I have an old Chinese ceramic pot which I keep outside as a small pond. I used to keep gold fish in it, and some of them got to be quite old, like the ones shown in the picture. Those were almost five years old and really quite happy in the pot, until one night a raccoon ate them.
Needless to say I was furious at the raccoon. I replaced the gold fish and secured our patio, but the raccoon returned and devoured the replacement fish. I took to covering the top of the pot at night with wire mesh, which I tied down with bungee cords. But that awful raccoon learned to pry off the wire mesh to get to my gold fish. Eventually I conceded defeat to the raccoon.Recently though I missed having fish in that pot, and in addition it's not safe to have stagnant water because mosquitoes could breed in it. We have to beware of West Nile Virus, which is transmitted to humans via a bite from an infected mosquito.
I went to the pet store, told the owner my problem with the raccoon, and he recommended feeder guppies instead of gold fish. Feeder guppies are small, barely discernible, and they move quickly and can hide under rocks.
I decided to give it a try.
Now my "fish pot" has these nondescript guppies. You can barely see them, but they eat the mosquito larvae and well, there's Life in the fish pot.
One night I think the raccoon came around because in the morning I found the water plants ripped up and the aerator pulled out; this raccoon is really quite destructive and hateful! But the feeder guppies were still there!
Here's a picture of a raccoon, courtesy of wikipedia. Apparently they can get as large as dogs. Look at him, with that black face mask, just like a bandit, which he is - hateful creature!
I'm hoping my feeder guppies survive and will keep you posted.
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Tags: garden, gardening, water element, raccoon, fish pond, gold fish, fountain, pond
This is all for now,
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