Any fish-keepers out there?
For many years I have had goldfish, and other fish, in my garden pond but about six weeks ago something happened that I can't explain even after 40 years of fish keeping. Has any knowledgeable fish-keeper got any suggestions?
Each day I would feed my five fish and they would come to the surface for food quite readily then, about six weeks ago there was no sign of them. The water is very clear and there was not much weed growth yet so they are usually very easy to see. I get visits from herons and the neighbour's marauding cats from time to time and, when this happens, the fish head for cover under some purpose made underwater shelters. After about a day they will venture out again, but not this time. There was no sign of them at all. No food was being eaten so I naturally stopped feeding them assuming that they had been got by the heron or cats. I could not believe, though, that anything would get all five in one visit but they just weren't there anymore - until about a week ago.
Walking past the pond I saw one fish. By the time I had gone and told my wife and returned to the pond there was no sign of it. Two days later I briefly saw three, but again they disappeared. I have started feeding them again but most if not all the food remained untouched so for about five weeks they have not eaten anything other than possibly natural food in the pond and have remained hidden for this very long period.
I put a small amount of food in yesterday and it remained untouched during the day although there was no sign of it this morning so possibly they are venturing out at night.
Can anyone suggest a reason for this mystery?
Comments
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Herons are sneaky
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My fish also disappear on occasions or rather should I say become shy now and again. I have been putting this down to something scaring them but I am not so sure. I have had herons pinch fish in the past and maurauding cats sometimes visit my garden. I have detered these with an electric fence around the pond but while I don't lose fish anymore they have recently been exhibiting periods of shyness again. I am wondering if it is the down to the wild swings in temperature we have been experiencing. When its cold they do tend to become sluggish and hide in the deeper water among the weeds and eat very little if anything. Mine is a small pond and may well be effected by these swings much more than say a larger pond. I'm leaning towards temperature changes.
peedee
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We have quite a large pond - about 30,000 litres with about 30 goldfish / shubunkins etc in it. They do disappear in the winter - down to the bottom which is over 2m deep, but at the moment, they are very active near to the surface. I have lost a couple to Mr Heron in the past but, thankfully, he seems to have given up on his visits for the time being. Although we do have cats next door, they don't seem to be a problem and I doubt that they could get at them anyway, because of the design of the pond.
When we first moved here, I stocked the pond with fish from the local garden centre and they didn't last long before succumbing to disease so I re-stocked (by mail-order!) from a UK company specialising in pond fish and for the last five years they have absolutely thrived and due to their breeding activity I now have far more than I bought -including some jet-black ones which I have never seen before.
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We have had both a total loss to the local heron and also fish that go out of sight. The pond is now netted to stop the former. A neighbour also had an otter visit, the fish bones were laid out around the edge of his pond. Hope you see your fish again. 🐟🐠🐡
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Thanks for everyone's comments. Latest update, yesterday I very briefly saw four of the five, if there are still five remaining.
Last year I lost 13 fish in total including quite a large ghost carp. This was whilst we were away on holiday when we entrusted the feeding and care to a relative. The very hot weather meant a severe lack of oxygen but the relative didn't phone me to ask what to do when the fish started to die. She netted some of the corpses out and put them in a bucket in the garden shed. The stink in the very warm shed when we returned from holiday was dreadful. Needless to say that particular relative won't be entrusted with them again!
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We have a small pond with about 8 fish (small) and also red Crested Newts (all inherited when we moved in). We were sitting in the garden last year and we were amazed to watch a Blackbird catch, kill and eat one the the newts, never thought Blackbirds would do that, we could not believe it. There is a shallow part at the end and the birds use it as a bath and get the clay for nesting, we think that is how the blackbird found the newts and also they may have taken some of the fish.
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JohnM20 sounds like a heron attack. We’ve had the same thing happen in our pond. We saw the heron early one morning and scared it off. We didn’t see any fish for weeks and as we had plans to relocate the pond, we were about to go ahead and empty it, only to find most of the fish still very much alive and swimming about. It just takes time to get their confidence back.
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Lost all my fish to a heron a couple of years ago and it sat in the field,just over the wall digesting them!So re stocked the pond and covered it with a net.Came home from weekly shop today and a heron was sitting on the net!!!it hopped over the wall and sat in the field for an hour.2 hours later it returned!!!So I "had a word with it and it flew to the middle of the field sitting there for a good 1/2 hour before taking off again.I would post a couple of photos if it was not for the size restriction on here!
