Frightened Fish

[ZmanArt007]

Hello. :regular_waving_emot

My fish are, and have always been, afraid of me and every other human being. They wait at least 15 minutes after I feed them to come to the surface and eat the food, and even then they are extremely cautious:yikesu:. I was wondering if anyone had some advice on how to get them to be less fearful and more active in feeding.

 

[addy1]

Trying sitting by the pond, not stand. Less threatening of a view to them. While sitting throw in a few pellets. Keep doing that until they get used to you sitting there.

 

[ZmanArt007]

Ok. I'll try that. I'm also thinking about getting some lionhead goldfish for my pond too. I've heard that they have trouble competing for food with other fish, and since my fish don't compete with food in the first place, they will hopefully eat some of the food right away. Plus, I love watching those fancy goldfish waddle their way through the water :regular_waving_emot

 

[addy1]

You might have to bring them in during the winter, I have read they do not do well with the cold.

 

[ZmanArt007]

Ya I've thought about that. hopefully they don't get too big this year. I have two 20 gallons tanks I can keep them in. It will give me something to do in the winter :regular_waving_emot

 

[Steve knight]

my lionhead overwintered well. he is the first to eat a lot of times. he has no problems getting food.

 

[ZmanArt007]

See! I heard that loinheads were the first to eat most of the time, so I hope they will encourage my koi to be less fearful.

 

[Steve knight]

I had to get koi to get the gf to come up and eat while we were there (G)

 

[CometKeith]

H izmanart007, You probably need to remove the fancies when the water gets down to about 50 degrees. It sounds like your fish might be spooked by something else and are generally just skittish. Are there enough things to hide them during the day like plants? or are there any animals or birds raiding the pond when you are not around?

 

[ZmanArt007]

The fish have always been skittish, even when they were in the indoor tank, which is where they started out in. I'm almost positive it has nothing to do with an actual predator.

 

[jagan314]

Lionheads are great to watch.. I had one big one in a koi pond (6" long).. sadly a grey heron got to him!:-( They aren't fast swimmers, but they will fight there way to the top for food.. they love to eat! They remind me of Tweety Bird for some reason.. I think its the round face, wide set eyes and little round mouth with puffy looking cheeks.. LOVE that breed of gold fish... My kids have them in their pond.

If your water quality is good, and your fish are healthy... a great way to get them to loosen up is to get a CHAGOI koi in there. Chagoi's are a much more relaxed and calm fish. A single Chagoi in the pond will get your higher strung fish to calm down and trust your feeding... (this works!)

The only other times my fish were skittish were just after they were visited by that grey heron or some kind of predator.

Every since I put a swan decoy out by the ponds edge.. the heron never returned.

 

[addy1]

Swan decoy? is it because herons and swans don't get along?

 

[jagan314]

Addy1, I don't really know.. but I do know that Swans are territorial... So that may have something to do with it.. and the fact that the pond (my kids pond) is small... So there's no getting around that swan... lolz. Before we put that swan out there I had to build a cover for my kids pond.. (netting) .... that heron came back 3 days in a row. I was afraid he was gonna come back with "friends."

 

[j.w]

That's very interesting about the swan. I wonder if the herons are afraid of them. I'd put a swan in my pond if I knew it would work. Wonder if it would attract swans tho