Otter's Eating Comets?

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A friend of mine has a pond and said he saw an otter in his pond, dive down and come up with three comets. It has now eaten several more of his comets and the frogs are now gone as well.

He is in Southern Indiana

Any advise I can pass along to him?
 
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Oh dear :( I adore watching otters in the wild, but in a pond....well, think they'll clear it out :(

He said he lives in a rural area with a lot of stock ponds near by. It was small so maybe a baby who was evicted from a near by pond. I don't think his pond is very big so hopefully the otters find more suitable hunting grounds near by. But sad to loose fish he has had for 10 years.
 

Smaug

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Otters are exceptionally smart. Nothing short of guarding it personally or with dogs will stop them.
 
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I think the only way is to remove the food source all together. Maybe set up a indoor tank as a temp holding area. The otter will leave with no food available but like already said the are smart and will get into almost anything.
 

Smaug

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Would he know the difference between a full grown mink and small otter? If it's a mink they usually are pretty numerous, shooting one of them might not be so bad! I know I would kill the hell out of a mink if I needed to.
 
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Thanks to Pecan for sharing my story here, and providing a link to your forum.

And thanks for all your condolences and suggestions.

One of my comets reappeared from hiding today, the smallest one. I will probably buy a few more, just to keep mosquito larvae under control.

There are six farm ponds within two hundred yards of my home, all with frogs and most with fish. I doubt that the otter will visit often, since he wiped out most of the animal life in my little pond.

Here is my pond, in happier days.

Edited to add, per Smaug's question, yes, I'm sure it's an otter. And I have no plans to try to shoot it.

Pond082105.jpg
 

addy1

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Very nice pond, sorry the otter is snacking on your fish.
My main problem is herons.

And welcome to our group!
 

Smaug

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No I wouldn't harm an otter either. Mink,,,,,,well I have harmed plenty of them. Sorry about your luck with the otter,it sounds like you are destined for just a planted pond from now on.
 
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No I wouldn't harm an otter either. Mink,,,,,,well I have harmed plenty of them. Sorry about your luck with the otter,it sounds like you are destined for just a planted pond from now on.

We are on the same page. It's interesting that otters were reintroduced to southern Indiana about fifteen years ago, in a wildlife refuge some 40 miles north of me. Apparently they are thriving.
 
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Welcome mkgr :) Your pond is lovely. I'm very sorry about the loss of your fish :( Perhaps other wildlife will find their way to your pond....frogs, birds etc, and of course plants are lovely. Hopefully the otter will move on to the local farm ponds and leave your new fish alone.
 

Smaug

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Predators have good memories for where they have been lucky in the past. Any new critter that ends up in his pond will just be another item on the menu the next time it makes its rounds. If it were my pond and my situation I would keep it stocked with cheap feeders and put up a webcam. Otters are clowny fun to watch buggers. It brings back a memory from 20 years ago when I used to like fishing the susquehanna down stream from a warm water power plant discharge in the winter. The fishing was always fantastic through the winter for channel cats and big carp. That was until they started reintroducing river otter, we would be having great luck then it would just stop,sure enough we would start noticing the otters. They would get drawn by the sounds of fish splashing and that would be it for the evening .
 
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Predators have good memories for where they have been lucky in the past. Any new critter that ends up in his pond will just be another item on the menu the next time it makes its rounds. If it were my pond and my situation I would keep it stocked with cheap feeders and put up a webcam. Otters are clowny fun to watch buggers. It brings back a memory from 20 years ago when I used to like fishing the susquehanna down stream from a warm water power plant discharge in the winter. The fishing was always fantastic through the winter for channel cats and big carp. That was until they started reintroducing river otter, we would be having great luck then it would just stop,sure enough we would start noticing the otters. They would get drawn by the sounds of fish splashing and that would be it for the evening .

It was certainly interesting to watch the otter produce five to six inch tall waves in my little pond, before climbing out onto the waterfall with my largest comet.
 

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