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 Can You Hear Me Now?
  
Location: When you hit the middle of nowhere .. Keep driving | I just bought 14 fish to put in my pond. I went with smaller fish (2 inches long tops and they would grow) so it wouldn't attract lots of raccoon or herons(we have quite a few). Well in 2 days I think the frogs have eaten them all! I have no dead fish in the bottom of the pond and haven't seen an animal the entire time. I want to try bigger fish but I can't cover the top of the pond because it's the horses water. Any ideas on how to make it all work? The pond is 3 feet deep at the deepest part, 4 feet wide and maybe 16 feet long right now. I did put plants in for cover as well on the side where the horses can't get to. Should I just go with bigger fish? I don't want to get rid of the frogs either... we have lots of bugs. |
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 Good Grief!
Posts: 6343
 
Location: Cap'n Joan Rotgut.....alberta | I bet it was birds...do u have herons or comries(u may have a diff name or i could have misspelt it)...they will wipe your fish out.....m |
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 Total Germophobe
Posts: 6437
Location: Montana | Racoons will try to eat fish too, I think. |
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Can You Hear Me Now?
Location: When you hit the middle of nowhere .. Keep driving | I haven't seen any of either but maybe. My barn cat's food is 50 feet from it and normally the raccoon will go for that first. Believe me my cat's are too fat they won't even hunt a mouse much less a fish; all they do is sleep on the deck with birds hopping around them. Herons are around but I normally just see them by the river quite a ways away. I went with smaller fish hoping they wouldn't get noticed. The only thing I am seeing a lot of is frogs... and the fish are smaller then them. I don't want to net the top of the pond but I am lost on what to do. I wanted the fish to help with algae. Bigger fish it is I guess, and maybe a net over 1/2 the pond... not spending as much this time either. |
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  Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | Birds |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | Snakes love eating little fish, that was my biggest problem was snakes eating my fish.. |
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 Undercover Amish Mafia Member
Posts: 9991
Location: Kansas | chupacabra |
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | hoofs_in_motion - 2015-06-02 1:58 PM chupacabra
Ha ha ha ha, its snakes I tell ya its snakes  |
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 Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | There are any number of birds that will swoop down on a small fish that gets too close to the top with no cover. ..and.. Snakes are one of the few things quick enough in water to catch one. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 596
Location: Somewhere in the middle of nowhere | Can you put rocks in the pond so they have places to hide from birds, predators etc...? What kind of fish did you get? |
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Expert
Posts: 1207
| Turtles.. |
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | I had Diamond Back water snakes that were eating all my baby catfish, when I would be feeding my fish those snakes would stalk my baby fish and take off with them I would be chasing the snakes all over the place to make them let go of my fish, the snakes would have to come onto the bank to eat the fish I would watch where they came up and run over there and beat the he** out of the snake so that it would let go of my fish.. |
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Sideways Riding Expert
Posts: 11371
Location: ND--it snows, it floods, it snows, it floods | Southtxponygirl - 2015-06-02 3:03 PM I had Diamond Back water snakes that were eating all my baby catfish, when I would be feeding my fish those snakes would stalk my baby fish and take off with them I would be chasing the snakes all over the place to make them let go of my fish, the snakes would have to come onto the bank to eat the fish I would watch where they came up and run over there and beat the he** out of the snake so that it would let go of my fish..
I don't know why but what I'm imagining right now is hilarious... |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1119
| docschic - 2015-06-02 3:07 PM Southtxponygirl - 2015-06-02 3:03 PM I had Diamond Back water snakes that were eating all my baby catfish, when I would be feeding my fish those snakes would stalk my baby fish and take off with them I would be chasing the snakes all over the place to make them let go of my fish, the snakes would have to come onto the bank to eat the fish I would watch where they came up and run over there and beat the he** out of the snake so that it would let go of my fish.. I don't know why but what I'm imagining right now is hilarious...
Haha, the mental picture of this is cracking me up! |
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | docschic - 2015-06-02 3:07 PM Southtxponygirl - 2015-06-02 3:03 PM I had Diamond Back water snakes that were eating all my baby catfish, when I would be feeding my fish those snakes would stalk my baby fish and take off with them I would be chasing the snakes all over the place to make them let go of my fish, the snakes would have to come onto the bank to eat the fish I would watch where they came up and run over there and beat the he** out of the snake so that it would let go of my fish.. I don't know why but what I'm imagining right now is hilarious...
