Fish pond some fish have been eaten but heads remain in pond

Poppycat

MIL has a very large fish pond with fish in it, large goldfish, the pond has a large wooden frame around it and across with thick metal wire protected with plastic.

Anyhow the last few days she has found fish heads floating in the pond. obviously some pest has managed to get at them, its a recent problem.

Theres a small gap in the pond where pipes flow water in, she reckons it could be a otter. Could it be anything else, I know you get Herons but are they capable of getting the fish given the wire. We got some more chicken wire to go over for now, but I dont think we have enough.

It would be good to know what it is, we did however noticed a large dropping near the pond which is about size of a cat dropping but its not cat at all as we have one and doesnt have the same texture, its rather black and squashed

Thanks

alanobrien

Unlikely to be a heron, they usually wade in the water for feeding and swallow the fish whole.

Its an odd one, most likely a water predator given the heads are left, any mink in your area ?

Poppycat

Hi never heard of mink in the area its on outskirts of town but I suppose they may be present, she lost another one today. We got some chicken wire which we are going to try

tieg3

I could possibly be otters, does MIL lives near a river?
My nan and gramp cover their pond with green plastic netty stuff (like what oranges come in)that seems to keep everything off as they did have trouble with heron's.

It's called pea netting

I suppose animals cant stand on it as its not very stable like chicken wire would be

Poppycat

She lives about 15 minutes walk away to a river but the river is near the main road into our town

tieg3

lol you beat me to it:D

I've edited to say its called pea netting
They've not had a single problem with their pond since using it

Poppycat

She got some netting today think its pea netting that you use over strawberrys but she took it back to shop and we got some metal chicken wire

tieg3

I've just found this site which is quite helpful
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=493
According to it foxes also eat fish from ponds

tincanali48

Tieg3 may be on the right tracks it could well be a fox. I have kept fish in ponds for 40 years and never experienced such a thing but it would not be beyond possibility.

ixwood

Interesting case.... I'll go with Otter!

It sounds like it'll be back anyway.

smoky_joe

we had 40 fish in our pond 6 years ago and we have had to add fish 3 times as they keep geting eaten we where totaly stumped untill one morning we herd a comotion down in the water and to our delight we witnesed 4 otters fleeing the pond so my guess would also be otters