"Why are the fish disappearing?"

[BugLover]

Ok so I was asked this question; "why are my fish disappearing?" he said they are goldfish (not Koi) about 6 inches and they aren't finding any dead fish. They were in a pond in his backyard (he would feed them every day) and when he first tried to find out what was wrong he suspected blue heron, but he doesn't think that's the problem. any ideas what's wrong?

 

[Introvertebrate]

Unless they're being beamed up to the Enterprise, something's eating them.

 

[thalassarche]

Osprey is my guess.

 

[sally]

Raccoons?

 

[jrh3]

***** or birds

 

[jrh3]

do you have yard gnomes? at night they may be fishing them out and cooking a midnight snack, lol.

 

[Ntsees]

Where does he live? In rural or urban area? Also, what kind of goldfish does he keep (common, comet, lionhead, etc.) and how big is the pond?

 

[hibiscusmile]

yea, being beamed up and being eaten by something seeing you have dinner in the pond, any underground springs?

 

[aNisip]

Because of these...they eat all the goldfish (and bluegill and sunfish used to catch these bass)

 

[Coneja]

My first thought is, raccoon or heron. Especially if they're feeding them floating pellets, they associate any presence at the pond with food. If it was bad water quality or disease, they'd be finding bodies so I would guess some sort of predator. I would try making a refuge for them if herons aren't completely ruled out: either well planted or even milk crates on their sides at the bottom. If it's raccoons, I don't think they'll go away until they catch all the fish or the pond gets netted/protected. Over how long a period have they been disappearing?

Based on their size, I assume your friend is keeping commons, comets or shubunkins? (Non-fancy goldies?)

 

[jrh3]

hey andrew i found another, lol .

 

[Introvertebrate]

do you have yard gnomes? at night they may be fishing them out and cooking a midnight snack, lol.

You can't trust those plastic flamingos either.

 

[angelofdeathzz]

A well placed time-lapse security camera may shed some light on the mystery? But the ***** get my vote.