racoon proofing outdoor tubs.

[Theplatymaster]

Im aware the season is completely wrong, But i want to start planning now to set up a outdoor tub when the weather warms up. My only worry is my fish would get eaten by racoon, how do you keep racoons from getting into these tubs? My concern is that racoons are rather intelligent, and they could get around any lid i put on it.

[mynameisnobody]

I once read that one of the best ways to keep predators away from your chicken coop is to have a large set of owls eyes. The ones I read about were carved out of wood. I’m not sure if that will work for raccoons, but it did for foxes, birds of prey, and sand hill cranes. It was a very simple solution to an irritating issue. 

[PineSong]

I was also worried about raccoons given that there are lots of them in my area. I have the 110 gallon stock tank from tractor supply and because it's oval in shape, I could not figure out how to easily make a cover that would keep raccoons out. I've seen lots of different raccoon solutions on youtube, including just putting a roll of chicken wire over it.

I settled for making hiding places for the fish by placing bricks in the pond with large ceramic floor tiles over them to make 'tables' the fish could hide under if a raccoon was reaching in. I figured that if I saw raccoons had been there, I would tackle the raccoon-proof lid problem then. 

I am not sure if raccoons ever visited my pond. One time a potted plant in the pond was knocked over, but I never saw any other signs of anything being moved around. I did not notice a problem with missing fish--but my fish were small guppies and swordtails, so in truth a raccoon could have removed some and I might not have known as there were hundreds.

I do have dogs who go out in the yard several times per day but they are small dogs that I don't think a raccoon would be intimidated by.