My condolences. I've been visited by the big blue bird before as well.

Your fish WILL get over it. Not too worry. FWIW, I don't put netting over my
pond, but I do use a scarecrow. Knock on wood, I haven't lost a fish yet
(when it was on!)

Joe


On 5/14/04 3:28 PM, "Gary" wrote:

Yesterday, I made the sad discovery that my goldfish suffered a
probable heron attack. It looks like the heron got about half of my
30+ goldfish. The survivors are all spooked (naturally) and won't
even come up for food. Some have scrape marks on their bodies where
it looks like they escaped the heron's bill. I had a heron around
here a couple of years ago, so I put chicken wire over the pond for a
couple of weeks. This discouraged the heron and he gave up and didn't
return ---- that is, until yesterday (not sure if it was even the same
bird - probably not). Anyway, too little & too late, I put the wire
back up to protect the remaining fish.
My question - Assuming that I can ward off further attacks, will my
fish return to their old behavior of coming up for food, eating out of
my hand, etc., or will they have the fish equivalent of
"Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder" for the rest of their lives? Anyone
know how long it might take for the fish to get back to normal? I
also heard that sometimes when aquariums are attacked (e.g. by a cat)
the surviving fish sometimes just shut down and die (probably from
stress). Hope that doesn't happen to my pond fish. They are just
10-cent feeder goldfish that I've managed to keep alive and healthy
for about 10 years, but I hate to lose them just the same. I also
realize that it's natural for herons to eat fish so I wouldn't want to
harm the bird, even though it's on my s---list right now! (That would
be like someone throwing rocks at me everytime I went to the
refrigerator!)
I'm trying to gradually get the fish used to me being around them
again by making frequent, short appearances at the pond, being quiet
so as not to spook them, and offering them small amounts of fish food
several times a day.
Would appreciate any ideas anyone might have recovery from attack.
Thanks,
Gary



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