Anybody have an idea of what I'm up against?

I have a small 400 gallon give or take concrete fountain in the frontyard. I raise koi fish in it. We live east of Riverside up against the wild/semi-wild area of the hills.

About five years ago something jumped into it and over the course or two nights killed and ate all the koi and tore up all my water lilies. The animal dug through the large rocks I had on the bottom for hiding areas and managed to eat everything. No paw prints were left. I figured the local coyote pack learned how to fish.

So I got some chicken wire and made a mesh cover for the fountain. The fountain is wide enough that I needed three widths of chicken wire mesh and I connected them together with plastic wire ties. Yesterday I thought something/someone (kids) was messing with the chicken wire so I put out my have-a-heart trap baited with the bones from a chicken breast. About ten PM last night my dog goes nuts and I check the trap - it's a small juvenile dog. The new neighbors two doors down can hear the puppy crying but don't know where it is. I let the animal loose and tell the neighbors to be careful when letting their dogs loose (to crap in my yard).

I figured the puppy had heard/seen the fish and jumped on top of the mesh and that was the end of it.

This morning I go out to feed the fish and the pond is a wreck. Something has broken the wire ties - several of them - and climbed inside the pond tearing up the water lilies and killing fish. Of the four bodies I found three were whole and one had it's head forward of the gills eaten. Likely a dozen or more fish are gone, the water is still too dirty to tell. Some of the water lilies leafs were put on top of the mesh like the animal was sorting out fish from their hiding spaces.

This doesn't seem like dog behavior but could be. The animal went through the hole and climbed around under the chicken mesh in the water - that doesn't sound like a cat.

The only thing I can think of is a ferret which is a natural in the water and is likely smart enough to bite through the wire ties. I looked and I see no bite marks, and no foot prints in the back garden where there's fresh mud. Tonight I'll set the trap again with some meat.

Anybody got ideas? Could this have been the work of the dog?

I thought about a raccoon but I don't think there's enough water ... look around at the neighbor's swimming pools ... they have the dexterity and are way smart ... possibility.

Off to the Tennessee and Alabama HTF to look for a recipe for raccoon.  

I was hoping to find footprints but I water in the morning so by O-dark thirty in the morning the dirt was firm enough to hot hold a print. I'll water tonight at 10:00 PM.

I have a #2.5 leg trap somewhere in the garage but I'm too afraid that I'd catch one of my neighbor's dogs or cats in it ... uggh. I might try putting it in the water fountain/pond.

Going to bait the have-a-heart now. I just wetted down the garden around the pond to try to get footprints.

Thanks guys!

Not deep enough!

No attack last night and nothing in the trap this morning baited with sausage.

I'm using a Have-A-Heart and I've caught possums with it (several!).

Nothing last night using a hot dog.

If I put out cat food I'm almost certain to catch a neighbors cat and that would be bad ya' know.

I'll drive them to the edge of town where there's a large horse park with water ... and about four or five possums I caught ... something ate the two quarter pieces of the hot dog bait and stopped prior to hitting the release plate to get to the other two pieces. Has to be the neighbor's tea cup ... I've caught that rat dog at least five times. Out to bait again. My wife says that I've been doing that so often I've become the best master baiter in the house.



ETA: raw bacon tonight.

They were koshur 100% pure beef doggies!

12 gauge with double 00 buck!

Caught another dog the other night with the bacon.

My wife caught a cat with some chicken ... uggh.

I think I need to get about five traps ... four for the neighbor's who let their dogs and cats roam the 'hood and one more for that raccoon.

I'm debating on deploying the leg trap I have but with my luck I'd forget that it was at the bottom of the pond and lose a finger or two cleaning next year.

I've reinforced the chicken wire to protect what fish are left and will continue trapping the neighborhood pets until they learn better.