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Attack at my pond
Topic Started: May 18 2012, 10:07 AM (598 Views)
43freckleface
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Bluegill
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I checked on the fish this morning, added a little water to the pond and then left for work.

When I was pulling in the driveway at noon I noticed my pump was not working. I headed for the pond and found my biggest fish dead. :'( Yep I cried. I am so devistated today. For some reason the pumps kicked off but the plugs did not seem disturbed at all.

I don't know what got her but you can see a puncture wound on the top of her head. Heron???? I just don't know as I didn't think a heron would leave the fish. There is blood and scales on quite a few of the rocks. This fish was my biggest one at about 11".

I can't find any of my fish except for 3. One of those was in the skimmer. I am praying they are hiding in there somewhere. The water is so stirred up it's hard to see anything. I can't even find any of the yellow goldfish or white ones. Even the shubunkins are missing.

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tlc
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Oh that is too bad Melaine. I'm sorry about your poor fish. :( It is very frustrating when it happens to a special fish.

I would bet that your fish are hunkered down hiding like heck and hopefully you are missing only the one. You may need to net the pond until you can figure out a better system like: :ph43r: :boom:

From your pic, it looks like there are two puncture wounds? One on the head and the other by the front fin just behind the gill? I'm betting a heron but it is weird that the bird didn't take the fish. Maybe it got scared off for some reason.

Probably some water got splashed on the plug causing the circuit breaker (GFI) to trip. I've had that happen more than once.
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43freckleface
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Thank you T.

I had not noticed the one by the gill but I believe you are right. The fish was actually dead and floating on top of the pond by a plant when I got home. :swear: I netted her out. She was a Mother's day gift from my daughter last year.

It has been several hours but I can still only find 3 fish. Maybe the heron had eaten some before he had stabbed her and you may be right got frightened off. I do know those three are not coming anywhere near the surface.

I still have my siren and am thinking of putting it out in tonight. Just got to figure out a way so it won't go off by the movement of the plants.

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tlc
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If your fish are anything like mine, you will not see them for days even. When I've had a visit from the :x bird, my fish lay flatter than a pancake on the bottom of the pond and will not come up for nothing.

Do you have anything in the bottom of your pond for the fish to hide out in in case the bird comes back? If not, then you might want to think about adding something if you have the room down there. At least that will give them some place to go to hide out till the coast is clear.

Also, if the bird can wade in through the shallow end you might need to string up some fishing line so he/she can't wade? I don't know how you feel about having to look at something like that round/across your pond.

I have a scare crow sprinkler and I use a ton of batteries every year, since like you say, any movement will set those types of contraptions off. What a pain in the hind end....
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whisper
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Yes I was going to say bird of pray also. Looks to me like a claw puncher. So so sorry for you lose. It's so hard when they become a part of our family.
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Fishy
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Sorry about your fish! I don't know for sure what killed your big guy. I do know that a few weeks ago I found a 9.5" goldfish 20 feet from my pond without a scratch on her, no wounds, no dirt, no scrapes, nothing. If she had jumped out during spawning, she would have been covered in dirt and wounds. I've found fish like that before too. She had just spawned (large gut was kind of caved in) so she must have been easy pickings in the shallows. My only conclusion is that the heron swallowed her and then threw her back up. I don't think they can keep down fish over about 9" long. The herons normally swallow fish whole but, years ago, I did find puncture wounds on my koi who were too large to swallow. The wound on your fish looks a bit small to be from a heron's beak unless it's not a great blue heron. A mammalian predator might have wounded the fish who then escaped and died from the injuries. I haven't seen our heron in a week or so but I probably just jinxed it. :swear:
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43freckleface
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Thank you all for taking time to write.

It was a heron. My husband rigged up a cam in the front window with a sensor that sounds an alarm in the house if anything goes near the pond. Problem was he didn't tell me and that and after lunch I heard a beep sound and didn't investigate. About 15 minutes later I heard it again. He was coming down the hallway and I was heading for the front door. It was a heron. I scared him off when I opened the door.

When we viewed the video he had you could see him clearly. The first time he came back he didn't do much because there were vehicles going up and down the road. The second time was when I scared him.

I had my son come over and I hooked up the critter gitter on wood so it would face upwards. I didn't want the plants to keep making it go off and this is working well. It has a 40' radius in a pie area from the center. I walked out to the other side of the pond behind the waterfall and it picked up my movement.

The video below shows the critter gitter. Sound on and you can hear how loud it is. It also has red blinking LED lights.

Critter Gitter

It has a button on the side and I can turn it off when I am out there. Just hope I don't forget to turn it back on.
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43freckleface
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tlc,May 18 2012
04:53 PM
Do you have anything in the bottom of your pond for the fish to hide out in in case the bird comes back?

