That really sucks, loosing a pet, or in your case many, is always a tragedy. Hopefully time and money will allow you to replace those that were lost and make new friends. Too bad you couldn't figure out a way to protect the pond. Maybe some sort of netting or something. Anyways good luck.

Sorry bout your loss. As Jarod says, I also think some type of netting would be the answer.

We had the same problem here, but ours was with rabbits. We have a small animal area with rabbits etc. Falcons and eagles grabbed them untill we put up the net. Now they are save.

Cheerz
Dave

I know the problem. living in a pretty rural area we have big problems with the Heron's depopulating the local ponds. I built my pond around 15 years ago, it's oval in shape, 10 feet long and 6 feet deep at it's center with a natural stone wall around it about a foot high. It has around 40 fish in there comprised mainly of Ghost Koi and a few goldfish the last neighbors sonated before they moved away plus some fish my brother caught when he was younger. the Heron tried for month's to get at the fish but the high stone wall prevents it from getting at them. I'm lucky in that respect, the design prevents the Heron from getting anything except bored! BUT a lot of theneighbors have ponds and aren't so lucky. one guy goes out at the end of each month and spends a fortune on fish, simply to replace the ones the heron has eaten over previous month.

Whilst you have a virtually empty pond it may be time to look at preventing the heron from getting the rest of them. I've built a few ponds in the intervening years and can offer advice if you like- i did'nt know you had fish or how much experience you have with them :D

Thanks for the comments guys. Netting would be something I'd like to avoid, as it would make the pond look more like a fortress than a natural object, and ruin it visually.

I've read from numerous sources that stringing some fishing wire around the edge is an effective deterrent. The herons are confused by the fact that they can't move close and go elsewhere. The irony is that I was planning on doing this yesterday, just never got around to it due to heavy rain.

My pond has rocks around the outside too (picture here), but that didn't seem to bother the Heron. I guess they aren't high enough, and there are gaps in places. Since the pond is surounded by the house wall in three of the four directions, herons don't have much of a landing area. The one I saw a few days ago actually landed at the very end of the garden and slowly walked towards the pond (taking a good 1/2 hour to get there, before I scared it off).

I've found a large plastic owl pretty efficient for a variety of bird-scaring purposes but many experts are pretty sniffy about it. You could try something that looks pretty interesting at http://www.koivision.co.uk/acatalog/Scarecrow.html

Good luck! :)

Sorry to hear about the loss of your fish. That's a very nice looking pond that you have, I'm sure you'll find a way to protect it.

Yeah my Uncle has an oriental garden with a koi pond and has several it's very nice. It's too bad about your fish maybe you can set something up to keep the Herons away

lol I'm going to buy something like that. Damn squirrels are my problem. May it will scare the poopie out of them. lol Hope so.

Sorry about that. :(

Sorry to hear of your loss Martin :(

btw that is one of the most beautiful ponds I have ever seen. Put up your tactical support and replenish that pond. You will have tame fish again :)

Damn that sux, sorry to hear that. my mother ahashs a small pond that she keeps koi in. They are very neat fish.

That was a very beautiful pond and a nice garden too!

Too bad you lost the fish just the day after you missed stringing the fishing wire. I know how sad it is especially when you miss your loved ones.

I hope you are thinking positive. Be happy for being able to live with your fish during the past 2 years - even without any protection from the Herons as well! And I hope you consider this as a lesson and proceed with adding good protection for pond. Make your beautiful pond a home to a new lucky bunch of fish. :)

All the Best,
McoreD

Well.. in the city where I live now, I don't have those troubles. Just the occasional attractive "wild life" paying her way through college as you pass down much of the city core. The NorthShore dwelling had plenty of fish and plant life. I sort of miss it, the fishy pond, but I'm glad to live in the city, its far easier to get around.

Crikey! :(

Maybe next time you can put smart tags on the fish so at least you would be able to track the heron and extract some revenge ;) :D

BTW - Nice place you got there :)

/JD

I strung the fishing wire yesterday. Today I woke up and one more fish was gone. It was one of the golden orfs. It's not a big loss compared with what happened yesterday, but it's very worying knowing that it managed to get anything despite my efforts. It looks like it stood on some long grass (as it looks slightly squashed) nearby the pond, in the one place I didn't have any wire.

Tonight I will set the fountain to turn on intermittently. I know it doesn't scare the heron (as I tried it before when I actually saw the heron approach, it thought absolutly nothing of the fountain turning on), but at least it won't be able to stand close without being rained upon, which might distract it.

When the house was built two years ago I wired several cameras around the garden and driveway. They were intended for security, but I never got around to ordering a 4 channel capture card, so only the one in the driveway was connected till now. I've switched this over to the garden for now, so if the heron comes back at least I'll know what it's tactics are (which side it tries to approach from, did it just happen to land in the one place without wire or was it persistant enough to look around the pond for a good place, etc).

I can tell you where it gets to the fish. you provided a perfect path for it to wade into the pond. It looks great by the way, stunning would be another word for it :D You need to have a sharp drop from the surrounding garden to the water, preferably vertical, and it needs to be at least 8 inches. The damn things are waders, they wade over rocky ground in the rivers and and streams to catch their food- thats probably why your pond attracts them (That and the fact they are greedy and eat whatever they can get their hands on!) If you get a sharp enough drop they are forced to sit alongside the pond and wait for a fish to swim within reach before they can strike, wich improves the chances of you seeing the damn thing and chasing it off.

