Will ducks eat my fish?

[Randy]

I just walked out to see two ducks in my pond. My godfish range from 6 to 8
inches. Should I be concerned?

TIA Randy

[Randy]

By the way, it's a male and female mallard
Randy
"Randy" > wrote in message
news:OOZgc.29713$yD1.79663@attbi_s54...
> I just walked out to see two ducks in my pond. My godfish range from 6 to
8
> inches. Should I be concerned?
>
> TIA Randy
>
>

[Randy]

By the way, it's a male and female mallard
Randy
"Randy" > wrote in message
news:OOZgc.29713$yD1.79663@attbi_s54...
> I just walked out to see two ducks in my pond. My godfish range from 6 to
8
> inches. Should I be concerned?
>
> TIA Randy
>
>

[really ka30p]

Randy wrote >>> I just walked out to see two ducks in my pond. My godfish range
from 6 to
8 inches. Should I be concerned?<<

Not really. They can eat fish but they aren't
very good at it and their diet doesn't require enough protein to take care of
all your fish.

The thing that ducks do contribute to a pond is massive amounts of duck poo -
way out of proportion to the amount of food they take in.
They can be heck on a filter and the water quality of a pond, the smaller the
pond the harder they are on it.

Usually harrassment will convince ducks to move on. Borrowing a friendly
labrador will do the trick too.


kathy :-)
(still use ka30p for email
this acct. is for reading rec.ponds only)

[really ka30p]

Randy wrote >>> I just walked out to see two ducks in my pond. My godfish range
from 6 to
8 inches. Should I be concerned?<<

Not really. They can eat fish but they aren't
very good at it and their diet doesn't require enough protein to take care of
all your fish.

The thing that ducks do contribute to a pond is massive amounts of duck poo -
way out of proportion to the amount of food they take in.
They can be heck on a filter and the water quality of a pond, the smaller the
pond the harder they are on it.

Usually harrassment will convince ducks to move on. Borrowing a friendly
labrador will do the trick too.


kathy :-)
(still use ka30p for email
this acct. is for reading rec.ponds only)

[Susan H. Simko]

Snooze wrote:

> Hell no, the neighborhood cats will not bother your duck, unless it is a
> duckling which you have just presented to your young daughter. Actually
> you will find the neighborhood cats will avoid close encounters with
> anything that looks like a duck. This is partly because cats dislike
> stepping in duck doo to get to their prey and partly because the duck
> thinks any passing cat must be its mother/sister/brother/mate. Even the
> staunchest Tom cat finds it unnerving to have to deal with this sort of
> thing and will generally go to extremes to avoid an embarrassing
> encounter.

My guess would be that the cats would run like hell in the opposite
direction. We have four fairly "aggressive" cats. I've seen the
littlest one take on a very large german shepherd and win without
ruffling her fur. However, a parrot scares the heck out of them. So do
the guinea pigs. It's particularly funny with the guinea pigs because
the cats will sneak up on them from behind but make startled two foot
jumps backward if the guniea pig turns around.

Susan
shsimko[@]duke[.]edu

[Susan H. Simko]

Snooze wrote:

> Hell no, the neighborhood cats will not bother your duck, unless it is a
> duckling which you have just presented to your young daughter. Actually
> you will find the neighborhood cats will avoid close encounters with
> anything that looks like a duck. This is partly because cats dislike
> stepping in duck doo to get to their prey and partly because the duck
> thinks any passing cat must be its mother/sister/brother/mate. Even the
> staunchest Tom cat finds it unnerving to have to deal with this sort of
> thing and will generally go to extremes to avoid an embarrassing
> encounter.

My guess would be that the cats would run like hell in the opposite
direction. We have four fairly "aggressive" cats. I've seen the
littlest one take on a very large german shepherd and win without
ruffling her fur. However, a parrot scares the heck out of them. So do
the guinea pigs. It's particularly funny with the guinea pigs because
the cats will sneak up on them from behind but make startled two foot
jumps backward if the guniea pig turns around.

Susan
shsimko[@]duke[.]edu

[BErney1014]

>Should I be concerned?

Mallards will and do eat small fish. They break off the fins and remove enough
scales to kill the larger fish. If the pond is deep enough the ducks don't have
a good chance grabbing fish. Scales are almost all calcium and you may notice
the female with more fish in her mouth.
I was hit early in the season when the water was cold and the fish slow. The
tails were chewed off ranchu to comets, it didn't matter what size pond. The
deeper the safer; 24" plus.
Last season when the water was lowered for cleaning, ducks ate every top
quality fry and killed the adults. It wasn't until I saw the female with a huge
ryukin in her mouth that I solved the mystery. The ducks were so tame I could
get within reach of their necks.

[BErney1014]

>Should I be concerned?

Mallards will and do eat small fish. They break off the fins and remove enough
scales to kill the larger fish. If the pond is deep enough the ducks don't have
a good chance grabbing fish. Scales are almost all calcium and you may notice
the female with more fish in her mouth.
I was hit early in the season when the water was cold and the fish slow. The
tails were chewed off ranchu to comets, it didn't matter what size pond. The
deeper the safer; 24" plus.
Last season when the water was lowered for cleaning, ducks ate every top
quality fry and killed the adults. It wasn't until I saw the female with a huge
ryukin in her mouth that I solved the mystery. The ducks were so tame I could
get within reach of their necks.