Discouraging the local wildlife from eating Wifey's koi

[Crossy]

We are building a pond for some koi SWMBO has been given.

Obviously, nice orange fish in (hopefully) clear water are an open invitation to all and sundry to come for a feast.

Any advice from pond owners to mitigate the lot being eaten?

Nets, fake herons, fake eagles?

Any and all thoughts welcomed.

[colinneil]

I have black netting over my fish tanks, keeps birds cats etc of them.

It might not look to pretty but it works.

Also mine are covered by cctv to keep the 2 legged thieves away.

[Crossy]

Yeah, colinneil, netting should be effective but I was hoping for something a little less obtrusive as these are supposed to be decorative beasties and we ought to be able to see them

Do the plastic decoys actually work? Or do they just attract more to the feast?

[laolover88]

We have some!

In my experience it is only the two-legged wild life you have to worry about. My mother in law put a sign on the gate: ระวัง. งูอันตราย.Beware.Dangerous Snakes. My wife said "Stupid. They will want to eat them too"

[Laughing Gravy]

Yeah, colinneil, netting should be effective but I was hoping for something a little less obtrusive as these are supposed to be decorative beasties and we ought to be able to see them

Do the plastic decoys actually work? Or do they just attract more to the feast?

Sadly they do not work and I have had my pons decimated. I concur that nets and alarms are the only 100% safe way.

[dick dasterdly]

I sympathise with the OP's problem as I have 2 small ponds, one in the patio (with various fish, including koi that have grown quite large now) and another in the garden that is basically a water lily pond, with only the hardy, little, red fish to eat mossie larvae.

The wading birds leave the patio pond alone, but I often see them flying away (when I approach) from the garden pond... Netting is no good for a lily pond as the flowers couldn't penetrate the netting, so I tried bamboo poles that were criss-crossed to make them unstable and therefore not a good perch. These work, but are v ugly...

Edit - Thinking about it, in your case it might be worth using netting until the Koi are too big for the wading birds? Also a good idea to provide hiding places where they can retreat until the birds have gone?

[Torrens54]

How about trying, FAKE Koi ?

[JAS21]

But you have your Spirit House watching over the pond ... that should work ...

[Mark123456]

You can buy clear mesh netting on eBay that looks like it would be very unobtrusive.

[Langsuan Man]

If concrete then only fill pond half way, the critters, normally cats, are very reluctant to try and reach the Koi's that are out of reach, and believe me the Kois don't come up to the surface to say hi to the predators

I know they come around at night since I have stone pebbles around the pond and every now and then one or two are at the bottom and stones don't fly

4 years now and haven't lost a single one

But a Koi pond dug in the ground with a slope will require a fence. I would try loose fitting fish netting that they might get tangled up in if trying to climb over

[CharlieH]

How about leaf netting....like this...:

http://www.watergarden.org/Pond-Info/Pond-Netting-Article

http://www.watergarden.org/Leaf-Netting

[JAS21]

How about a little criss cross wiring with an auto-reclose EL breaker .... LV of course...well fairly

[Freakin Musashi]

Your pond may not be deep enough. Lost some koi in this way.

[Crossy]

Your pond may not be deep enough. Lost some koi in this way.

Yeah, shouldn't be an issue as the pond is 1m deep with platforms for plant containers, I also put in a 1m length of 500mm sewer pipe laid horizontally as a refuge for the creatures to hide in if they feel threatened.

Hopefully the depth and refuge will be enough, we shall see.

Just starting up the bio filters, dropped a few middle sized tilapia in the pond to get the nitrogen cycle going before introducing the koi.

[samuijimmy]

Fishing line strung across (without the hooks ) !

[pigeonjake]

first.. your plants wont last, koi eat them, root out the roots,

we built a pagoda over our pond, at first put net over that untill the plants climb over it, gives natual shade too, can grow anything over it, in england i did the same and grew grape vines over it, as in the summer it gave shade with all the leaves but in winter let light in with no leaves,

it does look good crossy,

ill take some pics when i get back, im in scotland working at the moment,

i found that to be a good way mate

[Crossy]

The plants are doing fine, koi can't get into the containers.

The tilapia however were not a good idea, although they started the nitrogen cycle nicely two are now two thousand

[Mark123456]

Ammonium Chloride is much simpler for cycling, and kinder to fish.

[Crossy]

On 21/07/2016 at 7:03 AM, Mark123456 said:

Ammonium Chloride is much simpler for cycling, and kinder to fish.

Definitely, but the tilapia were considered "expendable" like many spies, and were rewarded for their risk by being spared a visit to the barbie.

They will return to the goose pond at the weekend at which point all bets are off on their appointment with the barbecue

Don't get me wrong, we didn't dump living creatures into a totally sterile pond with no micro-organisms etc. The initial fill (and two water changes before any fish were added) was filtered river water so already reasonably balanced and alive.

 

[JAS21]

Ammonium Chloride is much simpler for cycling, and kinder to fish.

Definitely, but the tilapia were considered "expendable" like many spies, and were rewarded for their risk by being spared a visit to the barbie.

They will return to the goose pond at the weekend at which point all bets are off on their appointment with the barbecue

Don't get me wrong, we didn't dump living creatures into a totally sterile pond with no micro-organisms etc. The initial fill (and two water changes before any fish were added) was filtered river water so already reasonably balanced and alive.

20160721_161729_adj.jpg

Is the water still a bit green and muddy ... and how did you get the purple paint off those plant holders

[Crossy]

JAS, the water is now clear, the particles that the rain deposited are now in the filter, can see right to the bottom, and the green tinge has all but gone (UV is on 12/24 now).

The purple paint was removed by visiting the plant shops in Bang Bua Thong by the Purple Line depot.