Something is taking bites out of the goldfish

Something is taking bites out of the goldfish in the pond. Two have
died and about half of the others have wounds.

We've emptied the pond and repotted all of the plants. We removed all
of the sludge when the pond was empty and sieved it to see if we could
find anything. We've washed and inspected the roots of all of the
floating plants.

We treat the pond with an anti-bacterial treatment and the fish recover
only to be bitten again. I suspected we had a big dragonfly nymph or
something but have been unable to find it.

We have about 15 goldfish from 4 to 8 inches long, one green tench
about 14 inches long and we found two frogs that we moved to the nature
pond down the garden. The pond is netted so that eliminates a Heron
attack but the fish aren't shy as they would be with a predator around.

We found hardly any of the normal bug type creatures we would expect in
a well established pond. This makes me think that something has eaten
all of them and has now started on the fish.

Any suggestions of the next step would be appreciated. We are in North
Yorkshire, UK.

--
Regards - Rodney Pont
The from address exists but is mostly dumped,
please send any emails to the address below
e-mail ngps07 (at) infohit (dot) fsnet (dot) co (dot) uk

"Rodney Pont" wrote in message
ividual.net...
Something is taking bites out of the goldfish in the pond. Two have
died and about half of the others have wounds.

We've emptied the pond and repotted all of the plants. We removed all
of the sludge when the pond was empty and sieved it to see if we could
find anything. We've washed and inspected the roots of all of the
floating plants.

We treat the pond with an anti-bacterial treatment and the fish recover
only to be bitten again. I suspected we had a big dragonfly nymph or
something but have been unable to find it.

We have about 15 goldfish from 4 to 8 inches long, one green tench
about 14 inches long and we found two frogs that we moved to the nature
pond down the garden. The pond is netted so that eliminates a Heron
attack but the fish aren't shy as they would be with a predator around.

We found hardly any of the normal bug type creatures we would expect in
a well established pond. This makes me think that something has eaten
all of them and has now started on the fish.

Any suggestions of the next step would be appreciated. We are in North
Yorkshire, UK.


Any chance that something is getting under the edge of the net like a pine
martin or a ferret?

On Fri, 26 Sep 2003 16:54:05 GMT, groovy wrote:

Any chance that something is getting under the edge of the net like a pine
martin or a ferret?

Thanks for the suggestion and yes, something could be getting in down
the streams.

I'd expect these to take the whole fish but they are small bites of
about a centimetre and I'd also expect the fish to be nervous but they
are coming up as usual.

--
Regards - Rodney Pont
The from address exists but is mostly dumped,
please send any emails to the address below
e-mail ngps07 (at) infohit (dot) fsnet (dot) co (dot) uk

"Rodney Pont" wrote:

Hello Rodney

Any chance that something is getting under the edge of the
net like a pine martin or a ferret?
RP Thanks for the suggestion and yes, something could be
RP getting in down the streams.

Or Mink? Real problem around here, thanks to the ALF releasing a load
in the 70's.

I would've thought they'd simply make the fish disappear wholesale
rather than in pieces though.

--
Simon Avery, Dartmoor, UK Ý http://www.digdilem.org/

On Fri, 26 Sep 2003 19:24:16 GMT, Simon Avery wrote:

Any chance that something is getting under the edge of the
net like a pine martin or a ferret?
RP Thanks for the suggestion and yes, something could be
RP getting in down the streams.

Or Mink? Real problem around here, thanks to the ALF releasing a load
in the 70's.

I would've thought they'd simply make the fish disappear wholesale
rather than in pieces though.

Again there isn't really any damage such as these sort of animals would
cause. I saw a picture of a Dragonfly nymph hanging onto a Stickleback
many years ago and it looks like this. These fish aren't big and my
idea that one is ambushing the fish and hanging on while it chews is
constant with the wounds. The two that died were small fish, one had
it's stomach eaten and the other had it's face eaten and they were
hemispherical wounds. There isn't the normal pondlife we used to have
either. We found one water beetle and three tiny slug like things less
than half a centimetre long. In the past the pond has been teeming with
waterlife and now there just isn't any.

--
Regards - Rodney Pont
The from address exists but is mostly dumped,
please send any emails to the address below
e-mail ngps07 (at) infohit (dot) fsnet (dot) co (dot) uk

"Rodney Pont" wrote:

Hello Rodney

Or Mink? Real problem around here, thanks to the ALF
releasing a load in the 70's. I would've thought they'd
simply make the fish disappear wholesale rather than in
pieces though.
RP Again there isn't really any damage such as these sort of
RP animals would cause. I saw a picture of a Dragonfly nymph
RP hanging onto a Stickleback many years ago and it looks like
RP this. These fish aren't big and my idea that one is
RP ambushing the fish and hanging on while it chews is constant

It's possible, but I wouldn't have thought particularly likely. More
some sort of bacterial thing, I'd have thought?

Had a bloody heron at my pond this morning. ++ungood.

--
Simon Avery, Dartmoor, UK Ý http://www.digdilem.org/