Koi & Herons

[mark4785]

Hello,

After feeding my fish today it came to my attention that a smaller Koi in the pond (about 11cm long) has not been coming up for food for the last 4-5 days. It was a pure orange coloured Koi and it was beginning to show signs of maturation in that certain blobs of colour were beginning to appear. It always used to appear at the surface with the rest of the shoal and had a good appetite. As I say, for the past 4-5 days it hasn't been coming to the surface which is very uncharacteristic of it.

Unfortunately, the pond does have a bit of green water so I can't determine whether it's sick or has took to eating food at the base of the pond. I know fish can eat algae but this is attached all around the pond (on the base and walls) so I see no reason why it would stay at the base to eat it. I have looked all around the garden and underneath the decking to see if it has jumped out and died somewhere on land but there is no sign of it.

The only place it could be, and which I think is 0.1% likely, is that it has found some source of food at the base and wishes to stay there. I know fish can also become lethargic and come away from the shoal if they have some sort of parasitic infection which would explain him/her being at the bottom of the pond but my water stats are absolutely perfect so the fish are not as susceptible to illness.

Water Stats
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
PH: 8.2

Me and my family live in a surburban area on the outskirts of Chesterfield town. Our pond is 1400 litres and we live about 1 mile from woodland containing two ponds where you'd expect to see Herons. I find it shocking that something like an Heron could have landed in a small 60-80 feet by 40 feet garden and took a fish out of my pond. How likely is this to happen and would it only take the one fish?

Any feedback appreciated,

Mark.

 

[Tavares100]

Its highly likely a heron has taken your fish, its also likely if it has it will return for more.

Get yourself a net to cover the pond, this will keep the heron out and stop the fish jumping out.
I know its not the most attractive of things but will give you some peace of mind.

Just to add something else it could be a cat, fox or simular that had removed the fish. Again a net will help.

Might be worth joining a more pond based forum too

www.pond-life.me.uk

 

[mark4785]

Its highly likely a heron has taken your fish, its also likely if it has it will return for more.

Get yourself a net to cover the pond, this will keep the heron out and stop the fish jumping out.
I know its not the most attractive of things but will give you some peace of mind.

Just to add something else it could be a cat, fox or simular that had removed the fish. Again a net will help.

Might be worth joining a more pond based forum too

www.pond-life.me.uk

Thanks for the reply.

We have placed a net over the entire pond, and yes, like you said, its unattractive/ugly and its applying weight on our plants which are in floating pond baskets. We tried to cut the netting that was above the plants but this causes the whole net to lose it's strength and it drops into the water.

We have a female cat named Emily. She never bothers the fish and if in the unlikely event she'd tried to hook a fish out, she would have brought it into the house like she does with the birds and mice. A fox cannot enter our land due to fencing.

Thanks for the URL; I will see if I can get some more information about Herons from there.

Mark.

 

[macdonald20]

we've lost a few fish to heron. we actually went to a shop specializing in koi and ponds and bought a fake heron. supposedly heron are territorial and won't come around if they see another one. you have to keep moving it though, or they will figure out that it's not real.

 

[Carp4U]

we've lost a few fish to heron. we actually went to a shop specializing in koi and ponds and bought a fake heron. supposedly heron are territorial and won't come around if they see another one. you have to keep moving it though, or they will figure out that it's not real.

I've heard those plastic herons don't work, and can even attract herons because they think there's a mate there offering them a meal.
Get a net, or one of those awesome motion-sensors water jets..
I've just lost over half of my fish to a heron, my biggest koi- about 20 cm disappeared then the next morning I saw it with my other koi carp same size flapping on the rocks so I scared it away and put it back, it's ok I think, if I'd stayed in bed longer it would have killed that like the other 4-5 it killed that morning. There was blood splattered on the rocks near the pond- presume the heron hammers the fish against the rocks to kill them?

 

[mark4785]

we've lost a few fish to heron. we actually went to a shop specializing in koi and ponds and bought a fake heron. supposedly heron are territorial and won't come around if they see another one. you have to keep moving it though, or they will figure out that it's not real.

I've heard those plastic herons don't work, and can even attract herons because they think there's a mate there offering them a meal.
Get a net, or one of those awesome motion-sensors water jets..
I've just lost over half of my fish to a heron, my biggest koi- about 20 cm disappeared then the next morning I saw it with my other koi carp same size flapping on the rocks so I scared it away and put it back, it's ok I think, if I'd stayed in bed longer it would have killed that like the other 4-5 it killed that morning. There was blood splattered on the rocks near the pond- presume the heron hammers the fish against the rocks to kill them?

I too have the same opinion about those plastic herons; they look cheap and can make the situation even worse by attracting real herons.

When I went on holiday to the isle of Jersey earlier this year I witnessed Seagulls dropping shells from a significant height to try and break them open; I've only once seen an heron once when I was about 7 years old so I couldn't comment on whether or not they are intelligent to know that dropping things from a certain height serves a beneficial purpose.