I tell ya it was alot of work chasing those darn snakes, they are smart and when I would be running around my tank to get to the snake it would take off with the fish back into the water and to the other side and then I would have to run back to the other side trying to catch up with them, I would be carrying a paddle from the little boat we have out there and beat the snakes with it. I bet I looked like a crazy women out there betting the ground to someone that didnt know what I was doing at the time. One time a poor snake looked up at the paddle comeing down on it and it tryed to bite it, felt bad after I bashed its little head in to save my baby catfish, Later that evening my son went out and killed about 10 snakes with a 22. Now I have no snake problems, LOL. I do see one here are there but not like it was a few years ago. I have seen a Mexican Eagle flying off with a bigger catfish, or you can see where a coon had caught one and made a meal out of it.. |
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | MissouriJen - 2015-06-02 3:23 PM docschic - 2015-06-02 3:07 PM Southtxponygirl - 2015-06-02 3:03 PM I had Diamond Back water snakes that were eating all my baby catfish, when I would be feeding my fish those snakes would stalk my baby fish and take off with them I would be chasing the snakes all over the place to make them let go of my fish, the snakes would have to come onto the bank to eat the fish I would watch where they came up and run over there and beat the he** out of the snake so that it would let go of my fish.. I don't know why but what I'm imagining right now is hilarious...
Yepp I was the crazy lady taking care of those peskey snakes, LOL... I like my catfish, LOL can you tell, ha ha ha ha.. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 148
| That's so funny I can see it now.Don't mess with southtexasponygirls Catfish!!!!!! |
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Expert
Posts: 1561
| Thats the country version of "Get off my lawn!" |
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Veteran
Posts: 148
| Give them somewhere to hide might helpBirds snakes coons |
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Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | cwgrl777 - 2015-06-02 6:48 PM
Give them somewhere to hide might helpBirds snakes coons
Yeah. Focus on plant-life first... they need cover from predators and sunlight.. In some places the local extension agents can help you out with that and might be able to stock it for you too. |
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Can You Hear Me Now?
Location: When you hit the middle of nowhere .. Keep driving | I just got cheap goldfish for now because I was testing if they would live. I did buy a couple milfoil (I think it's called or something like it), lily pads and this big tuber thing and the one side has a ledge and rocks for them to hide under (The other side is where the horses drink). I picked up 8 more today and some extra netting for over the top of a good chunk of it. I want koi but am not buying koi until I have this all figured out... they want 15.00+ a small fish for them locally. The pond will eventually be bigger too with no horses drinking out of it when we get our automatic waters going again... it's all temporary.
Never thought of snakes though... I will have to keep my eye out for them buggers. Raccoon's are kill on sight here already. |
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Expert
Posts: 1226
| We had a hawk that would eat out Koi and goldfish. I finally caught him sitting on a rock by the pond. Sneaky bird |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 564
Location: Texas | We had a pair of otters come through one time and they completely wiped out the catfish we had in a small pond. |
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 Regular
Posts: 63
| I second the turtle comment. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 975
Location: The barn...where else? SW Missouri | Southtxponygirl - 2015-06-02 3:03 PM
I had Diamond Back water snakes that were eating all my baby catfish, when I would be feeding my fish those snakes would stalk my baby fish and take off with them I would be chasing the snakes all over the place to make them let go of my fish, the snakes would have to come onto the bank to eat the fish I would watch where they came up and run over there and beat the he** out of the snake so that it would let go of my fish..
Sorry bout your little fishies, but that visual made me laugh. Thank you, because I was needing a giggle today extremely bad.  |
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Veteran
Posts: 197
| I had a fish pond a few years ago, It was there for about 4 years. One day the fish started disappearing and the others would swim around crazy . I thought coons or my dogs or something. Then one day I found a snake under the rocks. It had a whole fish it had swallowed, you could see it. My daughter and I worked like an hour with rake and finally trapped and caught the snake. I later just filled in the fish pond. |
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 Damn Yankee
Posts: 12390
Location: Somewhere between raising hell and Amazing Grace | We have a resident bald eagle that fishes out of our pond :) |
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| If you have water frogs especially bullfrogs in your little pond .... it is the tadpoles eating your fish ... I was going to be a millionaire raising minnows as a kid and the bullfrog tadpoles put me out of business ... lol ..
Stick with goldfish ... they grow big and are cheap and no one can tell them from koi ... check around feed stores, tsc etc etc for a fish farm truck that comes in and will sell them and minnows by the pound ... I would buy a pound of each .. gold fish and minnows ... should run $20-30 ...
A school of goldfish in a big pond glistening in the sun is a pretty sight .. and to catch one now and then is a nice surprise ... they are like carp .. bottom feeders .
Look in bar ditches or a friends pond and go dig up some cattails and some of the green stemmy stuff for your water weeds ... take a hatchet along with a sharp shooter shovel .. some roots are tuff ...
Edited by BARRELHORSE USA 2015-06-04 11:48 PM
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Something's eating my pond fish...