I built a pond at my old place 10 yr ago, and it still has no plants other than a very little algae. But there was no easy way for plants to get into that pond, and I've tried to start plants in this one. Also tried to start chara. The recent post about otters sounds like what going on with the fish in my pond. The bigger bass are gone; the few I catch now are under a pound. And I had 8 - 10 turtles a month or 2 ago, and now I may have none.