If all else fails buy a dog! Cat's won't scare a heron, they are just too big. Six and a Half stone of English Bull terrier does the trick just fine :P

This is something to think about......
I went to good old Google.com and typed this in:
keeping+fish+safe+from+heron

What is below will be a rather good start. After reading some of this, you are not the only one with that problem. It seems as though the motioned sensors are the better way to go along with netting (which I would not want). They can be used with lights or water spray controlled by sensors as to the direction of attack.


http://www.aquatics-warehouse.co.uk/...ARERS_138.html

http://www.bindingstevens.com/Cant_B...smart_Them.htm

http://www.ponddoc.com/WhatsUpDoc/Pr...GreatBlue.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/PondSubWe...acclimfaqs.htm

[quote]
koi
Hi Robert,
A blue heron has just eaten 6 of my 13 koi & comets. I have since put a
net over the pond, but the fish won't come out of their houses I had
made for them. I am sure they are still frightened but am quite
concerned about them. They have not eaten in a week. Will they get
over the scare and swim around as before? They use to come to me as
soon as they saw me for food.
Thank you for any help,
Irene
<Yes, your fish will recover, but this will take a few more weeks to a couple of months... Do be vigilant about keeping the netting in place... and consider placing motion activated lighting and sound effects about the pond's exterior... Good luck, life. Bob Fenner>
QUOTE]

Good luck Zone

Thanks
Dudelive

hmmm you mention that you have the area wired....

What about installing a "HAL" system ...

(http://www.automatedliving.com/default.htm)

And setting sprinklers to auto spay when the birds come by?

Apparently these parts are very cheap on ebay btw

Or as previous suggestion, tag the fishies... with explosive devices B)

Sorry to hear this mate. I sugegst a really big donkey dog. let him wonder around there. hee hee hee hee.

i know what its like to loose a pet. My Favourite cat went missing 2 days ago. He never leaves home, but we have not seen him for a 2 days now.

We fearing the worst. gonna put some posters up today, hopefully someone found him. i seriously miss him. He was the coolest cat in the world.

A little update. The heron came back again for breakfast today (4:40 am). Thankfully it didn't manage to eat any of the fish.

It landed near the pond and walked around to a place where there wasn't any fishing wire. Since that place had relatively steep sides, it couldn't get into the water. I think the occasional fountain also helped a little.

It spent only 5 minutes here and then flew off. Not sure if something frightened it, or if it simply gave up. Either way I'm pretty certain it will be back, so I'll make sure that last segment is protected before I get more fish.

For those who are interested, I've uploaded the relevant part from the video caputer (sorry for the poor quality):

http://zone-mr.ath.cx/content/photos/house/Heron1.wmv

I watched the clip and (I know its a BAD idea but I would be tempted to shoot it) it seemed as though the fountain was irritating it. It would be as if really looking at something or about to do something and then here comes the water again. If the fountain don't bother the fish then an infra red sensor that sprayed water at it might work. Keep us posted as to the solution.

Thanks
Dudelive

Co2 BB gun or rifle. :)

I also watched the video and I don't really think the occasional fountain had any effect on the heron other than keeping your fish down which gave the heron no target to catch this time.

You could also use hobby rocket solar ignighters, pvc pipe and gun powder. Make a pipe bomb more for noise than anything and hook up a motion senor to it. Played with this stuff as a kid. The pvc pipe is not much of a problem since it don't restrict as much as regular metal pipe, therefore causes more noise than harm.

In all honesty Zone I think that it is time to switch species of fish .... at least for a while, you know and eye for an eye, type thing you will not have to worry about them Heron wading around in the pond for a while :crutch: , look how much you could save on food, motion dectors, explosives, etc. Plus the waters would churn when you came out to feed them. I have a little video that I attached sorry about the quality, it is called bad donkey fishys. :D :crutch:


if you are on a slow connection the fish in the video is a.....

[hide]pirana[/hide]


Zone now if you get a couple of theese fish can you also get an underwater video camera...




BTW I extend my deepest condolences on your loss.

Haha Phogphire, and as an added bonus I'd know how to dispose of annoying visitors :D

I've protected the pond quite well now, making sure there are no gaps in the wire, so it can't get access to it easily, and now I've re-purchased a lof of the fish. I bought quite a lot, but predominantly small ones (as they are cheaper, and if they survive they will grow quickly anyways).

So far I don't know how effective the protection is as I've had no visits from it for the past two days.

A friend of mine had several pirana and using nail clippers he cut off their lips so their teeth show all the time, not just during feeding. Really looked cool. B)

Nice video Phogphire. Are these yours? :P

@Zone - Glad to hear things are looking up and you have some replacement fish.

Oh well, had no heron four days after I installed the fishing wire properly, probably due to rain, so I didn't know how effective it was.

It came back yesterday. Tried to get past, and couldn't. It walked around for 20 mins, trying to find a way in, but couldn't, so it flew off. I was happy that the thing was working.

Woke up today to find it had eaten another fish. The video reveals that it ducked down and managed to walk under the wire (around 8 inches from the ground). Here's the fragment where it gets it's meal. Once it spotted the fish it flew accross the pond and picked up the fish mid-flight. As it tried to exit towards the side it flew straight into the wire, struggled a bit, but freed itsself and devoured the rest of the fish.

http://zone-mr.ath.cx/content/photos/house/Heron2.wmv

Grrrr... going to try and move the wire lower, and closer to the pond, and I'll also install an electric fence around the pond tonight. If that doesn't work I don't know what will.