Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Empty Pond

I live in a village close to the River Tay ,great if your a Salmon fisherman . Not so good if you have Koi / Goldfish . Over the past month I have lost all my fish to an Otter .
Tarka's visiting time is between 1 and 3 am ,I initially thought it would be a Mink but once I adjusted the CCTV to cover the ponds I had good footage of the Otter .
The Koi were big fish he descales them and eats everything except the guts and gill plates ,with over 50 fish consumed the ponds are now empty .
Every effort was made to keep him/her out , baited traps were set ,I caught the local cat which was safely released . Other ponds in the village have been raided .
My ponds have been in situ for over 25 years WHY NOW . This time of year there would normally be lots of Kelts that are easy prey , the floods have washed them out to sea plus the Salmon runs are now very low .
The Otter has found an easy food supply and took full advantage . I still like Otters and have a new respect for their ability to survive . My aim now is to build an Otter proof pond before I restock .

Good luck with the new pond. This could turn into a long term battle.

Is an Otter proof pond possible? Are there fish they don't like t oeat I wonder. I doubt it.
We have seen a big fall in birds at our bird feeder. We now see regularly Hen Harriers on our fences plus magpies. I don't know if the very cold wet winter is driving this or if it habitat loss.

Jimmy, sorry to hear of your Koi loss, we kept some many years ago inc building a sort of Japanese themed garden but had to give them up when we moved

I'm still into special ornamental Acers and sometimes the local wildlife nips off the spring new buds, can be very frustrating and I feel your 'pain'

I've got an electric fence kit for beginners, runs off a car battery, mains also available. It's ment for rabbits but works well for badgers. A couple of strands of bare wire around the edge of the pond should do the job.

The electric fence sounds like a good idea ,even if I just switch it on at night .

Hi Jimmy, you have a private message.

Can you provide details of type, where I can buy etc. I have a dog problem - keeping my springer in . Pig netting, barbed wire etc just isnt enough. The garden is a bit like a Stalag already

That won't fix it a Springer will soon work out how to avoid it.

As for the otter problem, a friend who rarely posts here now suggested (in jest) a 12-bore shotgun.