[bubbles1]

okay so i have a150 gallon backyard pond circular, clean full of various pond plants and rock (when setup) right now it still has ice , i had goldfish but right before if froze, but raccons decided to eat 6 of my 8 goldfish, which was some shubunkin and comets, which we tried to keep our pond unfrozen during the winter but the pump froze and the ice went to the bottom and froze the goldfish over the winter ;(. i decided to put this thread here instead of ponds because i wanted to know about putting tropical fish in my pond during the summer? i had like a group of platies, swords and mollies one year, that bred like rabbits which was pretty cool but i cant do anything with them so i brought them in and kept them in tanks and sold them eventually, but i was wondering if anything else can be kept in ponds during the summer? like cichlids maybe? central americans? i have alot of mbuna fry has anyone tried putting them in a pond to grow out? or maybe breeding bettas in a pond? im just curious on what people have tried in their ponds other than goldfish...

any suggestions? thanks for all help

 

[nicolaas]

White clouds and guppys would do well.(I have not done this but my nephew has guppys in his shallow pond all year rond but South Africa is not as cold as Canada)

 

[Byron]

Without some form of emergency heating, this might not work for most fish. The guppy and white clouds mentioned would be fine. It can get cool during the night normally.

You will have the same problem with raccoon though, whatever the fish. Especially if they know that they caught fish in this pond before, they will be back year after year. I had to give up on goldfish in my pond solely because the raccoon would not leave them alone. I left them in overwinter, as the surface froze but not below. They even spawned, several times, and I had the fry overwinter fine. But not after the raccoon found the pond.

It is unbelievable how much destruction a couple of raccoon can inflict on the surrounding garden and the pond itself if they even think fish might be present. One night they pulled out the filter, which was heavy enough that I had to use both hands to lift it, and pulled it completely apart; the filter pads were chewed into small pieces and scattered all over the yard, the PVC tubing was taken apart and I found bits everywhere, the filter media was scattered for yards... unbelievable.

Byron.

 

[jentralala]

That's odd...I live in FL and we have raccoons everywhere, and when we had our deep ponds we never had much of a problem. The only thing they bothered were baby turtles. We even had a "pet" raccoon (part of a rehab program but she ended up being blind, couldn't be release)' and we let her play in the pond. All she ever did was scrape ramshorns off the side t eat and munched on string algae off the waterfall

I guess Canadian raccoons are a bit more ravenous, haha.

What about having lots of floating plants to deter them a bit? You could even put a metal screen/'cage' over the pond at night (something heavy or weighted down) to keep them out, and pull it off when you wake up. Let's light in, but nothing else

Just an idea!

 

[Byron]

That's odd...I live in FL and we have raccoons everywhere, and when we had our deep ponds we never had much of a problem. The only thing they bothered were baby turtles. We even had a "pet" raccoon (part of a rehab program but she ended up being blind, couldn't be release)' and we let her play in the pond. All she ever did was scrape ramshorns off the side t eat and munched on string algae off the waterfall

I guess Canadian raccoons are a bit more ravenous, haha.

What about having lots of floating plants to deter them a bit? You could even put a metal screen/'cage' over the pond at night (something heavy or weighted down) to keep them out, and pull it off when you wake up. Let's light in, but nothing else

Just an idea!

The pond depth is important; my small pond is only about 15-18 inches deep, it is one of those pre-formed ones, holds 120 gallons. The racoon can easily stand on the bottom and still have their heads above water. I was told that if they cannot do this, they will stay out of the deeper water. So a pond that is say 2 feet depth would deter them from entering.

The floating plants didn't work; I had a full cover of water hyancinth which they ate ravenously; the water lettuce was I suppose less palatable, but still got chewed up a lot.:roll:

Screens they will chew through quickly; it would have to be the strength of chain link fencing. The only real deterent--aside from sitting on the back porch with a gun at night, as one of my friends suggested--is an electric fence. But this is rather cumbersome in one's garden. But if they shock their nose on the fence, they apparently will not come back. I have managed to knock them out of a tree, with a stick and with a water jet; they are back the next night, even nastier, to get back at me.

I was watching a show on National Geographic or something similar about raccoon a while back. The intelligence and determination of these critters is astounding. The narrator went through how fast a raccoon will learn something in a new situation, like how to get into a garbage bin that is supposedly animal-proof. In a matter of minutes they learn how to unhinge a garbage bin easily.

Byron.

 

[jentralala]

Wow, they ate your water hyacinth? We had a ton of that and it never got bothered. Sapphire LOVED algae though, she scooped it up by the handful. Ironically, she hated fish. Absolutely despised it. We tried to feed her fish several times, live in shallow dishes or handing it to her, and she'd snarl and turn up her nose. But she loved snails more than anything.
I think you're right and it does have to do with pond depth. When we had a smaller pond with baby turtles they all got eaten, until we used a metal contraption to cover it. It was a piece from an airboat

They are incredibly smart, the ones we raised from infants for rehabilitation constantly broke out of their cages, and could figure out how to get to food within seconds. We're lucky, we never get bothered by the wild ones here. I can't think of anything that they really hated or that stopped them from destroying things (they ATE part of our ceiling once). They're cute and I adored the ones I had but I completely understand the frustration with them destroying your pond. They can wreak havoc when they want something.

Our pond ended up getting destroyed by cats. :roll:

 

[jentralala]

Found this when I was doing a precursory search on keeping raccoons out of a pond. Pond Predator Protection: Animal Away

Not sure if it would work or not but I thought it was interesting.

 

[bubbles1]

raccoon around my area are brutal... they come every year at some point and feed and my pond is literally the same as byrons not huge just a nice backyard pond. we tried placing plants on the outside so they couldnt get to the water, tons of floating plants and nothing worked they pulled all of the floating plants out and flattened my pond plants to the point i had to throw them out, and they just went fishing i have no idea how they did it... but one morning there were carcasses everywhere i thinks its cause my goldfish were way to friendly because they would come running to me when i would walk by my pond and i would put my hand in and nibble on my fingers, and i think they thought the raccoons were me and swam into their hands i loved them they were so cute!!

i had them breed also, i wasnt sure what they were comets or shubunkins, but there were tons. we found out by accident becuase my mom started to put hyacinths in vases with water becuase it looked nice, and the next day these vases were full of babies but i had nowhere to put them except putting them back in the pond. but the pond froze to the bottom this year. we ussually have two air pumps in the water going all winter but they both froze and it was a very cold winter so im pretty sure the goldfish are frozen right now :/

i dont know about you guys but these raccoons are scary, there is a trio of them and momma is a big gurl, she hisses and growls she has to be the size of a medium dog ahaha, were trying some motion sensor lights to scare them, and were debating some pest pellets to keep animals away but im afraid they fall in the water or our cats wont come near our house ahaha i had to get rid of my dwarf cattails because of them and they just make so much mess were gonna try to make the pond deeper this year by takin out some gravel, and im gonna add some hideout for them for protection (if i get goldfish)i understand you cant do anything about them because we are in their home... but come on dont eat my goldfish xD

our summers are pretty hot so like water is usually at a low of 75 degrees at night but not during spring or fall its even colder.

 

[boxercrazy156]

I live in Ontario also and have a large pond im my yard that the fish stay in year round most of the fish get eaten thats why we put in cheap goldfish and let them breed I think in Ontario tropical fish would need a heater it get cool at night until July here my pool only gets eighty a couple of times mostly runs at 74 degrees