Fish missing

[lwyoung]

Today I went out to check on how my pond fish were doing and they have all gone. I had a net pinned to a frame that covered the pond, but this had been moved about 5 inches to one side on one corner. It seemed like a couple of things had been disturbed in the pond as though something had been in there.
I added the net last year as I thought I had problems with herons stealing my fish.
I live on the borders of surrey/hamphire/berkshire. Does anyone have any ideas of what is clever enough to push my frame net aside and go swimming to eat my fish ?
Thanks !

[Dogghound]

Mink or otter would perhaps be the best bet. Are any remains of the fish still present?

[Littlesparrow]

In our area Herons would be the prime suspect, but if your fish are valuable you can't rule out humans pinching your fish.

[lwyoung]

No signs of fish at all. My fish aren't valuable, but it's just sad that they have all gone. I think if it were human then the whole frame of the net would have been lifted up. Is a heron clever enough to move the net frame to one side ?

[Billabong Karen]

Heron sounds unlikely... more likely to be mink, as Dogghound says. Could you post a photo of the pond showing how the net has been moved?

[Tringa]

What type of fish did you have?

I'm asking because we had goldfish in our pond (about 7 feet by 6 with a max depth of about 18 inches/2 feet) for a number of years and it was common for them to disappear from sometime in November to well after the new year. I assumed the drop in water temperature had slowed them and they were "sitting" it out on the bottom of the pond.

Dave

[lwyoung]

I had a mixture of shubunkin, goldfish, orfe and tench. Only the previous week they had been swimming around the top. I had a good look to see if they were keeping warm on the bottom. I'll try to grab a picture when I get home enough and it's light. My pond is only around 6'x2', with a depth of around 18".

Don't mink like to stay near water ? The closest water is a lake quite a walk away.

[Littlesparrow]

Had a little google, mink tend to leave bits of fish and messy around, otters tend to leave the tails, herons eat the fish whole and cats if they bother only take one fish at a time.
I would ask about in the neighborhood, because there must be other people with ponds and see if they have had any trouble and seen the critter.

[nightshade]

Our fish go deep and stay there after a visit by a predator it could be days before we see them again and they are very skittish for weeks afterwards.

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by lwyoung

I had a mixture of shubunkin, goldfish, orfe and tench. Only the previous week they had been swimming around the top. I had a good look to see if they were keeping warm on the bottom. I'll try to grab a picture when I get home enough and it's light. My pond is only around 6'x2', with a depth of around 18".

Don't mink like to stay near water ? The closest water is a lake quite a walk away.

Both species can leave very little evidence at all, and can clear a small pond overnight. Mink and otter will both travel away from water particularly along dry ditches, hedgerows, shelterbelts, woodland etc.