Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain The base of the food chain

Wondering about the base of the food chain. What is it safe to assume about the zooplankton and other small organisms that may or may not inhabit a new pond or an old pond? Should someone filling a new pond be concerned that the pond have an adequate variety and number of little critters to support his or her fish? Similarly, might it be worthwhile to sample an existing pond to see what's present? If it might be, would that be something better left to a specialist? Perhaps certain important organisms that can be seen and identified by the layman could be sampled for, and if they aren't found, could be added. Examples of things that might be added are those that are attributed to causing pink flesh in trout. Some beneficial things are readily available and relatively cheap. They could be added just as a matter of course. If they're already present, great, and if they aren't, the BOW would most likely benefit.

New ponds can be seeded with water from a good "healthy" pond. What survives will be dependent on if the conditions are favorable for the seeded organisms. Almost all aquatic organisms have an inherent set of conditions or parameters for survival and/or reproduction. If those characteristics are not met the organisms die. Example - water temperature and dissolved oxygen for trout.

How does the new pond owner judge how safe a good “healthy” pond is? Is it sufficient that the pond looks good and the owner likes his pond? Are daphnia present in all good “healthy” ponds? If the healthy pond has no snails, and you're stocking RES, would it make sense to add snails? And if it would, how would you go about finding “safe” snails? I've never seen snails in my old pond, but the pond I have now has them and nice sized RES.

My question....is it necessary to "seed" a new pond or will the tiny critters show up on their own over time? I find it amazing that it seems, no matter where you dig a pond, the algae show up right away. Is the entire planet covered with algae spores waiting to come to life?

I think I seeded mine really well by pumping in many thousands of gallons of clear creek water to help fill it. I had a good window screen filter over the intake side, but that still lets plenty of plankton through. It was renovated last August, but already looks like a two year old pond.

Seeding a new pond and how plants and animals get into a pond is a whole complete complex topic. Nature has a myriad of ways of how things get moved and transported naturally into water and across land. Plus human introductions provides many more pathways.

A healthy pond would be one you are very familiar with and knowing there is a good fish community present and it does not have obvious water quality and plant/algae problems.
I would say Daphnia are always present in my definition of healthy ponds. The species of fish present as grazers can skew the composition and structure of the zooplankton community and be limiting to Daphnia species. Weed beds as habitat help encourage Daphnia populations. Clear water often indicates presence of Daphnia but as usual it always depends.

What do you think about adding things such as scuds, snails, crayfish, and grass shrimp that you might not scoop up in a bucket of pond water? What about algae and weeds? You may get them whether you want them or not. Would you be better off proactively adding what you want when you fill your new pond rather than waiting to see what shows up after you've seeded from another BOW? You will also be "seeding" when you add fish. They come with their own organisms. And of course the other things that visit your pond, such as frogs, turtle, ducks, and herons will make their contributions. But none of these things ever added any plants to my old pond, or anything else that I could see, and the pond seemed to be healthy from the beginning.