Comets stopped eating!

[milliemax]

  I have 6 comets that lasted through the winter and have grown quite a bit since last summer.
  I went away this weekend and had a neighbor feed them. She said they never ate! They always come-a-runnin when I tap the side of the pond ! Actually, they usually hear me walking on the deck and start up to the surface.
  The pond is very dirty. We had planned to re-do it, cause it wasn't level, so we let the water evaporate some til we got around to emptying and cleaning it.
  The fish were just happy as little clams last Sat AM when I fed them!
  I'm in USDA zone 8ish, dipping a test strip shows everything ideal except that I have hard water (nothing new), our temps have been 70s to low 80s, normal.
  Any thoughts or ideas?
  What a difference a day makes!
  Nancy

[Pa Nancy]

Are they staying on the bottom of the pond in one spot? Are their fins clamped or open? Do they act sick or scared. Sounds like they may have had a predator visit, or they are sick. Dirty water will make sick fish.

[milliemax]

  The water is dirty. As I said we were planning to empty and start over, but this happened from one day to the next!
  I'm sure they don't notice that it is the neighbor feeding rather than me!
  I did notice that the food was gone that I put in this morning. Maybe they did have a visitor over the weekend!
  I have the day off Friday. I think I know what I'm doing! Cleaning the pond!
  Nancy

[milliemax]

  Well, I emptied most of the pond and found only one of the 6 comets! :'(. They made it all through the winter and had grown alot!
  We must have had a critter discover the pond!
   My neighbor has a wonderful koi pond and has noticed a couple of fish missing, so I think we have a racoon doing the neighborhood!
  I think I'll get a motion detector light or sprayer!

[GAjen]

Sorry for you....many of us have had to deal with loosing fish to preditors. Get a scarecrow it's working for us.

[milliemax]

  Well, that last fish I had seems to have disappeared also!
  When I empty, clean out and start over I'll have to put something in for a good hiding place. Maybe I'll put some chicken wire over the top.
  Do I cut holes in the cw for certain plants to grow through?
  Is there something less invasive than Chicken wire to keep critters out?
  Also, I would love advice about filtration. I have a small preformed pond and have an in pond biofilter. It got kind of overwhelmed with winter leaves. That is when we decided to re-do it. We have since bought a UV filter, but don't quite know how to connect it with the Biofilter. Any suggestions?
  Though I've been lurking and posting from time to time, I'm still not up to speed on all this filtration stuff!
  Nancy