A friend's mom had a small little pond with goldies in it. Nothing fancy just 6 fancies (Oranda I think) in a 100g pond kit. She picked 'em up last year and had them outside last summer then inside then back outside at the end of may.

Over the weekend, she said she went outside on saturday night and everyone was fine and she fed them and all was well. She came out again on sunday morning, to find carnage. 5 of the 6 were dead, with nasty round circular chew wounds. One of the dead ones looked like it got drilled through. The one left alive, I have here now, had it's one eye completely destroyed. (It's just a big empty socket.)

So while I'm treating him, I've been doing some research trying to figure out what the hell did that. I'm assuming some sort of insect, but at the moment I'm stumped. Beetles perhaps? I don't think it would be leeches?

Very interesting.

Dragonfly nymph? How big were the goldies? I know some dragonfly nymphs can get two inches long and will tackle prey as big as themselves, including fish. I don't know if there are any dragonfly nymphs that get larger than that, but the wounds sound fairly typical.

WYite

Mabey a small bird, like a magpie or a small crow even.

Sorry, I forgot to mention the top of the pond was netted. So I wasn't thinking birds. Don't most birds normally try to pull fish out completely though? I've only ever seen a heron invade my mom's pond so I'm not sure what small birds can do.

The eyeless wonder is 2.5 inches. That one was the runt of the batch from what she said. It just surprised since it's the first I've seen something like that around here. Usually it's big birds, raccoons, snapping turtles and the occasional bobcat or feral cat.

I wonder if a few comets or some other type of speedier goldies would have fared better.

I am with Wyite on this one. Those nymphs can detsroy fish and tadpols. I used to bring them home and they can get huge. I have seen ones at least 3''. We have dragon fly's up here that can be like 4''-5'' and sound like a helicopter when they go by. I love when you see them mating and flying stuck together in the air. It is so cool.

Man. I am very glad for all the frogs that live near my house then. Between the dragonfly nymphs we have a beetle locally that's just as bad. That was pretty rough.

Bit old of a thread, but I figure information is never wasted.
Where I am, we have giant diving beetles (2 kinds - both hit about 3-4+" long) which cause damage like that. Assuming they don't kill the fish outright. The fly pretty well too, usually coming out of the sky (up here at least) around April - June, and Aug-Sept. Very tough to spot in a pond. Don't grab them barehanded, they bite - HARD (and their jaws slice right through your flesh and leave a deep gash).
I have never seen dragonfly nymphs take out more than a fish or two at time, they tend to chase after it if it escapes.

For as cold as it gets up there you Canadians have some nasty sounding bugs. I am very glad I haven't seen anything like that down here.

I'm not saying we don't have them, I'm just glad I haven't seen any. Maybe that bird feeder by the pond does some good after all.