Is this just a local thing or what? Tonight I talked to a Koi pond club about protecting their fish. ( Mainly from mink ) Our Koi ponds are becoming bigger and more expensive all the time. We are also getting more of them every year. Some of these ponds are absolutely beautiful and I can understand the owners not wanting to lose two thousand dollars worth of Koi to a ten dollar mink. Any of you guys getting these calls?

I used to get them in NC but mainly from the raccoons. I found that putting a large diameter PVC tube underwater gave them an escape route. They could build it into or under the rocks on the bottom somehow to make it more aesthetically pleasing. Not sure if that's your answer for a mink. I used to see a lot of people putting nets over them that were usually just ripped open.

Paul I asked some of the same question back in a 09 podcast .

Lot of money is invested by consumers who build them and look to our industry in help on preventing wildlife from making a gourmet of their fish ponds. We discussed techniques involved to protect them

Recorded April 23, 2009 Reginald Murray lead this discussion.

http://raccoonremoval.us/podcasts/protecting-koi-ponds-from-wildlife-birds-raccoons-otter-predators/

Coons and owls here

I've also seen Great Blue Herons stab the fish.

I didnt get called for it,but I was trapping beaver for an old couple and they told me that last year a mink killed all of their fish in the koi pond.They just never restocked for fear of losing money.

I had a client that lost two dozen large koi to at least one otter on less the 48 hours.

lol...Drambuie for breakfast?

Fixed it, typing in the dark. LOL

Had a real good raccoon job on account of a koi fish getting ate. The fella had the one fish 8 years and wasn't too happy about loosing fish.

I've had several customers that had problems with Blue Heron and raccoons. It's funny how the waterscape architect and installers forget to mention the possibility of predation.

It's coons here doing the carp killing ,I'm sure a mink would just kill every single one for something to do and then just eat the cray fish . Once again a electric fence would be the way I would go . Warning a electric fence would kill hawks and owls , blue herons at a single little poke so if that's the problem birds .I wouldnt use the 12 v powered cattle fence . Just run a net across when not in view use . Did you know that you can breed koi in your basement in a horse a troff . It's like how they breed golden shinners in arkansas . You place something in the tank or pond for them to lay there eggs on and remove and place in a different tank or pond after they have spawned on it . This way the adult koi don't eat the eggs and fry . Koi are bought and sold on eBay And you can run adds in your local paper . When bring in new koi you should keep them in a different tank till you know there healthy and won't spread stuff to your other fish . A friend of mine found that out the hard way and lost all his breeders . Yes fish get sick to . I didn't know they had koi clubs good job Paul spreading the good word .

Yep... shallow pond, big, fat, slow-moving fish that can't escape...what could go wrong???
And, Wink...there are clubs of koi owners?! Man, that's some thrilling topic!

Here is what everyone of those Koi pond owners that had mink trouble told me. They lost every single fish, no matter how large, and no one ever found any remains. Some scales and fins but no carcases or bones, I told all of them to buy trailcams. I want to know what the heck the mink do with hundreds of fish. Sell them to raccoons?

Hey Dave, it was a surprize to me too, but they all sure asked intelligent questions. They wanted to know every facet of our business and I talked and answered questions for an hour and a half. The owner of Aquatica ( They take care of all these Koi ponds ) wanted to write me a check because he was really pleased with way things went the entire evening. I said no check, just referrals. He said "Will you refer me too?" I told him he was the only one in that business that I knew so I didn't have much choice.

On the subject of mink...
I bid on a housing development, man-made lake for muskrats. Contact lady calls me back and says they can't decide whether it's mink or muskrats. I am not making this up.

Tell her you hope it's mink because you get $20 more for them. They'll turn back into muskrats real quick!

I recieved a call from a koi breeder the other day. He is having issues with hawks getting his fish. This guy has breeding ponds 50x200 ft by four foot deep and the hawks are catching them on the fly when on the surface. He said he had permits for every bird that eats fish except raptors. He wanted us to trap the hawks and relocate them. We advised him of the proceedures to file with the US Dept. Fish and Game for migratory bird predation. He averages four japanese koi per day averaging 2feet in length. Sure hope they can help him.

A two foot Koi will sell for between $300 and $7000. At that price, I would imagine the fine for killing the raptors would be a bargain. How come he can't get a permit? I know lots of guys that raise game birds who have got them. The thought also occured to me that netting would be a permanent fix. Our expensive ponds are all netted.

That's what I'm thinking. Screen over the top of his ponds and the problem is solved.

Seems to me that a brightly colored fish in a shallow pond will have a sort life cycle anyway.

What's the deal? do they not have hawks and coons in Japan?

Does anybody know if motion activated sprinklers will do anything for heron? No koi here, but lots of trout farms. Saw a female mink once that would catch her limit, and lay them all out in a row. When she was done fishing she would carry them one at a time to the woods. You could almost set your watch by her.

