Virgin ponder here looking for tips

[emperorpenguine]

Ok people ... your talking to a virgin ponder here from Ireland here.... yesterday I bought 7 goldfish to test my new pond. I Called them “THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN". I allowed them to acclimatise by leaving them in the bag in the water and then introducing them into the pond as one should. That was last night... this morning they are gone... can you believe it... the MAGNIFICENT SEVEN are gone.
Now I know I am a virgin at this pond/fish stuff but I expected they might have at least lasted 24 hours before they either died.....went on their holidays.... hibernated..... Or went off to save some peasant village from marauding sharks. They were just gone... all seven of them... I spent 5 years putting this pond together. I built it from the ground up and put a glass panel in the side so I could watch them at night from the conservatory. I gave them everything they could wish for, plants, gravel to play in, I even put a romanesk like statue of a woman in a toga on the bottom protruding from the gravel, …. She was naked from the waste up and the most beautiful face and skin with her arms raised so that her bare breasts hung in a way that………… …. Anyway im sure you get the point…… They didn't even say good bye, not even a "WAVE". I even had a surprise welcome home party organised for them today. Anyway.. if I have enough money im going to see if I can I go to some impoverished country....tell them I am a celebrity... pay the right money to the right people and to try and adopt some more fish. .....Alternatively some one out there could tell me how to stop a scavenging, blood sucking leach (and no imp not talking about a politician) of a heron from raiding my pool.

 

[koiguy1969]

hey... dont feel too bad i just lost about a dozen fish... 8 of which were koi,all 10" to about 14" to one of those blood sucking leaches. and ive had them for over a year. they were family. your gonna need a net to stretch over the pond. and a rifle to settle the score. yesterday with the net over the pond i saw a heron not standing but sitting like it was nesting at ponds edge looking stupid as it tried to figure out how to get himself and the fish on the same side of this obstruction blocking his breakfast. m.s "daisy" successfully convinced him to try McDonalds or somewhere else. i am thinking of getting a paint ball gun... they hurt...and i'll be able to tell if its more than one visiting.

 

[zmaz81]

First things first, any pictures of the "romanesk like statue woman"? I had a similiar problem with a heron taking my fish. I'm fairly new at this pond stuff also but I have talked to many people about how to prevent my koi from becoming lunch.

1. You can put a net over the pond. The net should be strung across the pond so it is not just laying on the top of the water. It should be suspended above the water. This way, frogs can still enter and exit the pond without getting stuck on the net.

2. You can place "chicken wire" around the perimeter of the pond as this cuts the heron's feet and supposedly keeps them away.

3. You can use diversions (i.e. a heron statue) but I have heard that these don't work very well.

4. (The option that I went with) you can make caves at the bottom of the pond for the fish to hide in. I just did a complete water change last week. While cleaning, I made 3 caves out of rocks for shelter from the %@#& heron. If I stand near the waters edge, the fish all swim to the bottom and into the caves. I chose this option because it looks better than a net or chicken wire. I'm not sure if the heron has been back yet but I'm assuming I will find out soon enough.

Good Luck

 

[zmaz81]

One more thing. I was buying 4-10 shotgun shells to "do away" with my heron and found out that, where I live, there is a $1,000 fine for killing them. You could probably get away with it but you might wanna check first.

 

[koiguy1969]

decoys do help.. but you cant put them out yet.. its still mating season..you may just draw in a prospective mate.. a month from now it will help. and you have to move it every day or two so they dont catch on. its illegal under the migratory birds act to kill them here in the states.

 

[zmaz81]

Thanks Koiguy

 

[oldmarine]

My first experience with an outdoor pond was thirty years ago in Cupertino, CA. My wife and I rented a house there, and low and behold, there was a small pond under the brackenfern under the covered patio. I cleaned things up and tossed a dozen feeder comets in the pond. This was back when they were five cents a piece.

Right away the fish started to disapear, one sometimes two a day. After about a week of this, I just happen to step out the back patio door only to witness the crime in progress. There was a foot and a half long garter snake with a distinctive marking on it's back coiled up at the edge of the water. Just as I noticed it, the snake dropped it's head into the water and caught one of my gold fish.

Needless to say, I caught it and took it for a long ride to an empty field down the highway.

 

[stroppy]

bad luck looseing them all in one night !!