Fish in my wildlife pond

[Frogs and Newts]

Hi, apologies if this question has been asked before.

Last year we installed a large (100ft x 45ft x 4ft 6in deep) wildlife pond. We filled it in October (540,000 litres) and all went well durng the Winter.Signs of wildflife began to appear in Spring as frogspawn, newts and beetles arrived. We were away in March and whilst we were away a 'friend' put 5 large goldfish in the pond. He assumed that we wanted fish in such a large pond.
We tried getting these out when we realised they were there but have been unable to catch and remove them. We then saw some fry in April and realised it would be very difficult to clear the pond completley. We are not feeding them.

There are now huge numbers (hundreds) of fish, of quite different sizes.
We really want to get rid of the fish and return the pond to just being for wildlife. Any advice on how can go this. Draining it is not an option.

[King Edward]

Hi,
This sounds like a very unfortunate situation. Hopefully someone will come up with a solution, but I can't think of a better way of removing all the fish than draining the pond. Why is this not an option?

If you were able to pump out the water, from a wildlife perspective now would seem a decent time since many ponds naturally dry out at this time anyway, although obviously sudden removal of all the water is not the same as gradual drying up. It would also be well timed to refill gradually over the winter.

One thing that would concern me is the possibility that goldfish eggs could survive in damp mud long enough to hatch and restock the pond - I don't know if any spawning would still be continuing now.

[N0z]

Net them out slowly or leave traps around the pond or get all your friends and a few rods and fish them out all day , if you remove the vegetation it would be good so then the fish wont have any cover to hide from things such as herons but then again if you remove the plants it could remove the water insects/amphibians with it :/

[DorsetDunk]

I agree with Noz
try and get a large fine weighted mesh net or use net curtains maybe and bait with bread when the majority of fish have entered the feeding zone slowly draw up the net but its doubtful you will be able to remove them all with this method
with the hundreds you have mentioned
I am wondering if you would be able to electro fish them out I don't know who you would approach to do this for you ,the river authorities or a local fishery ,trout farm or such, hopefully some one here on wab will know who to contact in your area

[Tursiops2]

Try asking here Fishkeeping - Resources for UK Fishkeepers

T2

[Tringa]

Don't know if this is feasible (or legal) but if you know any anglers get one to bring you one pike and put it in the pond.

It should eat a lot of the goldfish (and would not breed itself) and now and then you could allow very exclusive pike fishing. Pike will also take frogs and nearly anything else they can get(but in a such a large pond this may not be a problem) but it may be a solution that manages, rather than solves the fish problem.

Dave

[GCN lova]

i would drain it and take the plants out a clean off the mud from the liner and then put everything back again. sounds like a bad situation. i wouldnt want a pike in my pond but i think fishing them out as well should help. i dont think goldfish can live outside in winter so maybe if you leave the ice on so they die

[Billabong Karen]

Hmmm - that's going to be a HUGE job with a 100 ft pond... not really practical. How absolutely infuriating - who needs enemies when you have friends like that!!!

I have a horrid feeling you are just going to have to live with the fish for a while... though I like the pike solution...

[Dogghound]

Draining ponds is often the best way to remove fish however you ideally need to leave it dry for a good week orso. Goldfish can survive out of water for several hours if kept moist. However complete dessication of a pond is going to damage most of the other wildlife within it, unless it can survive terrestrially. However ponds soon become recolonised and its a process which often occurs naturally. Alternatively you could try Rotenone which is a piscicide, it has a low impact on none target species like amphibians. However you should seek further advice if you plan on using this as it could cause damage if used incorrectly. You will also need permission from the E.A. I would not even entertain the idea of netting or electro-fishing in this case, both methods are poor for removing large numbers of fish, especially fry.

[exo]

Been there, actually with a fish pond anyway, but filling up with fry.
Had to drain the 15 tons of water to get them all out.

In other ponds I've had some reasonable success with fine-mesh fabric rectuangular crayfish traps,
they're reasonably cheap.
Crayfish Lobster Folding Shrimp Mini Mesh Fishing Net: Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Leisure
Small Fish Shrimp Crab Crayfish Trap Cage Net Black | eBay

Place them so the top of the entrance is just under the surface & put some small bits of bread in,
wait a few days & the larger fry will likely get caught in droves, but you'll never get all of them.
(at once anyway).