Paul,
He can get the permits for this its just a long process to get approval. He has a yearly permit for any birds that are not raptors. Raptors are a seperate permit and only issued for 2 weeks. We have access to a trap built to live catch hawks but can't use them with out the land owner filing for the permits. I told him that if he filed all the proper paperwork we would act as his agent. I tried to sell him on the netting over the ponds but he said the price to cover four ponds this size was cost prohibitive. I thought like you with average price per fish was 2000.00 and cost per net would be about 3,000.00. I would spring for the nets and watch the investment grow in saved breeders.

I was told that a Heron decoy worked for this unless its mating season. Something about herons staking claim to a pond. If one is already there others will fly over and keep going. I have not tried this personally but I can tell you that if one is at the pond on my property fly overs just keep going.

I've seen up to thirty herons leave a trout facility at various times of the year. Maybe if they only see one they figure there is not much to eat. Of course, grizzlies are solitary until the salmon spawn so a fish dinner can change things. If I reccomended a heron decoy I'm afraid I would get hung from a fence to scare herons!

Hey Andy, man I gotta tell you that the post about the mink laying out the fish and then carrying then to the woods is the absolute best piece of info I have gotten on " What the heck happens to the fish?" My customers have been asking that question over and over again. Thanks!

A buck mink one time caught four 1 1/2 pounders and had them laid out beside him on the metal grate he was hanging from by his back feet. Problem was it was about 5 below and his back feet froze to the grate. Must be a common trick for them, I always figured it was to get the most fish and get out as quick as possible, before the coons come.

I fixed my issues with thing getting in my koi pond. I just brought it inside lol.











now we can enloy it all year round.

That is one beautiful Koi pond, Dew! I'll bet you also have a high mounted vent fan to keep the moisture level down.

Here's a new combination, client with a leaking koi pond due to pocket gopher burrows. She didn't like the service call price I quoted but it ain't cheap to drive 60 miles one way that includes 10 miles of gravel road.

Dave, you'll get a kick out of this: we have one road that is three miles long and it is the only gravel road left in the county. About every four years the people on that road have to fight to keep it from being paved. Many are horse owners, all are rich, and many are customers. If I can drive slow, so can everybody else!

Paul,

I just heard some folks in a small village here (very affluent village) telling me the same thing, they like not having a county
or town maintained road because if it is made into a county road they will straighten it, cut down about 20 huge cottonwood trees
(something we in the desert value for some shade!) and speed up the folks in cars speeding passed their horse riding and dog walking!

Dave,

The p. gopher koi pond sounds like an interesting version of the p. gopher livestock impoundment situations. Bet when the water all runs
out their tunnels she'll re-evaluate the cost option!

I have lots of people who have p. gophers in their irrigated horse pasture and many of them never put 2 and 2 together to realize how much water
is heading out away from the roots and plants. I saw one where the gopher tunnels caused about 1/2 of their irrigated water to go under a dirt riding arena and end up in a ditch where nothing desired was growing and just end up wasted, till we discussed what was going on. Didn't even have major gopher populations, just enough to do the job and keep the tunnels open!

Justin

I would say about 15-20% of my driving is on gravel roads and I understand their wanting to keep it gravel. A gravel road is less traveled and is hoof friendlier than pavement. Our gravel roads get so washboarded I've had my truck go into a bounce that turned me sideways and I was only going 10MPH. I have what I call a rough road charge, it's not itemized on the bill but it is figured into the overall price. One road was so bad I had to have my doors readjusted by the body shop, it shook them loose.
Justin, our outdoor koi pond season is just about over, it snowed today. She's putting the house on the market so I'll bet it's one of those hidden problems that doeasn't make it to the disclosure statement.

I know what you mean about the washboard, when my wife and I met we lived and worked on a ranch in NE Utah. The roads were as you mention, you knew that any bolt or piece of gear not strapped down was likely vibrating its way off the vehicle! Let alone the slide outs in corners and such, as you say, very dangerous and take extra time just to drive down without your teeth rattling out!

I see some of those out here in NM, but most of our ranch roads its just washouts you have to watch, not too many gravel roads, more clay and sand, which presents its own issues!

The disclosure deal makes me laugh, I just finished a very tightrope style walk between a sellers agent and seller and the buyers agent and buyer about bats that were supposedly never noticed in the siding.

Where the seller went wrong, just a week before they took over the house and had the inspection done, she took a can of great stuff to that side of the house only to seal out the bats all over. The statement to me was "that foam is used commonly to seal out air leaks and insulate."

My response.... "c'mon now, if she did that for that purpose she better be able to explain to these folks or a judge why the other sides of the house with the same siding aren't foamed!



People are crazy!

For my ER (grab 'n go) jobs I charge based on time. After the last two, I'm thinking about starting the clock when I leave pavement.

Work like a charm for me! Also, for coon and other critters, too.