Thanks for yr message Kathy. Much appreciated. Are you a biologist?
You sound very educated on the subjects.

After reading your post I've been thinking: "Hmmm, I'm a laissez-faire
gardener; maybe I should let natural selection work it's way and let
the critters eat any fish I have." Are goldfish expensive? Will they
procreate quickly enough to keep ahead of the hungry raccoons? I like
your suggestion of trying just mosquito fish...

By the way, we have a 1-way cat door, going out, and have trained our
cats to pull the cat door outward, so they know how to get in but
other animals don't. Well, one night we saw the nose of a raccoon
poking into the cat door. I got out of bed and went to open the door
and scare him (or her), and there it was, lumbering down our fire
escape (we're on the 3rd floor)with 3 little one's following behind.
Our yard is a hiking trail for them.


Hi rgesh!

Sounds like a neat project!
My brother and family live in SF and can attest to the
raccoons.

They can be very attentive and inquisitive. Even if they can't reach the fish
they will pull out plants looking for snails and other aquatic delicacies.

I understand not wanting to surround your pond with an electric fence. You
could try blocking them out of the yard entirely with electric fencing. Kind of
depends on the size of your yard and budget.

Another device that works is the motion activated sprinkler system. You might
need more than one. They can be anchored in concrete or to concrete blocks as
raccoons have been known to push them over. They can be put on timers to only
go off during peak raccoon hours of the night.

Animal control in SF might have Hava Heart traps and removal services. Some
localities will lend them to folks suffering from raccoon visits. There are
laws and regulations about trapping wild animals in every state and to their
relocation.

Raccoons can swim. But many times there is so much food for them, especially in
a city, that they won't bother to do it. But they will wade with no problem so
plant shelves are a welcome addition for them. There are ways to put in the
liner to provide planting spaces 'behind and beside' the pond for your plants.
You might visit the library and peruse their books as I know some designers
illustrate that technique in their books.

If you have very few fish your plants and stream can filter the pond. You might
try going with just mosquito fish and see how your raccoon and heron situation
plays out. It is hard to see one of them make off with your pet fish.

The motion detector will work on herons too. But nothing is perfect and these
critters have gotten very good at adapting to city/urban/suburban life. There
are more raccoons in the country that there were in the 1800s. Herons enjoy
federal protection.

For koi we usually recommend at least 1,000 gallons and 100 gallons for every
koi after that. While they do fine in smaller ponds starting out they can grow
very large and put a strain on filter systems. There are some beautiful
goldfish out there who rival koi in their colors and have long flowing fins and
are better for smaller ponds.

Turtles and frogs come and go. You can keep a turtle if your yard is securely
fenced so he doesn't escape. They make decent sized turtle poo so you'll want a
filter, especially in a small pond (I'll let other answer filter questions as
it is technical and that's not my 'thing' ;-).

Frogs will use your pond to breed. Bullfrogs are in CA, though they are not
native and not popular with wildlife biologists, and they like to stick around
the pond as they are very aquatic in nature. But they do eat up pet fish, other
frogs, snakes and mice.
There are lots of other kinds of frogs who will use the pond for breeding and
then generally not stick around much. Toads too.

Garter snakes love to swim in the pond for small fish and tadpoles and any
aquatic insects they find.


kathy :-)
algae primer
http://hometown.aol.com/ka30p/myhomepage/garden.html