Goldfish attacked by Heron, still hanging on...help

[Justin warner]

Hi there,

2 days ago a large Heron got one of my large goldfish, and carried at away to a neighbors yard, they rescued her, and got her back in the pond. She has a few stab wounds, but is still alive. Yesterday she was upright and moving around a little bit, but today she is upside down, but still breathing. i treated the pond with Pima fix yesterday and today, but she's not doing well. Any suggestions or ideas to help? Thank you!

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome, but sorry it has to be under these circumstances!

How big is your pond and how many fish do you have? Do you have a quarantine tank?

 

[Justin warner]

Hello, Thank you! So, my pond is 10 x 5 x approx 3 feet deep. There's a big well on one side that is 4 feet deep with cement blocks and a big flagstone. lots of hiding. I have about 12 fish, only 4 big ones, the goldfish being one of the big ones. I do not have a quarantine tank... I had my pond for about 6 years, this is the first bird attack that I know of. The fish are in hiding, but I think all of the ret survived. I have a big net over the pond now.

 

[Gemma]

Hi, welcome to the forum and sorry to hear about your fish.
How bad are the wounds? I had that happening to my fish before I covered the pond, unfortunately there isn't much you can do for a deep stab, the infection will eventually kill the fish, at least that has been my experience

 

[addy1]

When mine were stabbed by the heron, they never survived. I lost a few until I finally figured out how to keep the heron out.

Sorry about the fish being stabbed.

I lost a beautiful blind butterfly rescue fish, saw the heron with it in its beak. The bird, dropped the fish when I screamed at it, but it died.

 

[Justin warner]

i feel so terrible for her. This is day 4 and she is still upside down and breathing, I just checked on her. Should I put her out of her misery? I am glad she got to go back into the pond, the Heron dragged her out onto the roof and dropped her on the ground, she was severely traumatized. I am at a loss, and feel terrible.

 

[chris quinn]

Sorry to hear all this . My friend has the same thing going on. He used game cameras to see how it was getting in. He lost about 4 fish, three he ate on camera and one way to big to eat, dropped when flying away.

If you can stand watching I would let it ruin its coarse Could recover.... Fingers crossed

 

[Justin warner]

Yeah, i really don't think i could do anything anyway. Poor thing. ugh. Thank you for talking with me. I will keep you posted. I treated the water again last night, and may do it again. Maybe i will try to quarantine her.... seems even more traumatic though.

 

[j.w]

@Justin warner Sorry to hear about your fish and hope she makes it.

 

[Tula]

So sorry, how traumatic ! If you don't see improvement , then I would humanely euthanize......she has to be miserable

 

[Mmathis]

So sorry, how traumatic ! If you don't see improvement , then I would humanely euthanize......she has to be miserable

Agree!

 

[GBBUDD]

Take the gold fish out place her in a baggie like you were going to ship/ transport her. Place her in the freezer as the temp drops she will going into winter sleep and then a pertinent sleep

 

[Lisak1]

I'm sorry this happened. This is when you wish the bird had just done the job it set out to do. We met a pond owner who came out one morning to find ten or twelve of his big koi all stabbed and laying around the pond, dead. A heron had caught them one by one and decided they were too big to eat and just left them to die. Nature can be both beautiful and cruel.