Friends,

I'm a new pond owner but not new to farm ponds. After extensive searching I have failed to identify this very strange occurance in my farm pond. We recently repaired (Lord willing) our dam to our 1.25 acre pond built 40yrs ago in a deep ravine. Our water levels are very good and the pond is draining correctly.

Yesterday I observed something I've never witnessed before. It doesn't appear to be fish egg hatching, although I'm no expert. To describe it, I would say it looks like softball or to basketball sized red colored moving (alive) swarms. Conservatively I would say there were 25 visible swarms/schools in the shallows and in the deep water. Sometimes they were suspended around branches/logs protruding from the water.

Although I would love for this to be small fry, I suspect it is some sort of insect. (Attached is a photo)

Any thoughts? I'm stumped. Thank you!
Matt

Tubifex worms?

I will certainly no some research. I collected samples of the critters, they were dot sized and round. Looking online, I don't see pictures of Tubifex worms in that form or stage. Of course I'm an amateur. 😃

Thanks for the note.

Might be Daphnia.

https://giobelkois.wordpress.com/category/daphnia-culture/

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...true#Post416202

Not tubifex if they are not wormlike

Daphnia appears to be a very good candidate.

Huge for daphnia, but AFAIK there are quite a few species. What is odd is the fish are letting them get to those numbers! Fish LOVE daphnia, to where I get my much smaller versions from the big pond to give to my tropical fish for a treat. They go NUTS for the daphnia.

We need a better picture of them in a small ziploc bag with a couple ounces of water,

Will do. Thanks