mainly on the sides? So far, knock on wood, I've never lost a fish to any type of predator, so there is good to living out here in the wide blue yonder!

Yep it's over the top of the pond too. Not taking any chances on the bird flying in by choice or by accident. There are spots under the net around the pond where he could fly and land. I can see through the net just fine and it doesn't show up too much. To me it is the right way for my situation and easy to get under the net to do anything. Someone could try just the sides and see what happens but I'm happy the way it is now. I just don't want it hanging all the way to the ground so I have a little wire fence around the bottom otherwise my cats get their heads stuck in the net.

 

[CountryEscape]

CE, now I have another question about the rest of your comment that if she can't keep her fish safe then she shouldn't have them? It's an interesting philosophical question. Because my pond is outdoors and there are obviously things I can't control there are additions and subtractions to the wildlife in and around the pond all the time. At what point is someone letting nature take it's course and at what point is someone being cruel?

Keith, in her situation, knowing that each day this predator is coming and wiping out her fish, I think it would be cruel of her to put any fish in there, knowing they would be gone within a week. But, I believe in wildlife being allowed to come and eat eggs and fry in my pond. I have no problem with bullfrogs and turtles having a feast in my ponds, never had them take any of the fish once they were a few inches long. In fact, never saw the bullfrogs with anything but bugs. Guess I have them trained very well. LOL In my sister's situation, a net would be the logical solution. I don't have a net up, and hope to never need one, but if I had fish disappearing at the rate she is/was, I sure would do something to keep them safe. You have a good point, though. Maybe it's no different to say that she should buy a bunch of rosey minnows instead of goldfish, and let the predators eat them, since they are cheaper! Guess I'm being pretty two-sided there.

 

[CometKeith]

JW, Those are great tips on netting. Luckily I don't have to deal with predators taking my fish. CE When I had a bullfrog I was always worried he was going to eat my fish because I saw some video on youtube with bullfrogs eating fish. I did meet someone on a pond tour and they got rid of their bullfrog because it ate one of the birds that hung out at the pond. I did see one of our green frog with a bird in its mouth last year but didn't know if he caught it or the bird fell out of a nest by the bushes and died. Getting back to is it natural or cruel to lose pets in your pond I think some of it is your attitude about what you have. I built a water garden with lots of small fish, frogs, and anything else that finds its way to it. I love my fish and frogs but understand its outside and things happen good and bad. On the other hand maybe if someone has a Koi pond and has a serious investment in their fish, they would look at nature taking its course a little differently and would be very upset if their fish start to go missing. I think a lot of questions are answered differently on the gpf based on whether someone is a watergardener or koi ponder. You can get two opposite answers depending on what type of pond you have! ... and both answers could be right for the given circumstance. On another thread someone (koi pond keeper) said with great authority you must test your water every week. I would never do that and if I did lose a fish and really needed another one I would go to the store and buy a nice new one for about $5 dollars!

 

[addy1]

The only thing I protect my pond from is the herons, they fly over our pond every darn day, fish every day if I let them and would nicely wipe out the fish and might make tiny holes in the liners stabbing at them. Everything else is welcome to come and live. One of the reasons I put up a wide weave net high over the pond just to keep them out of the pond and not bother any other critter. Yesterday we watched 5 fly over, even do a pause and look see as they did.

 

[CountryEscape]

I'm with you, Keith. I don't test my water at all either. Last year, when I had all those goldfish dying, floating in the water, I did all sorts of water tests. Pretty sure it was the aerial spraying of the surrounding fields that killed them. This year I will call and remind the farmer to please give me a couple of day's notice to tarp my ponds before they spray. Then, if I have a fish kill, I will know it was not from the spraying. But, goldfish died, koi lived. So, whatever it was happened to be deadly to goldfish and fine for koi. I learned there are chemicals that will kill goldfish but not bother koi, but I'm not a chemist, and was having a hard time figuring out if that specific chemical was in the spray. I just decided it was, or a derivitive of it, and went on. No more deaths since about a month after the first deaths, so hoping the new fish I've put in this year (all very pretty Shubunkins) will be just fine.
And, my sister had a LOT of money invested in her koi, probably didn't pay less than $200 each for them, then paid over a thousand to have 6 shipped from AZ to WI. I'd say that was a pretty good investment to guard, but evidently she doesn't feel that way.

 

[j.w]

Man CE if I had expensive fish like your sister did I sure would be doing something to protect them. I never test my water anymore either. Did at first but now pond is old and just never do.

 

[CountryEscape]

That was my point, although my cheap fish are my babies, and I don't want any harm to come to them either. But, she loved to brag about how much she spent on her fish, she's all about money, and then isn't interested in keeping them safe.
I think once a pond has been in service for a year, it pretty much takes care of itself, as long as we do the normal seasonal maintenance, like water changes, removing much on the bottom, etc. I noticed this year no or very little string algae. I'm wondering if that's something that goes away with the years, too. My sister's brand new pond has string algae really bad. This year I had the spongy stuff that floats, gets into the skimmers and accumulates in the bog, but now that's all gone, too.

 

[CometKeith]

Addy, That's a lucky thing you have the net, but I'm confused. I thought hurons go after mostly koi and you have goldfish. right? CE, What a bad thing to have to learn from. Are all your koi bigger than your goldfish? Could it have been the size that helped them survive? I have tons of string algae this year. it's really weird, every year while I am waiting for my pond to cycle I get this nice green coating on the liner.Then for some reason it turns brown and puffy and looks really nasty.The after a few days it disappears. it just happened again last week. JW,That's what I thought that a lot of us that have good experience are familiar how to handle things and don't run off and go test their ponds constantly, but I got blasted by someone on a thread in water chemistry that you must test every week and he has been helping people with their ponds for 17 years. This might be the attitude of some koi keepers but I doubt experienced water gardeners do this.

 

[j.w]

Oh boy no Keith! Those sucker herons go after the goldfish like crazy. If it's a fish they will eat it. They will eat frogs and bugs also. They will clean out any fish pond if allowed.

 

[addy1]

Addy, That's a lucky thing you have the net, but I'm confused. I thought hurons go after mostly koi and you have goldfish. right?

They love ANY FISH THEY CAN SEE! goldfish are bright colored, some can be in the 10-15 inch size, white, gold, red.................shouts come eat me to the heron!

I had a small heron visit, green heron, It took a fish around 4 inches in size.

I don't test my water either, do test the ph now and then when we have tons of rain, but recently have not even worried about that. With the oyster shells, plants etc all is staying perfect. So quit a few years back testing for anything, except the ph. Now don't even test that.