Knowing how to protect goldfish, koi and other pond fish from herons will save you a lot of frustration and anger. Today two great blue herons decided to take a little walk into my pond and ate my goldfish for a snack or two.
It’s unsure how many goldfish or other pond fish these herons ate but let me tell you they are smart.
Pond predators are pond owners worst nightmare and this was mine today. Now I am going to have to fix up the pond protection I currently have from herons and other pond predators and raise the pond netting.
What these great blue herons did was walked right on top of the pond netting and sank the net in the water. This created like a fish net that easily caught the goldfish, koi and other types of fish I currently have in the pond. If it didn’t catch them the herons still had a chance to eat the goldfish and injure larger ones that couldn’t fit through the holes of the pond netting. As soon as I noticed at my front window I banged on it and it scared off the herons.
I went outside to notice at least one fish fatality which was a big koi. The koi was on top of the pond netting. I have a very large pond so I have two pond nets to protect the fish. The first one sank into the water and the koi fish swam on top of the netting and the heron poked a hole in him killing the fish. It was one of my favourite large koi that I had in my pond. I am quite disappointed and have fixed my pond so that this type of situation won’t happen again.
What people can do to protect goldfish and pond fish from herons is raise your pond netting so its not flush or within 6 inches above the water. I know many people don’t like to take away from the look and beauty of their pond with netting but if you don’t sooner or later a heron will stop by your place. What I did was cut up some 2 x 4’s and made them 24 inches long and pounded them in the ground with a mallet. Then I hooked up my pond netting on top and made it nice and tight. Herons won’t land on it and even if they did it won’t sink it into the water. Now I can be rest assured this won’t happen again.
If your looking for ways to protect goldfish, koi and other pond fish from herons and plan on using pond netting make sure to raise it. If not you might experience the same situation as me.
To learn more about protecting pond fish from predators like the great blue heron visit the following link:
Sincerely,
Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy
“Helping Goldfish Owners With Advice, Fish Care and Fish Medication Treatments for Goldfish Diseases, Illnesses and Parasites”
Other Blog Posts: