My Poor Fish :(

Do you have Herons in the area Jacque.?? I hope Peaches survives. Best get some protection over them!

Hi Paul iv never seen a Heron around here but i do get 2 other cats who come & fed form My Own Cats Dishes ! I cleaned lots of Blanket Weed from My Pond Tuesday which made the Fishes Swimming & My Veiwing Easier,Maybe those cats have now seen them ? :/ Im off into Town Shortly & will be Buying Some Strong Netting & Stakes as i dont want to lose My Others ,I feel so Bad not haveing done this B4 :( BTW Peaches is Now up-rite & swimming about :)

Whist cats can catch fish from a pond it is far more likely to be a Heron.. fish can keep away from the edge of the pond and thus avoid a cat. Also you would probably have seen some evidence if a cat had caught them

Thanx MoonG i was thinking that as the Cut On Peaches is Long & Straight No Claw Marks ? :( Would a Herons beak of cut her MoonG? I cant see any Blood Or Bits of the other 3 any where ? :(

So sorry to hear your news Jacque :0( Just asked my sister if it could be Herons (she has a big pond of koi carp) she said yes they have has some of the koi taken from the pond by Herons and some injured with long straight gashes.

OMG :( Thanx Sue will netting still Help ? I feel so ill thinking of my Poor Fish dying this way :(

Sorry to hear of your loss Jacque.
Its almost certainy a heron thats taken your fish. I lost five fish last year the only day I left my net off the pond, "sods law". I only take the frame off now if we are having a bbq or am cleaning the pump out. It looks unsightly but it saves your precious fish.
Good luck.
PS I saw two Herons when I was on my way to work last Wednesday so they are about.

Thanx OBEs iv seen Herons in Different Areas Of Where i Live But Nothing Around Here,My Pond is Very Close to My House i didnt think a Heron Would come so Close :(

Hi Jacque ~
So sorry to read about your fish.
A real shock for you.
I hope Peaches recovers and that your other fish will be okay.
xxxxxxx

Jacque I'm so sorry, that must have come as a shock.

I've heard that herons need a large clear area to get up enough speed to take off, so gardens with lots of taller plants are less likely to suffer from predation. I know my friend hasn't had any problems and her garden has many barriers in the form of terraces and trees.

I hope you can prevent further visits.

You mention herons not wanting to come near a house Jacque but we have had one standing on our flat roof with people looking up at it and it didn't seem bothered, so i think they are quite brave and definitely very skilful when it comes to catching fish!

Jacque - it is always horrible when something like this happens, now sounds as if it was definitely heron... they are such amazing birds and only doing what nature intended them to do but that does not make it any easier. We gave up on fish as we did not want to net the pond and they were becoming regular Heron suppers.. Netting will prevent the heron from landing in the pond.

I have seen herons in the wild standing amongst rushes and other tall vegetation so I don't think that I would like to rely on tall plants to keep them away.
Sorry about your fish, Jacque.

I live in a busy town but see herons regularly. one gardener round here has a plastic heron, apparently its suppossed to discourage the real thing. It could be cats too. Years ago one of my cats cleared out a neighbours pond of everything, he just played with them, didnt try to eat them. Hope the rest of yours are ok

So sad about that Jacque. I have always had a net on mine for that very reason. I would be sad too, to lose any of my fish.

awww so sorry jacque about peaches and the poor fish that have gone,, they look so lovely,, yes get the netting on, herons around here to,

Aw poor Peaches, hope she survives Jacque, i have lost fish over the years i though mine was the cats as i did find one in the greenhouse once! but it had been mauled so i don't think yours is cats, more like herons as everyone else thinks, hope the net works upsetting isn't it, someone said to me 'well its only a fish!!' could have throttled him!!

Ho Jacque im so sorry for your fish, i've decided to get a bigger pond done but before i do i'll buy some netting, hope Peach will be alright.

Oh Jacque so sorry to here your news I have only just seen My coy carp after there winter hide a way but thankfully they are all counted for.
thionking of you \ann

Aww no your poor wee fishes. they look beautiful in your pics..being a bit of a bird freak I do agree with other comments that it sounds as if you have a heron stalking your pets. Hopefully your netting will do the trick and the birdy will go elsewhere for his dinner. Hope Peaches recovers ok. xx

:-(

have you heard of scarecrow? It's an infrared sensor controlled squirter that you hook up to a hose. mostly used for cats, i think (have been considering getting one for that purpose), but theoretically it should work for anything that comes into its sights. Which magazine did a survey and scarecrow came out on top.

