Now I have fish???!!!

[j.w]

Yep me too would love to see pictures!
Fish are just fun to watch and can be addicting as you can tell from this site

 

[lamby]

Well, I'm not a very good photographer, but here are a couple of photos of the ponds.

 

[CometKeith]

That's a really pretty pond and would make a nice home for some goldfish. Hopefully you can find a way to keep the raccoons in check.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

That's a really pretty pond and would make a nice home for some goldfish. Hopefully you can find a way to keep the raccoons in check.

Raccoons are very stubborn and very smart.
I had to eliminate them from my area.
It wasn't pretty....Or easy.
To trap them, use an apple. An apple is the one food that will catch you a raccoon, but not a cat, fox or opossum.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I have a large (about 7,000 gallons) communal pond in my townhouse complex that I have taken on as a project. It has gone from being an algae filled swamp to a clean, lovely pond with several recently installed hardy water lilies. A well-meaning resident recently added fish without permission. She thought it would be fun for her grandchildren to feed them when they visited. Unfortunately, we also have raccoons who come around in the evening. The pond cannot possibly be screened (way too big), the edges are gently sloping which cannot be changed now, so the raccoons have no problem entering the pond and they are creating havoc with the lilies. The fish are growing big and multiplying like crazy! Our pond is not set up to support fish and I am not at all happy about this. I tried scooping them out with my pool net, without success. I don't want to kill them, but they are a huge attraction to the destructive raccoons.

We live in Vancouver, B.C Canada. Do you think the fish will die off naturally in the winter months? The pond is not set up to support fish. They're clearly thriving now, but once winter comes I don't know what will happen to them.

Will the grandchildren be feeding them bread? Yikes. It will foul the water pretty fast.
That Heron will likely get most of the goldfish.

 

[j.w]

Wow what a beautiful pond! Oh no a heron..................the fish are doomed

 

[IPA]

Wow what a beautiful pond! Oh no a heron..................the fish are doomed

HAHA, it's cool the heron can help keep the population in check. it is a very nice pond.

 

[j.w]

He won't keep it just in check tho, he will wipe every one of them out.

 

[sissy]

Yep they know where a source of food is they will come back until there is no food .Seen it here the closer you get to the Dan River and have a pond ,you have to net it and protect the edges of the pond

 

[DeepWater]

I thought I read on here that Chocolate is a very good bait for raccoons too. However, that might catch some of the residents!

 

[lamby]

I went into the upper pond today to do some work and didn't see a single fish--looks like that heron may have already cleaned them out! I'm kind of disappointed, though. I suppose they might have been hiding.

 

[IPA]

I went into the upper pond today to do some work and didn't see a single fish--looks like that heron may have already cleaned them out! I'm kind of disappointed, though. I suppose they might have been hiding.

It is my feeling that nature has a way of taking care of itself without intervention. When we intervene we alter the course of the natural world. For instance we keep fish, we protect them and we try to keep them healthy. I don't know this as fact but have heard that in parts of Florida non-native species of fish have been released to the environment because of flooding of tropical fish breeders. In many parts of the world the environment has been changed due to aquaculture of farm raised fish polluting the natural environment and killing of the native population due to disease and other environmental factors. Cargo ships have introduced all kinds of non-native destructive species hitch hiking on their hulls that have had negative impact on mullosk and corals. I live on the Chesapeake Bay which when once said to be so clean and clear one could see the bottom and that one could walk across it on the oyster beds.
If a heron ate all of the fish it's nature taking care of itself but my guess is that there are enough left to propagate a population that learns to avoid being eaten by heron.

 

[j.w]

I think it's sad they all got eaten and it is not a natural environment where fish really had a chance. It is like a sushi bar set out for the heron. This is a totally man made situation and should not have happened in the first place as the lady who put the fish in was not able to protect them. I would not allow anyone else to put anymore fish in if I was caretaker of that pond unless a net or some other form of protection was built. If there are any left there prolly won't be for long.

 

[IPA]

Our pond is not set up to support fish

I do not know the specifications of the filtration system but as @lamby stated, it was a cess pool before taking on the project of cleaning it up. Many a fish keeper is critized for keeping to many fish, not having proper filtration, failure to test water quality so I don't see how a heron eating the fish out of a pond not designed to house them is a bad thing.

 

[j.w]

Not bad for the heron but sad for the fish. Mistake on the part of the lady who put them in there. Not a natural setting, all man made and more advantage for the heron. Maybe any fish left could be given away to somebody who wants to catch them that has a pond that is fish safe.