Friend or foe?

[dadrab]

I’m at an interesting junction.
Recently, I’ve become aware of a pond resident of whose presence I was not aware.
It looks to me to be a mole king snake. He appears to be a 2.5 to 3 foot specimen.
My research says it shouldn’t like eating fish as it’s not a part of the preferred diet. That’s all well and good, but I’d rather hear from some folks who might have a similar situation.
I believe him to be a friend. He might have been around for a while and I never saw him.

Background: pond is about five years old. About 2500 -3000 gallons. Water is once again clear as glass.
About 22 months ago Hurricane Helene (bitch) dropped a tree into the pond. Miraculously. No holes were punched in the liner. Still, something was able to walk down the tree and eat everything in the pond.
About six months later (after some of the shock wore off) I restocked with gold fish and some koi. I had some pretty sizable fish and was pretty pleased.
Then, I messed up. I turned the water on to top up the pond, got sidetracked and left the water running…for a looong time. I poisoned everything. I was heartbroken.
That was about six weeks ago.
Last week, figuring enough time had elapsed to re-establish beneficial bacterial biology and determined to start anew, I purchased some small goldfish and put them into the pond.
I discovered our new resident sunning himself on a rock at the bottom of the waterfall in the interim of the mass slaying and the restock.
I know of the many benefits of having a king snake, but am not sure of the drawbacks.

School me.

 

[Meadowlark]

Howdy. I would say friend...as the name implies they eat moles and other rodents not fish. If you don't mind having a snake for a guest, its likely a good thing.

 

[mrsclem]

Pattern is wrong for mole king snake. Looks a lot like the snake I had today- northern water snake.

 

[Gemma]

In my opinion a snake that eats rodents will also eat fish and any other living things it can fit in its mouth...I'd rehome that sucker immediately

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Where exactly are you located? Since you mentioned Helene I'm assuming that you're in western NC? (I'm in western Wilkes county!) Anyway, Mole Kingsnakes don't range into the mountains, and your pictures are of a Northern Water Snake, who will definitely eat fish as well as frogs. I adore snakes and consider them all to be *my* friends, but she is not going to be a friend to your fish, so... if possible I'd catch & relocate.

 

[BKHpondcritters]

In my opinion a snake that eats rodents will also eat fish and any other living things it can fit in its mouth...I'd rehome that sucker immediately

Not necessarily. While some snakes are more indiscriminate eaters & will opportunistically dine on whatever they can catch, most have a preferred diet and tend to stick to certain prey. Unfortunately in this case, it IS a watersnake who's preferred diet is fish & amphibians.

 

[addy1]

I had over 200 fish eaten during my massive northern water snake invasion.
They wiped out my one 1000 gallon pond from about 30 GF to 3. ate all the fan tails, had almost no frogs left.

Caught around 30 over 4 years, tehomed them all into a old farm pond. .

This year , so far, have not seen any, or trapped any

Per a quick picture search, water snake, yum yum fish diet

 

[dadrab]

Great. Now I get to figure out how to catch the critter. I hate that I misidentified it.
Thank you all very much for the input.
While it true that western N.C. got a whoopin’ from Helene, so did parts of eastern Ga. I’m in Augusta. We ended up losing four cars; had two trees on our house and more. It sucked…bad.
So, on to the task at hand.
Thanks again.

 

[Hound Heaven]

Great. Now I get to figure out how to catch the critter. I hate that I misidentified it.
Thank you all very much for the input.
While it true that western N.C. got a whoopin’ from Helene, so did parts of eastern Ga. I’m in Augusta. We ended up losing four cars; had two trees on our house and more. It sucked…bad.
So, on to the task at hand.
Thanks again.

Addy (unfortunately!) can likely offer you some great snake catching techniques! Good luck. I'd be selling the house.

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Great. Now I get to figure out how to catch the critter. I hate that I misidentified it.
Thank you all very much for the input.
While it true that western N.C. got a whoopin’ from Helene, so did parts of eastern Ga. I’m in Augusta. We ended up losing four cars; had two trees on our house and more. It sucked…bad.
So, on to the task at hand.
Thanks again.

Wow. Sorry to her that Helene hit you so hard. We got 11+" of rain out of the event, but fortunately we are just far enough east that we missed the worst of her wrath.

In the Augusta area you also have Banded & Brown watersnakes, which have similar patterns to the Northern. However it really doesn't matter - any/all of them will happily munch on your fishies. Good luck in your relocation endevors!

 

[j.w]

Great. Now I get to figure out how to catch the critter. I hate that I misidentified it.
Thank you all very much for the input.
While it true that western N.C. got a whoopin’ from Helene, so did parts of eastern Ga. I’m in Augusta. We ended up losing four cars; had two trees on our house and more. It sucked…bad.
So, on to the task at hand.
Thanks again.

Talk to @addy1 she can tell you how to catch them but ya better hurry!