Have a possum in my yard. Yikes

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Do Possum like to eat fish? so far my fish are OK, but just wondered if I need to be worried about this big guy making dinner of my gold fish!
 

j.w

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They are so slow I would think not and only would eat a dead fish laying near the edge of a pond. A raccoon would be more likely to try and get your fish from the edge.
 

HARO

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A friend not far from our place lost several goldfish to a possum several years back, so I would be wary of them. She actually watched the critter before her husband went out with a broom and chased it away. John
 
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Yikes!!! So far, he/she hasn't touched the fish. The pond is a raised cattle trough and that fact may be the saving grace. I hope the possum is too dumb to look. LOL Thanks everyone. I will let you know if anything develops. I hope nothing does develop.
 

j.w

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Weird John I would think that since they are so slow the fish would just zoom away when that slow paw came at them. Maybe fish are dumber than Opossums or Possums if there is a difference between those two spellings. Hoping that he doesn't get your fish Cathy.
 

j.w

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Tidbit for ya:

Is a possum and an opossum the same thing?
Yes and no. Throughout America the opossum is often referred to colloquially as a possum (similarly to the way some people refer to a potato as a tater or to a mosquito as a skeeter), but its actual name is opossum. When we refer to it by its colloquial name on this website, we usually add an apostrophe at the beginning to indicate the omission of the initial o: ’possum. But there really is an animal called a possum (without an initial o) that differs significantly from the North American opossum. The true possum is indigenous to Australia and looks quite unlike the American variety. You can see pictures of the Australian possum here, and there are also links to other possum websites on our links page.
 
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Possum or Opossum, It makes no difference to me. Everyone knows what I am talking about. It just better stay away from my fish.
 

HARO

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Yes, j.w., the southern hemisphere's possum is quite different from ours, being cute and furry, but the two share one common trait -- neither of them, it seems, have learned how to cross a road without winding up as a pancake! And for what it's worth, the lady who watched it at her pond says that it waited patiently for a fish to approach, then moved surprisingly quickly. John
 

j.w

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Yes amazing it must be........had me fooled into thinking it was as slow as a sloth!
 

addy1

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We saw one here, once, but none since. Do have charlie the groundhog living under our garage, I see it now and then grabbing an apple, heading up our hill, under the deck carrying the apple in its mouth.
 
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Cathy, we keep a trap set to catch and relocate coons...
we ended up with an outdoor pet possum named Pogo...

He's the Possum that came to dinner and never left, slept in our bucket inside
the little tool cabinet on our deck.
He's a little sweetheart.
Here he is enjoying chicken in the coon trap... at the end of the video you'll see
the leaf bed he made himself in the bucket.



 

j.w

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POGO is definitely a sweetheart and they sure are a lot cuter alive then they are flattened on the road.
 

fishin4cars

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Mixed testimonies on possums/Opossums and ponds. Me, I've never had a issue and been keeping ponds for over 20 years, I would think they are not much of a threat. BUT, one of the pond stores here had to relocate a whole family of possums that were wreaking havoc this spring. The store owner thought it was kids or raccoons doing all the damage. Put up video cameras and found out he was dealing with possums. This same area has had a spike in Bobcat and Coyotes since the flood in the spring so maybe the predators were driving the smaller animals into town and they adapted to a free meal. I think they are creepy critters,. Had to rescue two out of the swimming pool and they look like rats with vicious teeth. Would rather have chipmunks visiting for sure! :)
 

HARO

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The reason they LOOK like rats with vicious teeth is because they ARE! John
 

fishin4cars

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Rats are not marcupials there John, so they aren't rats, squirrels are rats, Nutria aren't rats either, But run up on one of those oversized critters and rats and possum look cute!
 

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