My Koi's Are MIA

[Betsy]

Im a newbie to the site, but have had my pond for years. I love my fishies, but recently, they have been spooked. They do not come out, they do not want to eat, they have disappeared.

My fishies recognize my voice and they always come out, but this time I don't know what's wrong. I did however, notice a possum twice in my yard in the past week. Could they be the link to my problem, because I did read that possums do swim.

Can someone help me save my fishies. What do I do? Do I get a trap to get the possum out of my yard? I did decide to put a netting over parts of my pond. Help?

 

[Nevermore44]

That behavior sounds like a reaction to being predated on. What part of the country are you in? How big/deep (at the edges) is your pond?

 

[Lisak1]

Yup. They're spooked. They'll get over it. I would guess your possum friend is the culprit. I don't know how they are as predators of fish in ponds, though. Is your pond easy to get into for a critter?

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome!

While opossums will eat just about anything, in general “fishing” isn’t a likely trait. Now, seeing a potential predator will definitely spook the fish — the poor fish can’t tell the difference.

 

[mrsclem]

Get a live trap and bait it with cat food then find mr opossum a new home.

 

[Betsy]

That behavior sounds like a reaction to being predated on. What part of the country are you in? How big/deep (at the edges) is your pond?

Im in the USA. My pond is like 10x15 and 4 feet deep. They're slowly coming around. I did call animal rescue and they assured me that the possum will not go in the water. Sadly, that has been the only critter that Ive seen in my yard last week.

 

[Stephen Noble]

Betsy, have you tested your water? Sure sounds like a water quality issue to me.
Stephen

 

[Betsy]

Yup. They're spooked. They'll get over it. I would guess your possum friend is the culprit. I don't know how they are as predators of fish in ponds, though. Is your pond easy to get into for a critter?

We had to protect our fishies from the Heron's, so we do have fish line going across the pond and the pond is deep in the center and we do have a cave for them to go to. Yes, they are coming around, but I have never seen them that scared before.

Next week, we are having our pond guy come out and clean the pond. I do hope that the fishies do not get spooked again. Thank you for your reply.

 

[Betsy]

Betsy, have you tested your water? Sure sounds like a water quality issue to me.
Stephen

Im going to test it today. We do have our pond guy coming out this week to clean the entire pond out. Thank you Stephen.

 

[Betsy]

Get a live trap and bait it with cat food then find mr opossum a new home.

I was going to have someone come out and set the trap, but I haven't seen the possum or the Heron's at all this week. A lot of rain here.

 

[Lisak1]

I did call animal rescue and they assured me that the possum will not go in the water

They're nuts. Unless you have some kind of unique species living near you, possums most definitely do swim. I'm not saying that's what happened in your pond, but it's certainly possum-able!

 

[j.w]

@Betsy

 

[koshki]

I came in from trying to feed my fish to ask just this same question. We had a heron swoop through several weeks ago, but he hasn't been seen since the trees leafed out. They seemed to be getting over it (well, all the but two who disappeared), but today they're back on the bottom, not interested in food. Weird.

 

[addy1]

Welcome To the forum.

I have opossums in our yard. Never see them near the pond, they do eat the dead bees near our bee hives.

 

[Pixiedmc]

Mine did this after a visit from a heron. It took awhile for them to get over it.