Pond Protection

[john6six]

Quick Question:

I have a small pond in my yard. Over the weekend I lost several fish to what most likely must have been a large bird. I would like to prevent this in the future. I have seen options for electrical fences. They are ugly. Has anyone used something that would work off a motion sensor and trigger either a loud sound or perhaps shoot a blast of water in the area?

Just wonder how others have handled this situation.

[Rupp]

Here you go:
http://www.smarthome.com/6120.html

[rmiles7721]

Try here. I have not bought one yet, but have seen it before in their catalog.

[rmiles7721]

Man, beat me by just a wee bit.

[john6six]

Thanks.

I knew I saw something like this before, but now that I needed it I couldn't find it.

[Michael McSharry]

I have one for the heron near the pond and one for the deer in the vegi-garden. They do eat up 9V batteries. If your area is prone to wind then they will be very active. My fish do not like the sprinkles on the water surface when they are activated, but at least they are still eating rather than being eaten.

I ran the input into these with sprinler valves so I could control them via homeseer. That way a palmpad can be used to easily turn them on and off as I go near the areas under watch. If I had a source of power to these areas then I would control the power rather than the water to conserve on the batteries.

[Rupp]

Michael,
Have you tried rechargeable 9V batteries? If so, how long do they last?

[huggy591]

Are you sure it's just a bird and not raccoons or some other predator? We have a small goldfish pond inside my screened patio area, and I have had all kinds of problems with raccoons getting into it and killing the fish. The patio screens don't keep them out, and the motion detectors, lights, and water sprays I've tried don't work either. Finally the neighbor (who keeps their trash outside and attracts them) had them trapped and relocated. That's the onyl thing I've found that works short of staking out the pond overnight!

[electron]

Buddy of mine ran into the same problem, he ended up installing a fountain which keeps the birds away. I suggest you also install a webcam with some motion detection software to find out what/who is doing this.

[Michael McSharry]

My experience with recharable batteries is that they do not last very long before needing to be charged. I'm guessing, but I think the alkaline last about 1 month. I'm certain the breeze that triggers them makes their utilization rate higher than normal. It would be a real pain to have to change rechargables every week or so.

I've seen the heron flying around so that is why I put it in. The pond is nominally 2.5 ft deep and the bottom is totally covered with grapefruit to basketball size rocks so the fish have plenty of hiding places. I normally do not see them until the evening when they get hungry.