You say you have your own cat so may be a non starter, and it costs around 50 squids, but if netting doesn't look nice could be worth a go. Would love to see footage if you did set it up!! You've been framed eat your heart out.

Hope Peaches pulls through.

Thats sad. the dummy heron is supposed to work as herons tend to fish solitarily [?] on their own. when they see another they move on to an other area. well thats what the books say.

I,m so sorry Jacque that is sad news ... we had a large pond before we moved here and a Heron took a lot of the fish... we had what you would call a trip wire round the pond but we then noticed that it was swooping in at approx. the same time each evening and still managed to get some before we put a net over it ..
I hope your Peaches recovers , poor little thing .. :o(

Whatever you decide to do to prevent further losses, I wish you the very best of luck and I hope that Peaches survives.

I am so sorry to read this, Jacque. I know how proud you are of your fish. You will have to net the pond, I'm sure, as the heron will be back for more if you don't.

Poor Peaches. What a shock!

So sorry to hear about your fish My brother keeps fish he has some sort of devise to scare thigs away. Not really sure what it does but it seems to work

Hi Jacque ~ Dee had put netting over the pond. This seems to be working so far good luck!

Oh dear!! I do hope Peaches is alright.
Kloba's suggestion of the "Scarecrow" is a good one. They are motion activated and send out a stream of water when anything moves in their "sight" line. This has the effect of scaring away whatever sets it off. However, I don't know about over there but here in Canada they are close to $100.
Good luck in solving the Heron problem. :o)

Its got to be netting Jacque and hopefully you can get a dummy heron they work well, on the chance that it was cats raise the netting well above paw depth. sorry that happened jacque

Have you found out what happened yet Jacque ? I'm glad you still have some fish that are not affected.

Morning & Thanx for so Many Comments,Help & Well Wishes 4 My Peaches :D Want 2 say Peaches is still with us & is being treated with A Wound Cure for Fish :) Ponds All Netted & Safe Now so its all ok :) Many Thanx again 2 one & All xxx

That's encouraging to know Peaches is doing well.
Is the wound cure a cream or a liquid ?

Sounds like you've done a good job of netting the ponds.
Well done Jacque :o)

Thanx TT its a Liquid which will help her heel quicker & stop infections :) All the others seem much better this morning 2 all swimming around happyly :)

I feel for you Jacque. Please try not to feel guilty, after all these years you wouldnt be expecting this. Fingers crossed for Peaches ... The heron hunts at first light, I've been told, how sad :-(

Pleased to know all fish are happy today Jacque. :o)

Glad to hear Peaches is on the mend, Jacque. Hope she recovers fully, poor thing.

Thanx every 1 for being so kind & Caring its nice to have some advice & help in making me feel better :) X

Sorry missed this on friday Jacque , glad your fish seem to have survived think nets the best answer .

Hi BB Pond is all Netted Now & Has 3 new Members that Phil got me saturday to cheer me up from Losing the Others il post their pics tomorrow :)

Look forward to that Jacque - sadly natures way lovely to see a heron in a river but not in your pond . A sparrowhawk
in the woods but not in your garden...

So True BB :)

Ah, Jac - so sorry for your fishes :-( Does sound like a heron if it left a long slash on your fish. Peaches will certainly have some stories to tell the new ones - hopefully they will listen to her and stay down deep!

Thanx Sarah im sure Peaches will Keep them all sfae & well now with the Help of my New Net 2 :) She`l be left with a scare but who cares about that shes still with us & thats the main thing :)

Peaches is one lucky fish :-) And she has a lovely Mum to care for her.

Hi Dawn thanx for the lovely comment :D U can see poor Peaches wound in the Pic of her with the new Fan tail Fish , I brought a Liquid called Propolis which cost £10.30 for just 50ml ! Its real good stuff & seals the wound while relaseing a Antibiotic Treatment 2 stop Infection:) Its also for Fish Ulcers ! I had to dry her Cut well b4 putting it on & it turns white when shes in water but when i put it on it was a Brown colour ? :)

Hi J, well Peaches may be 10 years old but she certainly did well to dodge the heron. I've heard that they stab the bigger fish with that long beak they have, horrible isnt it. So pleased you treated her wound so timely - imagine if you'd been on holiday :-( They are all safe now under your net :-)

Goodness i dont want to even go there Dawn :( Im so glad i was up early 2 see & Save Peaches @ least :)

Got my fingers xx for Peaches Jacque,pleased you have the net in place............

: )