I have a ten-year old koi pond that I am re-digging. Making it a better shape and bigger. With the dirt I'm digging out, I will be adding a header pool and waterfall splashing down rocks into the pond. Have to dig it deeper and re-do the edge to make it less raccoon-accessible. I lost over 140 Koi in the past three years to a band of those little buggers! I needed to replace the liner too, so figured it was a good time to do it all.
So, came on the GW to look around and found this NEW Koi Ponds Forum. Awesome!
~ Annie

Here's the Link to my photobucket - just a few pictures. The photos do not show how big the pond was not how big my fish were. My brother said, "Hey, Annie! Pan size!" The new dimensions will be twice bigger, more rounded and deeper in the deepest part.

I am an avid photographer, artist and gardener...but poor and humble. No fancy camera or tools. No money for nice pond liners, equipment, filters and etc, but I did not let that stop me. My fish couldn't tell the difference! They were happy as larks.

However, I had to re-think how to attempt to prevent the raccoons from trashing my pond again and eating all my fish! So when the liner needed replacing, three years ago...(ah hum!), I decided to make some changes. I drained the pond last summer when the drought helped out, and there it sat.

I put the remaining Koi and Butterflies in a Whiskey Barrel tub, but the coons found them and got all but three. I have but one fish left. The coons got them all. I put a grate over it and that seems to have stopped them. It just makes me sick. My sweet babies of ten years...so friendly and smart, eaten for a snack.

But I am a naturalist and animal lover, and such is the way of Nature. I cannot fault the raccoons for being hungry and finding an easy banquet feast so handy, so it will be up to me to try to find a way to foil them.

I will post photos of the progress as I can.
Would enjoy hearing from you now.

~Annie

Your garden is **LOVELY**! Have you tried the Scarecrow thingie to ward off unwanted visitors with a stream of water?

C3D

I painstakingly crafted my own 'deerchaser' last summer and a visitor's child broke it and threw it on the ground, as well as a few other nice things. .

It had a wonderful "CRACK" that rang out through the garden when it struck the stone. I will have to make another. I am hopeful that if I only ran it occassionally so that the raccoons would not get accustomed to the rythmic sound, that it would be an affective deterent. It made the cats run and startled the wildbirds to take immediately flight! They never got used to that sharp sound. Scared them every time it whacked that rock and spilled out the water. (teehee)

~Annie

Later!
~Annie

Thank you for the nice comments about my gardens. I never know what to say when someone says something nice for fear of sounding too "NutraSweet" - fake, and fishing for more. I'm not one to gush and fawn over others, either.
Anyway, thank you.
Annie

"Origin.
Goldfish originally came from China. Fanciers took them to Japan and then to England where they developed a calico version called the shubunkin (or poor man’s koi). Many U.S.-grown shubunkins get shipped to the U.K. -- at least the best ones go there.

Shubunkin Types.
Standard shubunkins look like regular goldfish with a calico overlay. "Calico" involves a mixture of blue, white, black, red, and orange colors in willy-nilly splotches. Butterfly shubunkins develop a tail often as long as their body (like what the comet is supposed to look like). Bristol shubunkins grow a much more developed tail with rounded lobes. We never see these here. We get the long torpedo-shaped guys."

There are some people who raise all the varieties, however, so that article is not completely correct.

Nonetherless, I loved my Poor Man's Koi, especially my Butterfly Koi. They were like beautiful orange angels flowing through the water - some had calico colors and patterns. Two had dorsal fins and tails that were all black.

The Shubunkins were much better behaved in the pond. They didn't churn up the bottom and devour all the plants like the real Koi tend to do.

I had two huge "Ghost Koi", and boy were they monsters. Huge ugly charcoal grey Koi bred in England by breeding common carp with Koi. They looked like prehistoric fish. Just hideous things. They really churned up the bottom. They never swam, they tore through the water constantly at a terrific speed.

And BTW. I found out what the Scarecrow gismo is that you were talking about CD3. Pardon my mistake. No, I had never seen those before, but after having looked at them on the internet, I'm sure I wouldn't want one, but thanks just the same. That was very thoughtful of you to suggest a possible predator remedy.

I now have a dog that is an Irish Wolfhound-Border Collie mix. He keeps the racoons away pretty good. We shall see how that goes anyhow.

~SweetAnnie4u