All my fish but one have dissappeared. Need advice for defenses immediatly!!

[fishin4cars]

Is your camera set on video? I tried with pictures and wasn't getting anything but blank shots. I turn the video mode on and that's when I found out about the owl attacking. Oh and BTW, they can target fish through a fairly small hole? how are you building your cover? I'm finding that i need to get my wire at least 10" above the pond because the lily blooms are opening into the wire cover. other than that it's working good except it's ugly and a pain to move. Mine has to be dismantled to get around two of my taller plants, so I don't remove it often.

 

[texmaster]

Is your camera set on video? I tried with pictures and wasn't getting anything but blank shots. I turn the video mode on and that's when I found out about the owl attacking. Oh and BTW, they can target fish through a fairly small hole? how are you building your cover? I'm finding that i need to get my wire at least 10" above the pond because the lily blooms are opening into the wire cover. other than that it's working good except it's ugly and a pain to move. Mine has to be dismantled to get around two of my taller plants, so I don't remove it often.

I'll try the video setting tomorrow night thanks.

My main cameras that surround our house are video and have thermal imaging but they are too far away to identify anything and they are on all the time which is why I bought the motion camera.

My water level is a good 3 inches below the edge and the top is being built just like the old one which will give it about 12 inches of space above water level.

I'm building it out of wire and wood with metal 90degree reinforcements and rubber all along the bottom for added protection. It will be very strong but as you said not pleasing to the eye. My main goal down the road is to put in a strong electrical fence both on the sides and over the top..

 

[fishin4cars]

main thing is try and make it as easy to remove as possible for you but as hard as possible for ....... what ever got in??? You'll find it doesn't look as bad once you have that comfort your fish will be there the next day and you want it where you can still show off the pond. The motion camera helped me figure out what was going on, then I knew more what to do as far as protect. My biggest problem has been birds, But I have lost fish to bullfrog, (ate one or two small ones before being relocated) One 5' water snake, (ate at least one fish for sure, maybe two or three over the three years it lived in the yard, removed and relocated) A couple of raccoon visits although I really don't think a raccoon has gotten any of my fish so far. Had a couple of wild cats come in, I don't think they did anything either but they got chased off, Herons, egrets, and owls have claimed 90% of all fish that I have lost due to to predation.

 

[addy1]

That is one problem with ponds, we build a wildlife restaurant and they come and sample the food. Then you need to build the guards, like over the salad bar!

 

[pond maven]

Well if you find out it's a snake and you put an electric wire around the top of the pond so it sits flush with the edge and a snake tries to cross over he would get the shock of his life. Do they make some kind of snake repellant?

There is snake repellent. When we lived in New Mexico we used it for rattlesnakes after our yellow lab got bit. She was fine, long story. I have read that snake repellent doesn't work and it IS one of those things where you only know if it is NOT working. Just because you don't see a snake doesn't mean it isn't around! We had only about 1 1/2 acres of our 5 we wanted snake proof but it was impossible to see whether there were snakes still in the area. We could have corralled them in also. We didn't get anymore snakebite but that doesn't mean there were not more snakes in the area. The rattler that bit our dog was only pencil size and very difficult to see even after I knew it was there. Grew up in the Antelope Valley in S. Cal and went snake hunting every spring and am familiar with the nasty rattlers.

Here, where we are now, we are going to try motion sensor to alert our dogs of movement outside and see if they can keep predators at bay. Hmmmmmf might work!!

As far as the electric fence, we had that also in NM to keep the cattle from pushing the fence down. For us, the fence could not touch anything that would conduct electricity. We used rubber/plastic bumpers to string it along the fence perimeter. We did not use it near the ground so not sure if it could touch the rocks or ground. I know you don't want it touching the water!!!

 

[texmaster]

Second day still no motion pics. I've set the camera to video.

 

[fishin4cars]

No pics at all, or no pics with anything on them? When you set it on motion be sure not to aim it where a limb will sway when the wind blows, setting it pointed toward a fixed wall, etc, seems to work a little better. Good luck!

 

[texmaster]

So I checked the camera today and only one video and that was the lawnmower guys.

In the pond itself when I take off the cover I've only seen 3 or 4 at a time when I added 7 so that still concerns me but they could be hiding still.

I'm now leaning towards a bird attack considering no ground activity for 5 days.

 

[texmaster]

UPDATE: So I've built their new fortress. 3 band-aids later its finally done. (damn chicken wire) Rubber on the bottom keeps the dirt and leaves out

I haven't seen all 7 new guys at once but today I saw at least 5 so I'm hopeful the old cage did its job before I built the new big boy. Of course its an eyesore but I can feed them through the wire so thats a plus.

Now its time to design an electric fence for both sides and on top ugh.

Safe fish are happy fish!

Thank you all again for your ideas!!

 

[Koilady]

So sorry to hear about your fish losses, I know how your wife feels. A friend of mine owns a water garden business and she caught a mink dragging one of her large Koi out of the green house. She had been losing fish for weeks and she couldn't figure out what was happened. It was during the winter and she was beginning to think that maybe one of her customers was coming in during the night and stealing them.
When I heard that it was a Mink I thought that this was impossible because I didn't think that mink would go into the water to catch fish but upon doing some research, it seems that they can. If it's not a mink or a snake, I'm afraid I don't know what it could be.

Your's Koily, Lorraine

 

[j.w]

It may not look pretty but at least you can rest assured that hopefully nothing can get in now.
Now get to work on the zapper but be careful not to get zapped yourself :alieneyesa:

 

[texmaster]

I also added a 3 inch 3 way pvc pipe so even the big guy can get through and covered it with a stone to give them more hide spaces.

 

[j.w]

They will love you for that...............will make them feel more safe and secure :lol:

 

[Koilady]

He J.W. and Tex. I'm so glad that you were able to make that covering for your pond because there is nothing worse than having some animal getting into your pond and eating your babies. Great job on that cage Tex.
J.W. It's been a while. Hope all is well.

Hugs, Lorraine

 

[j.w]

All's well here Lorraine. Hope you and your hubby are doing well also. Tex did do a good job protecting his fish and lets hope nothing can get in there now.