missing gold fish

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I had 4 beautiful gold fish in my pond all about 4 inches and doing very well, but are now nowhere to be found. I have noticed a garter snake roaming around my garden, is it possible that it ate my fish? If so, how do I get rid of the snake(s)?
 

addy1

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They make snake repellant, i have seen it at home depot, but I am not sure how well it works.
 

fishin4cars

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Garter snakes will rarely enter the water to actually try and catch food, even if it did the chances aren't very good that it would catch and eat one much less four goldfish. garter snakes primarily feed on frogs and lizards. Herons, egrets, and cranes are the most common predators that would eat all the fish at one time but other canidates are racoons, owls, otters, minks, and I have heard Opossums but I would have to see the last one actually attack to believe it but one of the pond stores in our area say they have seen one catching fish in there pond on the security camera and trapped and relocated it.
 

j.w

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I don't think it was the snake either. I bet it was some kind of bird or other critter. A lot depends on how deep your pond is and how easy it is for some critter to get in there. How deep and big is your pond? Do you have plant coverage? Are you sure they aren't hiding somewhere?
Darn I hate to hear when these things happen, it makes me sad for you :sad:
 
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When I first built my pond, I added 20 feeder fish and within a few days I was sure that something had eaten most of them because I only saw one or two of them. It turned out they were just hiding very well. Eventually I realized none had been eaten as dead ones turned up and the living ones began coming out of hiding as they became more comfortable in their new home.

In the end, only six of the original twenty survived, but that's because I added the fish before the pond cycled and I bought cheap 1" and smaller feeder fish. Now that they are used to the pond and seeing me, they come to the surface and 'beg' any time that I come around.
 
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Just recently I watched a snake in my pond. I watched it swim across the pond and go up the bank. It was about half in the water. The fish seemed to inspect the tail that was in the water. Then the snake got back in the water and grabbed a gold fish. I ran around the pond were the snake go out of the water. I poked it with a stick. It let go of the fish and got away. The fish was on the ground but was dead. Two days later I found a snake in the stream and watched him grab a little frog. I ran toward the stream. The snake let go of the frog and the frog jumped in the pond. The snake got away. I guess the snake is still around.
 

addy1

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fish, that is just because your pond and stream are so beautiful................they all want to come and live there
 

j.w

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That kind of snake that you have fish is prolly not a garter snake. There are lots of snakes that will eat fish but garter snakes usually eat bugs. The only snakes we have around our area are garter snakes.........at least on this side of the mountains. On the east side of Wa. they have rattle snakes and ?
 

taherrmann4

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Fish I had a banded water snake that was in my pond earlier this summer, I was able to catch him by using a pitch fork and putting him into a rubber maid tote then releasing him about a mile away. He did eat some of my GF and I could afford to lose some as their population was growing too fast. My dog is the one who sniffed him out and cornered him in a crevice in the waterfall.
 

fishin4cars

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That banded water snake now is a whole different story, they are very good at fishing, and will do some pretty severe damage to smaller goldfish. but again, first choice of food is going to be the frogs. There are snake repellents on the market, but if you really want to do something natural to control other snakes, release native king snakes (For your area) into your pond area. Native king snakes will help remove or cause other snakes to leave, will reduce the posibility of poisinus snakes in your pond area, and are not much on eating fish, but are more looking for other snakes, frogs, and mice. those and corn snakes are two of the best snakes to have around because they will actually benefit your whole pond area with the most minimal harm.
 
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I'm thrilled to report that all 4 of my fish have surfaced. I guess they were just hiding very, very well. Thank you to everyone who contributed to my posting, I am thrilled of course.
 

JoaniePA

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Two weeks ago I lost a goldie that had a deformed mouth. Poor thing got more deformed as it grew and finally starved to death. I went on vacation for a long weekend and came home yesterday to find that I had a new little fish I'd never seen before. Or maybe I did. Last year there was this teeny tiny little fish I spotted (quarter inch at best) picking his way around the plant wall. I never saw him again once the frost set in and assumed he was gone. He's brown, so difficult to spot, but as I was tidying up I noticed him hanging with the others. He's about three inches long, and brown, with silvery yellowish on his belly. I hope he turns a little lighter so I can see him better. Anyhow, to top it off I have a little green frog in my pond again! I wonder if he is the offspring of one of the the frogs I had last spring. He is still very small, but I'm thrilled to see something back on the rocks. So there you have it. Nature finds a way to renew itself. Can't wait for retirement when I can really spend some time with the pond and gardens.
 

sissy

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snake repellant is really just mothballs smell it and you will see
 

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