I live in East LA and have had a thriving backyard goldfish pond for around the past three years....Until last night.
Ok, let me take a breath and start over. I have a 50 gallon preformed pond with a natural rock waterfall. Which is circulated with a 265 gph pump that feeds into a home made five gal bucket filter and exits as a waterfall. I also dug an adjacent 100 gal or so pond and lined it with two layers of billboard vinyl over sand. Its circulated with a 200.....okay, it doesnt matter. What matters is my ponds were thriving for the past three years. But this morning i walked out to find my ponds completely tattered. All the lilies were ripped up. Potted plants were knocked over. And alot of the fish were gone. This also includes my container water gardens i have as well( 1/3 whiskey barrels with water plants and fish.). I have never seen raccoons in my yard. Oppossums, yes, but i know they cant wreak such damage. Couldnt be a cat...could it? Arent they afraid of getting wet? So I ask....could it be a heron?? Ive never seeing one even flying anywhere close to my neighborhood. But i did see a footprint that looks like it could be a heron. Or is it a pigeon print? Im at a losfer words wondering if i should invest in some kind of Heron deterrent. Or was this just a one time event caused by a lost heron who just happened to see my pond? Is there anybody else here closeby who has had heron problems? In East LA???
Ok, let me take a breath and start over. I have a 50 gallon preformed pond with a natural rock waterfall. Which is circulated with a 265 gph pump that feeds into a home made five gal bucket filter and exits as a waterfall. I also dug an adjacent 100 gal or so pond and lined it with two layers of billboard vinyl over sand. Its circulated with a 200.....okay, it doesnt matter. What matters is my ponds were thriving for the past three years. But this morning i walked out to find my ponds completely tattered. All the lilies were ripped up. Potted plants were knocked over. And alot of the fish were gone. This also includes my container water gardens i have as well( 1/3 whiskey barrels with water plants and fish.). I have never seen raccoons in my yard. Oppossums, yes, but i know they cant wreak such damage. Couldnt be a cat...could it? Arent they afraid of getting wet? So I ask....could it be a heron?? Ive never seeing one even flying anywhere close to my neighborhood. But i did see a footprint that looks like it could be a heron. Or is it a pigeon print? Im at a losfer words wondering if i should invest in some kind of Heron deterrent. Or was this just a one time event caused by a lost heron who just happened to see my pond? Is there anybody else here closeby who has had heron problems? In East LA???