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up-date......the heron has been back a few times (including 5.30am today.)It came back again at 10am and sat in the field.....one of the cows spotted it and ran towards it...when the cow came close the heron took off and flew 50 yds or so and landed again,said cow ran at it again and the heron flew away! absolutely brilliant to watch!!!
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Get yourself a cow!
Seriously, I have had pond fish for years, they disapear and go off feeding while they are spawning, that's also the reason for the black fish, that's what colour they are when they hatch, they turn gold/silver at about two years old.
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This morning it was on the garden wall and then flew to sit on top of a tree 100 yards away.It was then attacked by 2 gulls who chased it away.So....if you have a pond with fish and a visiting heron you need cows and gulls to keep it away!
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Unfortunately Herons don't give up until they have cleared a pond. At one house we lived at we came home late one night it was dark and we put the patio light on to check the pond and spotted a heron roosting in a tree in the playing field next door, in line with the pond, waiting to have an early morning breakfast
At the home we have now we have been cleared of fish by the Heron several times and also had a Little Egret visit, Reluctantly I decided enough was enough and I wasn't going to keep buying fish to feed the Heron, we left the pond as a wildlife pond for a while but it sprang a leak so we took it out and didn't replace it, I do miss having a pond and fish though, I used to enjoy watching the dragonfly and hawker larvae hatching and flying, also the newts and frogs..0 -
Our pond is now just for any wildlife that needs a home or a birdbath ,
Today I have been watching a large red Damsel fly laying eggs in the pond on the plants, it was being watched by two frogs,
When clearing "duckweed off last week managed to get a newt in the net
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Had a leak back awhile, had to allow water to drain out enough to repair. Finished up with forty odd gold/silver fish, (all have bred in pond), & over 100 newts in large buckets! completely emptied pond, cleaned the silt out, (cabbages now growing in it), found the leak and repaired it. As the newts climbed out of the buckets, it was a full time job stopping the blackbirds taking them for food, we got most of them back in the pond while it was re-filling, (with saved water and all the water from our 6 x 200 litre barrels) topped up with mains water! Lovely to see it full and hear it when the pump is running. Nice sitting outside with a glass of ????, while we're locked down!
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About 14 years ago I installed an automatic watering system to water the greenhouse, some staging outside, a raised bed with various small trees and various pot plants. I also added two 4mm feeds to the pond. One is on all the time that the system runs and the other has an on/off valve. From late march until probably october at least the system is set to come on for two 20min sessions 7am and 7pm. Usually just have the one feed running and whilst my neighbours pond has dropped around 2'' over 5 days to a week (maybe less) ours had dropped hardly at all with the one feed. When we go away July for 6 or 7 weeks I turn on the second feed, and even in a hot summer it keeps up with evaporation. Our pond is about 44 square feet.
No big digs when I fitted the system (unlike the pond). I ran the 13mm feed under some flags and then under the lawn along with tee offs. except where I needed to fit tees I put a spade in to near full depth and levered over to leave a slot (might have put another spade back to back) when the pipework was in I simply levelled out with the back of a spade. where the pipe junctions to 4mm were made I used an angle to bring the pipe above ground. No more pots of dead plants.
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Following previous heron raids our pond is now totally dedicated to wildlife. There are several strategies you can adopt to limit predation of fish from garden ponds though. Yes, many include providing hiding places and depth in the pond to prevent stalking herons and egrets enjoying snacking on your pets but this means the ornamental fish are far less obvious and observable. Latterly, after what seemed like a total wipeout we only stocked native rather inconspicuous breeds like rudd, roach and sticklebacks, the latter appearing of their own accord somehow, maybe the moorhens assisted, I don’t know. We did acquire these fish from a farmer whose pond dried during a drought period but I’m not absolutely sure that rescuing and transferring fish in this way was totally legal. They were going to die though and we saved them in ignorance of the law.
Not particularly showy species any of our fish but patience and a love of nature still makes for interesting observations throughout the year. They, the fish, have since spawned as do the amphibians and somehow a natural balance has been maintained. Strangely one fantail must have survived and added to the gene pool as several of those cyprinids now inhabiting the pond have rather elaborate and elongated tails. We also delight in the life cycle of both dragon and damselflies. I’m sure their nymphs predate some of the fish fry but hey, that’s nature. What’s more we love it, I’d love to think we could transplant some of our fish back to their original home in future years but that unintentional crossbreeding and the associated legalities may preclude us in doing so.0
