Predators?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Go deeper and provide plants for cover, if the preds cant see them they dont know their there
 
My father uses netting designed to keep birds from getting berries from bushes. It is very fine and hard to see until you are within 2-3 feet. Animals are weary of nets and traps alike and always pass on his fish. No losses to predation in 6 years. His shallowest pond is 24" deep.

Also, those plastic insert "ponds" are one of the best ways to feed your goldfish to birds and raccoons. They should come with warning labels "Only to be used as a water feature. Fish will be eaten."
 
Muske;3706450; said:
2-3 foot depth + lillies should be fine.

The center with only 6" of depth is were the fish are getting caught. Herons will stay motionless until they can strike. If nobody scares them away the will stay and come back. Next time, do a motion detector sprinkler and place a fake heron by the pond. The word on the street is Herons are territorial and will not visit a pond already occuppied (not the case w/my father-in-laws pond). A lot of surface aggitation can help too. The only time i every had an avian visitor is when i did some repairs on my pond and the filters were off for a few days. Once the falls went back on, the birds never came back. They would sit on my neighbors garage and look at the pond a couple of times, but never any attacks.

I also have two dogs that patrol the yard. I keep them outside in early spring and late fall when the lillies are not yet on the surface or have died back for the season. I use schedule 40 PVC fittings as cover when the plants aren't kicking. No losses to predators in 4 years. The raccoons seem to like the bread set out for the birds more than fish. I went to take out the garbage Mon. and a huge raccoon was sitting on a pallet of pavers just looking at me. He didn't even get scared away until I approched and was 2-3 feet away.
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Hmm.. Turning on the waterfalls keeps the herons away?

So what I've seen so far is to mainly make the pond deep throughout and make sure when there are no water lilies to cover up the pond?
 
So glad you reminded me about those. I remember seeing them about this time last year. As I walked though a mall, a vendor was shooting people that passed by his kiosk. I was dying laughing as I watched people look in all directions as if they were just punched in the face by a ghost. A stocking stuffer must have for all smartazz people, like myself, that enjoy watching strangers trip and such.
 
I've tried all that anti raccoon **** products out there and they didn't work for me so let me tell you what i did. I got myself some steel wire, some steaks, (wood), a timer and a neon sign transformer. I basically built an electric fence around my new pond. It works beautifully. Its on a timer at night and i've got a little blue light that turns on with the fence so i know when its on. It uses something like 10 000 volts at low amps, so it hurts like a mother ** but its not deadly to those koi eating bastards.
 
KING1307;4011980; said:
I've tried all that anti raccoon **** products out there and they didn't work for me so let me tell you what i did. I got myself some steel wire, some steaks, (wood), a timer and a neon sign transformer. I basically built an electric fence around my new pond. It works beautifully. Its on a timer at night and i've got a little blue light that turns on with the fence so i know when its on. It uses something like 10 000 volts at low amps, so it hurts like a mother ** but its not deadly to those koi eating bastards.
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http://www.canadianpondsonline.com/prod323.html
 
yeah only problem is that they cost like 200, 300 bucks, where as mine only cost me like 15
 
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