I don't have anything on the bottom but I will this weekend. I was thinking of making a cave with rocks. I have some large flat ones I can use for the top.
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43freckleface
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Fishy,May 18 2012
07:40 PM
I haven't seen our heron in a week or so but I probably just jinxed it. :swear:

You know I was one who marveled at nature. I have seen herons in large ponds before and throught they were amazing.

Right now I hate them. :swear:

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43freckleface
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If anyone wants to try a Critter Gitter this is the website. I think facing it upwards is the solution to the problem with the plants making it go off.

http://crittergittersensor.com/index.shtml

The water has cleared enough to see the fish. I have 7 left. Problem is I don't know how many trips he made to the pond before I got home.

Out of the 5 white and yellow ones I have 2 left. The ryunkin that I have had for 3 years is gone. He was a very slow swimmer and I am sure easy pickings. I still have the wakin a friend gave me and I found a sarassa comet and 2 of my shubunkins survived. Other than that I have 1 orange goldfish.

They are all huddled in the lowest part of the pond in a group.
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tlc
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At least you didn't lose them all. I've heard stories where people's ponds were fished clean. :yikes: That is cool though that you got the whole "event" on video so you can see how the heron goes about fishing. At least now you know forsure what happened and how.

Just b/c of this thread I ran out today and got some new batteries for the scare crow.

Thanks for the link too.
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frogman3
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That's too bad Melaine, I just returned home from a week of vacation in Virgina beach and believe me I always worry somehow the predators will have a field day while I'm gone. Everyone all accounted for, at least the ones that I count, fish and frogs. I still have and occasional Heron stop by but for the most part they just fly over. I'm guessing they have been zapped in the past and can't get past the netted ponds so they give up. Hope you find a solution although I'm not sure the noise will work long term.
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43freckleface
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The heron came back again twice yesterday. I had the critter gitter on the lowest setting and it did not detur him at all. I was glad at least to hear the noise so I got out there in time to scare him off. After that I turned it up to the higher setting. When he came back later it did startle him and he flew off. Your right Froggy he may get used to the noise but being that I can't be out there all the time at least I have a warning system for me. I also let my neighbors know I had the alarm and since a lot of them are home during the day they say they will keep an eye out if the alarm goes off when I am not home in the mornings.

T as far as a cave I decided to give it a try. Since the only fish I have left are pretty small I decided to put a couple of rocks under the waterfall with a larger long flat rock on top. At least this gives them some place to hide. Not sure how much protection it will be but hopefully it will work. It is only about 12" from bottom to top so it is not interfearing with the waterfall.

When I built my pond I didn't have sloped sides or plant shelves. Problem is it is small and not deep. The center is only 2'. They say they won't wade in deeper than 3'. He could easily fish from the sides because my pond is not wide. Being that my pond is in the front yard I didn't want some child coming over here and falling in so I figured the 18" around the edges was safer.

My daughter and I went over to the pond store yesterday where I had oriiginally purchased my fish. What they had left was not appealing. No blue head shubunkins or sarassa comets. He did have a lot of plain orange goldfish. She wanted to buy a couple for me but I will wait until I can find something else or at least see how it goes with the heron. I still don't think it is safe enough to put anymore in there yet.

I told them about the attack and it seems there is are a lot of herons in our area this year. They told me about a man that has had a koi pond for the last seven years. He never had a problem until this year. His fish were friendly enough to hand feed. Sadly, a heron wiped the pond out completely.

For Mother's day my daughter bought the floating hippo and a plastic heron for the pond. I put the heron out the day before the attack. I was reading that the fake ones can actually attract herons if it is the mating season. :batterup: I don't know how true that is but I no longer have a fake heron by the pond. Since they breed from March to May at least one won't come here looking for a mate.
Just in case.
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43freckleface
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Just wanted to say there are a lot of wonderful people in this world.

The pond store called me today and asked me to drop by and pick out 3 free goldfish for my loss. :swimfishy:

A neighbor of mine also heard about the attack and just look what she brought me. A cutie planter full of pink moss roses to put by the pond.

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tlc
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I had heard that those noise makers don't work that well for scaring off the predators or deer for that matter. Now I know they don't work that well other than being an alarm for you, which is better than nothing.

Anything you can add to the bottom will help. Those herons are very patient though and will wait for them to come back out of hiding as long as the bird isn't chased off.

I'm surprised that you didn't run over that plastic heron with your car if you know what I mean. :lol: Moving it was a good idea.

Having the pond in the front yard does present it's problems but it is nice to look at. About the only thing you can do is try to scare the bird off enough that it will find a better place to fish or making fishing from the sides more difficult. I don't know how you would make it harder other than an electric fence but then again, your pond is in the front yard and the neighbor kids might get zapped. :thkg:
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