How long have you had your pond WITHOUT predation by wing or paw?

[brokensword]

just curious if anyone has had a pond without ANY predation AND is not netted. A net should stop any loss but as we all know, there ARE some smart birds out there. Let us know the LONGEST period of time before you got hit by a heron, owl, bear, etc. (even feral cats count) and then had to do some prevention.

In essence, I'm looking to see who--and how long--you've your pond without losing a fish to a predator, and you've had no net or other defense. In my case, it was 'netted' from the git go (screened in) so of course, no losses now in 11 years.

 

[addy1]

I made it through the first three years, then the fight began.

 

[j.w]

I think it was a few years after the over the septic pond was switched to the other side of the walkway pond when Mr or Mrs Heron decided to drop by. I tried everything under the sun before I last resorted to the full netting tied to the lower fence line.

 

[brokensword]

I think it was a few years after the over the septic pond was switched to the other side of the walkway pond when Mr or Mrs Heron decided to drop by. I tried everything under the sun before I last resorted to the full netting tied to the lower fence line.

yep, I'm just looking to see if ANYONE has made it more than 5 years without doing anything. Seemed an interesting question to ask, ya know?

 

[j.w]

yep, I'm just looking to see if ANYONE has made it more than 5 years without doing anything. Seemed an interesting question to ask, ya know?

Yep I know it all..........................

 

[brokensword]

Yep I know it all..........................View attachment 146080

there's going to be ONE SERIOUS GPF internal affairs case, that's fer sure, for THAT claim...

 

[brokensword]

there's going to be ONE SERIOUS GPF internal affairs case, that's fer sure, for THAT claim...

btw, your gif add-on failed...

 

[j.w]

btw, your gif add-on failed...



View attachment 146082

The laughy one got omitted by me but looks like it wanted to haunt the place so just live w/it.........I got it gone now,

 

[Troutredds]

Our pond has had no net for over eight years. We have, however, lost many fish to herons, raccoons, owls, and at least one coyote, osprey and duck. Yes, a duck.
I’ve tried everything from motion-detecting sprinklers and holographic tinsel ribbons, to a light-up plastic snowman and a radio playing 24-hour news broadcasts.
Short of netting the pond, everything has had limited effect. For instance, the sprinkler mostly terrorizes only me; the tinsel scares the herons (if there’s a breeze), the snowman scares the owls (sometimes), and the radio spooks most raccoons. Someday I may net the pond…
We’ve had no predation in over a year though - so I may be jinxing myself by posting this!

 

[WaterGardener]

Knock on wood, we have had our pond for going on 7 years without netting, except in fall for leaves, and without predators. At least none that we are aware of.

We also had a stock tank set-up for 3 years before we built the pond. No problems with that either. And there have been quarantine stock tanks occasionally and a 1000 gallon pool for fry grow out.

We do put shade sails over the pond in summer so the view from above is probably blocked.

Also for the last few years we have left the frame up for the greenhouse that covers the pond in winter. Maybe that has been a deterrent?

There are herons in the neighborhood who sometimes fly over on their way to a much larger mud pond down the road. And we have seen Kingfishers in a nearby creek.

We even had a young raccoon that we found trying to hide in one of the pots of plants in the pond. But he was obviously in bad shape and very ill. He was in no mood for fishing.

We live in a rural area and predators are definitely here. We've been very lucky. Like Troittreds, it makes me nervous to even be posting this.

Neighbors have a pack of large dogs that bark what seems to be constantly, so they could also be a factor in our good fortune, at least for the pond. For our peace and quiet, not so much.

 

[BKHpondcritters]

The pond here was installed in 2012, so 9 years old now. We've never had a heron problem (only seen a single heron on two different occasions anywhere near the yard/pond, but they both flew off & never returned) but have lost fish to raccoons on a few occasions. Last time for that was probably 3 - 4 years ago now. This past summer our main predator was Nessie, our Northern Water Snake, but she was too small to take any of the koi (we did have one of our two remaining goldfish disappear, which I credit to Nessie, though) It's possible that she helped cull some of the fry from last Spring's spawning, but there's no way to know how many for certain, and she seemed to prefer the frogs.

 

[WaterGardener]

We did have a garter snake one year that would swim in the pond and hang out in a pot of plants. Saw it trying to eat frogs, but not fish.
We may just have so many fish that I'm not aware of the ones we might have lost!

 

[addy1]

oh yeah I forgot about the three water snakes, last summer, one HUGE, one medium , one small. I caught them eating fish, they slowly disappeared. No clue if went to better waters or got eaten by a hawk, heron, fox. I did find the big snakes skeleton in the yard. The water snakes easy to find, always lay in the sun.

I have seen garter snakes in the pond way in the past. I am sure they are there just a matter of catching them around.

 

[cas]

the sprinkler mostly terrorizes only me

tee hee.... I got sprayed many a time by mine....

 

[cas]

I built my pond in 2004. First heron showed up in 2009. I had started to net the pond in 2008, so I didn't lose any to the heron then. However, in 2015 my net was a little high over the waterfall and the heron was able to duck under it and I lost one goldfish. Luckily he wasn't as smart as Addy's heron and he didn't get any more once I adjusted the net.