Something Plucked My Koi From Pond, Then Left It To Die

[LibraKoi]

Hi,

Something came today and took a 6" koi from the pond and left it in a bush on the edge. It was there this morning to eat--saw it swimming, then when I fed later it was not there. We have a chain fence around the pond for the herons, but it must have been another critter. No marks on the fish except for a sm. gash at the gill area and it looked deformed on one side in the stomach area. I'm thinking that may be from suffocating. Not sure. I didn't have a chance to photo it before my boyfriend buried it.

Any ideas what it may have been? Just got over Costia and got them back to health--now I have to worry about them be killed.

I am putting up a sensor flood tonight, but not sure if that will help.

Thank You

 

[mrsclem]

Sounds like a raccoon. They will climb fences.

 

[sissy]

could have been a heron or owl or raccoon .I had my neighbor dog do it but just caught him in time

 

[Waterbug]

Very common for fish jump out of ponds especially if new to the pond, or there was a recent big water change or there is a problem with the water like high ammonia, nitrite. Not sure of where this fish was located if jumping was a possibility.

A raccoon or heron aren't going to leave a 6" fish...they're going to eat it.

Raccoons and herons wouldn't care even a little bit about a chain link fence.

 

[Tiny Termite]

We had the same problem a few years back, we returned home one day to find a Fish a few feet away from the Pond, my Son-in-law picked it up and then started blowing into it's mouth, ( we all thought he had gone a bit Nuts ) and then he gently put it back in the Pond, to our amazement, it swam off. Sadly, the very next day at the very same spot lay a very dead Fish, the same Fish as the day before.

We came to the conclusion that maybe Fish are just like Dolphins and Whales and they just Beached themselves. I believe this is a Natural Occurrence and Man should not interfere. It upsets me when Stories of Beached Whales appear on the News and you see Man desperately loosing a fighting battle, the Stress that these Beautiful Creatures endure before their final moments of Life, having Humans throwing wet towels over them trying to keep them alive for their own satisfaction, makes me want to cry.

 

[dieselplower]

I have read stories on this and other sites of hetons emptying entire ponds of Koi and not eating most of them. Dead fish all over the surrounding area. Good luck. It may be time to add a net over the top.