Open to suggestions

[shane in bama]

Thought i would give everyone a laugh and share my "tools" for our pond:

 

[ididntdoit99]

ididntdoit, put up some deer fencing, or the chicken wire with the wider holes, you don't really see it and can still see the pond well. I don't recall if your cute av was your child or a grand child, if no kids there all the time put up a electric fence, one or two good shocks and you will be able to turn it off. The dog will learn pretty fast not to do that. I had one around my garden long time ago, my pups got shocked twice and never went near that piece of wire again. I turned it off after three days. During the brief training i kept the grass nice and wet................and even shocked myself once, thought I had flipped it off.

Actually I still had that nylon deer fencing OVER the pond when he did it, little moron didn't even care there was a net over the pond, just jumped right in. I do have quite a bit of cattle fence, my dogs outdoor pen was made of it for a while until i found something a little better looking. I really don't want to put the cattle fence around it if i don't have to, its a little gaudy looking. I'm thinking probably just some 4 foot picket fence, otherwise just fence in the whole backyard... that would probably be my best bet, 2 side of the backyard are already fenced in, so it probably wouldn't cost me much more to do one more side than it would be to do around the pond area.

Oh yeah, and my avatar is my son, and i have a 9 month old daughter, and two dogs of my own who like to go near the pond, but not in it. ... so no playing with electricity, as much as i would love to see the look on that dogs face after getting zapped a few times.

 

[Waterbug]

Also, question for waterbug, whats the difference between your picture and a plant shelf?

In my picture the plant area is separate from the pond. To me it has the following advantages.

1. Potted plants can't be knocked over by raccoons or wind.
2. Water can be pumped into the beds and overflow into the pond so they can add a tiny bit more to filtering.
3. With the water off the bed the pond can be isolated and treated with salt and other things as needed without having to pull out all the plants.
4. With the water off you can work in the plants without making the pond muddy. Wait a week to let dirt settle.
5. You can plant directly in soil in the beds instead of using pots. Plants do better.
6. I don't really like the look of pots in a pond.
7. You can plant tall plants. Something like an 8' tall Canna, even in a 5 gal pot, could blow over on a shelf.
8. I think the edge of the pond stays more stable over the years.

As to the habits of Great Blue Herons...
I watched one do this in my converted swimming pool pond. What I saw was the hovering. Heron stood on the side of pond while I watched from the window thinking, "Oh yeah Mr Heron, good luck" knowing my 4' deep pond with straight sides would be no match. I reveled in my superior intellect having done research and found no heron could over come the dreaded straight sides...Couple of flaps of his wings, a pause, and he plucked out a Goldfish as pretty as you please. I was humbled.

I think JW cited this link in another thread ...observed more rarely...hover over the water and submerge their heads to catch fish....

Not a great view but here's what it looks like.

Not their preferred method, but a pond full of fat, bright, slow moving fish...they have no problem making that exception.

 

[j.w]

Yep I did and that is a reputable site. I wouldn't put anything past the heron. I think if they get familiar w/ an area and become comfortable and hungry they will do what they feel they need to do to survive. I think they will try the easiest ways first and if they don't succeed they will go on to other means just as any animal would do.

 

[Waterbug]

And a fish pond has to be the mother load to them.

At any rate, as far as shelves giving predators access...well I'll put it this way, if you think not having shelves is protection you could be in for a rude awaking.

 

[ididntdoit99]

I don't believe anybody thinks it is FULL protection, like nothing in the world can get our fish if we have no plant shelf and straight sides. A bulletproof vest isn't full protection either, but I'd sure like to have one on if your going to take a shot at me.

Like my example earlier, if i didn't have a plant shelf, that dog may have still jumped in the pond if there was no plants shelf, and he may have put claw holes in my liner while trying to get out. But he sure wouldn't have had time to chew a hole bigger than his head while he was doggie paddling.

 

[sissy]

very true as nothing is fool proof and animals can figure it out 'I have a one eyed owl that has been building his nest in the woods behind my house and he is a barn owl by the looks of him .I have yet to be able to get a decent pick of him .But did see him swoop down and get a field mouse .Hey if he or she is going to help with field mice you are welcome here any time.Owl seems to like apples and pears also ,he snatched a winter pear from my tree ..I could not reach the pears at the top of the tree .Owl does not seem to be interested in my pond so far .Owl is not very big so he must be a baby yet .He built his nest a little ways back in the woods where the deer nest for the winter .I put straw out there every year for a warm place for the deer and I guess that is a good place to find mice .My woods is a little thinner this year after the idiot forresters made a boo boo and cut some of my trees down .

 

[digginponds]

PLASTIC NETTING PEOPLE.IT'S NOT PRETTY,BUT NEITHER IS A FISH BEING TAKEN.

 

[Waterbug]

I don't believe anybody thinks it is FULL protection

That's a straw man. Telling new ponders shelves give predators access implies not having shelves is some level of protection. I think it's a myth. However, I would always appreciate being enlightened.

 

[ididntdoit99]

Pretty sure I just gave my recent example this morning.. dog,,, chewing hole in liner... ring a bell? He wasnt actually trying to get fish.. he was trying to destroy the pond!

I don't believe in my wildest dreams that if i get rid of my plants shelves I'm going to be safe from predators, Nor am I actually going to get rid of them. But I do know... that a swimming dog sure doesnt have time to chew a 1 foot diameter hole in my liner.. but a dog standing on my plant shelf had all day to chew away at it.

I like my plants shelfs... they hold plants, but when I see someone saying that predators have easier access to you fish and pond with plants shelves.... and I have just had it happen to me, I will wholeheartly agree that yes... my plant shelf made that all possible for that dog. And like i said before, that dog still may have jumped in a ripped my liner with his claws while getting out.... but not chew a giant hole... a tear could be possible to fix, a hole isnt so easy.

Diggin, I had my plastic netting over the pond, dog ripped through that too, but all is well, hole is in my plant shelf, so level dropped a bit, but fish are all okay, and will make it through the winter and then it's expansion time!

 

[addy1]

My bog wall on the pond side is one long plant shelf, about 2 feet down from the surface, I had it covered with plants this summer. The walk out end at its deepest is 1 foot, drops to 2 then 3 pretty quick, but I can walk out.

The heron never walked into the pond, it walked around and around the pond, but after the first showing of the heron I put up chicken wire so it could not just walk in. It never tried to get on the shelf, it was covered with plants, it would walk right up to the edge of the pond, and watch the fish that were usually down 5 feet under.

I did end up with deer netting over the center of the pond so it could not easily fly in and do another belly flop.

 

[digginponds]

I think we all have tried some type of remedy,scarcrows,motion detecters,leaving a radio on under a fake rock,hint,hint,fishing line,SCREAMING ,it's part of the game. kinda fun to out smart a fox,or heron,LOL.

 

[koiguy1969]

short of building a solid structure around your pond or building an indoor pond...theres no guarenteed preditor preventative.... we dont help things by hand feeding our fish either....mine will come when anybody aproaches the pond...this includes the dog...so who knows about other critters.

 

[addy1]

,,hint,hint,fishing line,.

hint hint............. fishing line did not work the heron went right through it, had it 6 inches apart on fence posts, and strung over the pond the sucker ignored it

 

[Jeremy]

Has anyone ever tried very thin electrified wire? (Should be a light-duty fence obviously, the Idea is to give the heron a bit of a jolt, NOT injure him!!)

Also, on the subjct of omitting plant shelves, While I can see it not being 100% effective, I can't see how it wouldn't be a fairly strong deterrent.

Sort of like the difference between a deadbolted door vs leaving the house for the day with the front door propped open.