I'm sorry that happened to you. We lost a whole pond full of Koi, catfish and tilapia due to a red tide. I miss them so much! They were like pets to us. We fed them fish food every night.

Had the same issue, lost around 15 or so one week end. I was left with about 12, bought bird netting to completely cover the pond. hated the look up close but it slowed down the herons. We have green herons around here with a family. Had a young one sitting on the edge of our pool and our lab scared it into the pool. The bird freaked out but they as far as I know have not been back the rest of 2014. Had to make the netting nice and tight so they could not get under to go into the pond. Good luck, starting over with fish can be abit costly.

When I was a kid we had a goldfish pond and, fortunately, we never had a problem with herons. Now I live on a small farm. We don't have koi or gold fish. We have poultry, goats and sheep. To protect our animals we have Anatolian Shepherds. On more than one occasion I have watched one of our giant dogs intercept a hawk, on its way to a chicken dinner.

An Anatolian would not be a good guardian for a fish pond, as they are huge and need lots of space and challenge. I affectionately refer to my three as "My beloved barbarians." They have killed racoon, opposum, skunk, coyote and tangled with a black bear and cougar. However... I wonder if a different type of a dog, perhaps a Australian shepherd or something even smaller, might not help. I suppose it would take research, and one would have to decide if the work and investment were worth it. Just an idea.

George
Tahlequah, OK

We had one visit our pond about the same time. Our yard isn't very big but the pond takes up most of the yard. As soon as I saw it land my son and I went out with fishing line and crisscrossed the pond with it.
He might have been visiting before that and ate some of the babies but it was cold and the larger fish were close to the bottom.
He has landed several times but can't get close enough to get anything and it's a lot less unsightly than a net.

I have several dogs and they are not good deterrents for a blue heron. I would be concerned that a heron might harm a dog. The birds are big. They also like to raid a pond in the early morning when a dog might be sleeping.

Fishing line has worked for me. Heron like to walk into a pond to catch fish and they don't like it when they hit the line. Keep the line at least a foot off the ground and around the edges as well as crossing the middle.

I redesigned my pond last year and increased the depth to six feet. I'm hoping it makes "fishing" difficult for a heron.

I have friends who had the same problem a few years ago. They put up some 4' bamboo poles around the edge of their koi pond; then they ran line between the poles with colored streamers attached to the line. When there are visual obstructions like that, heron typically don't try to land as they realize it can interfere with taking back off. In the five years since they did this they have had no more heron attacks.

Same thing happened to me but the ones that were left have had babies over the past 3 years and if the cold has not taken them I can give you some 2-3 year olds. Mostly orange in color. Last spring I sold almost 100 of the small fry for $5.00 each to make room for the biggies. The biggies fooled me and by end of summer I saw more babies swimming. Are you in or near Lancaster Co. PA?

We live on a lake populated by GBHs and have a 3,000 gallon pond in the back yard. Several years back I noticed that our pond was being visited by GBHs. I lost a couple of fish even with the pond covered by leaf netting. (I found the fish, speared and laying on the pond's edge underneath the netting.) A few years ago I picked up a kitschy life sized GBH made of iron and rock at a garden show and placed it at the pond's edge. I've had no known GBH visits since. I can only surmise that GBHs now ignore the pond because one is already there, "fishing". Now my pond is only covered with netting for a couple of months when the leaves fall.

Heron are the reason I gave up koi.....they win every time. Some will put that bird netting into the water but I want to see water, not a net. My goldfish and shebunkins do fine hiding under the water lilly cinder blocks I put on their side to hold the lillies closer to the surface.