Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Identifying plants What I thought was hydrilla? Help?

Any help with identifying this? It's growing very thick in spots and not slowing down. I've looked at the webpages showing the different weeds but can't quite tell what it is.

Coontail is my closest guess but any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

PB Rocks

You have coontail Ceratophyllum demersum.

Thank you Bill! TJ told me you'd probably be the one to know!

As I have a 30-50 yr old pond and very nutrient-rich, just moved in March of this year, controlled the FA and I'm attempting to restore to a LMB, BG and catfish pond as well as swimming, I'm contemplating a fluridone treatment due to a full covering of DW and now Coontail.

As I started aerating May 6th (Ted Lea), been 24/7 on 3 shallow diffusers since the 20th and nearly up to full speed with the final deep diffuser, can I ask your opinion on the fluridone treatment?

Thanks!

I've never had to kill coontail aka hornwort. Kelly Duffie could provide good help here. I know it has winter buds that in fall drop to the bottom and allow it to regrow the next year. It is very rarely rooted to the bottom and just exists as tangled 'floating' or suspended masses. Retreatment before winer buds form will probably be necessary for several years no matter what you use. Grass carp (amur) supposedly will eat it. Anyone with experience??

Now that I know it's coontail, I'm not as concerned about removing it manually as it doesn't seem to be near the nuisance as hydrilla regarding rapid regrowth from cutting/pulling (seeds/tubers). It just makes it very difficult to fish, let alone having no desire to swim or even get in the pond.

It's the Duckweed that is so unsightly, getting thick and on a calm day completely covers my 2 acre pond. But!

I'm getting such mixed reviews on the web regarding DW. The beneficial aspects such as keeping the water cooler in the hot summer months due to shading, providing shade for BG fry, how they absorb mineral elements like nitrogen, phosphates and ammonia (remember my old, nutrient-rich pond?), reducing evaporation, etc. But, how it can also choke out oxygen (although I have an aeration system).

So I'm seeing the advantage of Fluridone as being able to see this beautiful BOW once again and eventually have a desire to jump in to cool off and for the kids to swim in. And fishing? Right now it takes a heavy weight on my line just to break through the surface of the DW using plastics. Using Spinners, topwater, crankbaits,,,, are just out of the question right now.

My head is spinning!

Do I leave the DW over the heat of the summer for the benefits mentioned?

Do I spend the $$ on Fluridone to rid my pond of DW and other weeds?

Or use a prickly rope and manually remove the DW.

I'm not a fan of DW on ponds.....

Yep, grass carp will eat coontail. I had a heavy coontail infestation but a generous stocking of grass carp eventually eliminated it (and all other vegetation they could find). Grass carp are gone now and the coontail is back.

Esshup, I've made the prickly rope at 100' and works great. Except my pond is 2 acres and the first bunch I corralled and skimmed in filled over 20 wheel barrows full, VERY labor intensive and doesn't even seem like a put a dent in it overall.

This is why I'm considering Fluridone (although not a fan of chemicals) to just nuke the pond of the mess I have (DW and Coontail)

And travism, I know there's GC already in the pond. When I had the minor fish-kill a few weeks back, there were several "floaters" at 10lbs plus, so I can't help but think there's still some in there. But the coontail is everywhere and can't cast a line without getting caught up in it

Fluridone is a great option, but just be aware that the nutrients that are in the pond will probably be consumed by FA once the other plants are dead. So, you'll be trading a DW problem for FA.

It's all a balancing act that we try to perform to the best of our ability!

Maybe its growing more now that the GC are reduced or gone and not eating it up as much or at all.

Thanks esshup, and for some reason I'm thinking I can handle the FA issue easier than the DW, Coontail and other pond weeds. And amen on the balancing act.

I will likely use Floridone so now it's figuring out AT LEAST the right amount to use and applying it correctly.

Back to the research table

I'm finally winning the battle with my DW, but my pond is just a puddle compared to yours. You're right labor intensive, I don't know but seems like since I've been aerating the rate it's grown back has slowed down, the water is alot clearer, I see fish all over the place. I also added a couple of juvenile mallards, they've been going to town on the DW. I put in 3, 1 drake and 2 hens, 1 hen got snatched in the middle of the day yesterday. Hang in there LL, I'm glad I haven't had to use chemicals, but if you got to, you got to.
Charlie

Charlie, funny how the DW gets in there by being transfered by ducks, yet they're going to town on eating it. I don't think there's enough ducks in Nebraska to eat what I've got

Tomorrow morning it gets the fluridone treatment as I really don't have an option. The coontail and DW are both out of control and I know of no other way. It's pricey but the alternative is not being able to see my pond all summer and most of the fall and not being able to fish, let alone to jump in and cool off in this heat.

It's a slow process at 45-90 days and yes I may be trading one issue for another but it just looks awful right now and it's such a beautiful pond.

Between the aeration system and other steps I've taken, I'm hoping once the weeds are gone I'm heading in the right direction and can control any FW that may show up.

Best of luck to you Charlie!

I just wanted to throw in an update on the DW and Coontail issues (and fish) in my pond. On a good note, with this drought my 2 acre pond has not gone down. The well-pump remains running but I'm not sure how many gpm it's contributing and it's pretty much been running since I moved in the first of April. And as much as I hate the DW, I think it's been a contributor to the lack of evaporation as well.

I put in 40 oz of Fluridone on July 4th for the DW and Coontail issues and at this point what I've seen is the shore-line weeds are dying or dead. In about a week the tips had turned white and now just shy of 3 weeks they have nearly died completely.

There's not been a noticeable color change in the DW (I wish I had a pre-Fluridone picture of it) but it does appear the Coontail is losing it's greenish color below the surface and appearing brown (unless I'm just trying to convince myself it is).

As I know the Fluridone is a lengthy kill (45-90 days) my biggest concern is the fish-kill I had on June 16-17. First all the fry were found along the shorelines, then on the 17th were the bigger fish. I spoke to a guy that knew this pond well before I moved in and said 3-4 years ago the pond got really low followed with a hard freeze. Thinking it completely killed all the fish, he then said he stocked it April of 2011 with LMB, BG, CC, Crappie, 6 grass carp and some wipers. And with that being said, all species were found floating (about 100 or so and I don't know how many he stocked).

I could now refer to my pond as a frog-pond as there's thousands of them of all sizes. Just walking along the shoreline, hundreds will be jumping in the pond and every free-floating log is lined with frogs. This is another reason why I think there can't be too many (if any) bass in my pond. On top of that, I've not been able to catch any and the two jug-lines I have out have produced nothing as well (hoping to catch a catfish).

My goal is fishing this pond and in mid April caught many LMB until the FA got so bad I couldn't even fish it! Would like to fish BG, LMB and Catfish if that's a good combination. As I contemplate restocking, and as a side note, I'm renting this place and don't have a lot of $$ to put into it, (although I'm down about $3k so far with early chemicals such as Cutrine+ for FA, pond dye, etc.), and installing an aeration system June 6th and applying the Fluridone July 4th) is now a bad time to start stocking BG and LMB? Let alone with the current weather we're having?

On one other side-note, Ted Lea has been awesome as I've been working with him since May regarding the FA issues, the DW and Coontail and installing the aeration system. I'll touch base with him as well but wanted to throw this out to the forum.

So do I wait until the Fluridone has done it's job before stocking?
Do I stock BG prior to LMB?
Any other comments regarding the fish-kill, frogs, Fluridone, etc.?

I miss fishing in this beautiful pond!

PB Rocks!!!