Koi Carp

[wizzbang]

Not gardening I know but it is in the garden.

One of the plumbers asked if I knew anything about pond fish. I said no but that my father in law had kept loads in a pond in his garden donkeys years ago.
The plumber went on to say that he is looking after his father in laws home and pets while away on hols for a week. He went to check on the fish which are in a very large raised pond with all sorts of pumping gadgets and everything that pampered Koi carp could desire... apart from freedom to swim in a stream, anyway.....
He said that this morning when he got there a corner of the netting was lifted and folded over and two of the carp were on the ground, dead! One had some blood on it and a wound on its side and there were traces of blood on the floor where It looked, he said, as though the fish had been moved around. The other fish didn't have a mark on it.
Any ideas anybody as to what could have happened to these not so little fishes. He said they were about 18" long.

Lynne x

[KittyColdNose]

If it wasn't for the netting I would have said a heron maybe got at them My ex outlaw had them, same set up with heated water and pumphouse etc. Could it be people that did this?

Koi are not cheap and things can be a bit cut throat (for want of a better description) in the show world... well, according to ex OL that is.

[Mikey]

Fox maybe? Opportunist hunted, which will happily kill more than it can take.

[KittyColdNose]

But folded netting?

[wizzbang]

Yes I suggested those things to him. I'm going down the jealous competitor route. Perhaps somebody who knows that he is away on holiday or something.
I also suggested that they perhaps had had enough and had entered a suicide pact with each other (the fish) but he wasn't having it.
Seriously though, I thought heron but heron would have eaten at least the eyes or would have left stab wounds on both the fish.
His father in law might know what it might have been but he wont know till next week.
Lynne x

[wizzbang]

I told him as well that fish often jump out of their tanks/ponds if their isn't enough oxygen or too much oxygen in the water or if they see some tasty flies and jump to catch them (you know those mini swarms of midgies or mozzies you get all hovering in one place) but neither the fish or the flies can fold the netting over quite as neatly as the plumber described.
Lynne x

[Bren In Pots]

I think Heron as well, we had two killed by them plus they don't always stab fish they lift them out of the water they just drop them.