Heron Attack on Koi.. help

[Mr Chris]

One of my Koi was attacked this morning by a Heron. It appears that at 10"
long he was either too big for the heron to eat, or he managed to get away.

I discovered him when I noticed this afternoon that the fish were less
active than usual, so I went out to check and found the victim in the
shallows, alive but injured.

I have treated the pond with an antibacterial to try to stop his wounds
becoming infected, as when I netted him it was apparent that his skin had
been broken.

It is now dusk here and the victim was last seen laid on his side, at the
bottom of the pond, moving just occasionally. Assuming he does not pass away
in the night is there anything more I can do for him tomorrow.

This is the first and only time in 2 years that my pond has been attacked. I
had assumed that my fishing line defences were adequate. I have just been
out adding to them as I watched my wounded fish, I fear that the daily heron
fly bys may turn into regular visits now that they have found food.

--
Chris D

[K30a]

Chris,
Will cross my fingers for your fish and
hope it recovers.

You may want to check the second site
in my signature and see if there are any
ideas in the heron tips that you could use
on your heron.

good luck!
k30a
how to cure green water
http://hometown.aol.com/k30a/myhomepage/writing.html
herons eating your fish? fancy a turtle? need to bag a bullfrog?
http://hometown.aol.com/k30a/myhomepage/garden.html

[DrS...@xxx.com]

If you have a large quarantine tank, you could also bring him in for
treatment .. especially if your pond water is cold. cold water below 55oF
means no immune system, metabolism slow. if you dont have salt, add it by
completely dissolving 1 pound per 300 gallons. dont put rock salt in the
bottom of a pond in cold weather. Ingrid

"Mr Chris" <wo...@home.com> wrote:
>One of my Koi was attacked this morning by a Heron. It appears that at 10"
>long he was either too big for the heron to eat, or he managed to get away.

>I have treated the pond with an antibacterial to try to stop his wounds
>becoming infected, as when I netted him it was apparent that his skin had
>been broken.
>
>It is now dusk here and the victim was last seen laid on his side, at the
>bottom of the pond, moving just occasionally. Assuming he does not pass away
>in the night is there anything more I can do for him tomorrow.
>
>This is the first and only time in 2 years that my pond has been attacked. I
>had assumed that my fishing line defences were adequate. I have just been
>out adding to them as I watched my wounded fish, I fear that the daily heron
>fly bys may turn into regular visits now that they have found food.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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http://puregold.aquaria.net/
http://drsolo.net
Solve the problem, dont waste energy looking for who's to blame
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the work, endorsements and
recommendations I make. And my husband has the
bills to prove it!

[Jerrispond]

>One of my Koi was attacked this morning by a Heron. It appears that at 10"
>long he was either too big for the heron to eat, or he managed to get away.

I lost several that were in the 18 to 20 inch range. The filthy bird then
brought some sort of disease to the ponds. I am told this is not unusual. So
far this year I have lost 6 or 8 koi to the heron, and a beautiful 9 inch
butterfly yesterday to disease. I have no idea how many large goldfish, and
shubunkins I have lost. I have treated the ponds with desafin ( which stopped
it in one pond) and melafix. I started them on Romet B yesterday. In over 10
years of ponding I have never had a fungus or disease in any of my ponds. I
have spent over $150 in medicine the last 2 weeks....I am at my wits end, and
do not know what to do HELP Jerri

http://www.fringeweb.com/Ponds/JerrisPond

[DrS...@xxx.com]

if the water is cold and they are obviously going to be stressed by the
attacks I dont know what can be done to help them. you do need to net a
fish and do a scrape and find out what the hell they got so your treatment
is specific. the disease is always around, altho bird poop is loaded with
cooties for sure. Ingrid

jerri...@aol.com (Jerrispond) wrote:

[Mr Chris]

Two weeks on and the injured fish is back in the pond and, although not a
pretty as before with his new found scar, he appears healthy.

Seems he had two problems, the external injuries and a swim bladder problem.
I only diagnosed the swim bladder condition when his wounds healed and he
still seemed listless and prone to resting on his side at the bottom of the
treatment tank. 48 hours after applying medication specific to this problem
and he was upright and swimming normally.

I have learned a lot from treating this fish.. the main thing being never
give up. Plus the treatments for tropical aquaria work very well for Koi..
and they are cheaper, at least in my local aquatics store.

"Mr Chris" <wo...@home.com> wrote in message
news:rT6j8.68889$kX6.652755@NewsReader...