We learned about the Six-Spotted Fishing Spider today!! Here are a few great pics. This spider has a 3" tilapia in the death-grip…







Link to Six-Spotted Fishing Spider Info

Neat pictures!

Brutality rising....

Never heard of them.

Todd, Robbie wanted to know if you squished it.

Amazing things in nature.

Reminded me of some pictures that I meant to transfer from my phone.

This spider is not nearly as impressive or large, but I wonder in we have fish eating spiders in Michigan? Never saw this one that big, much less see one cruising around on top of the FA!



Can someone tell me if these clusters of grass are OK or should be removed? They then seemed to bud later in the summer?







Also saw this neat bird. At first I thought it was a young GBH as they showed up together and flew off together, but looked at pictures closer later and it certainly is a different water loving bird!



Thanks!

Canyon

I can't ID that emergent grass, but I too have it and like it as it doesn't seem to spread much and I think it looks cool. Anything to help utilize my high nutrient loads is welcome to grow in my ponds provided they're not invasive or too difficult to manage.

My first guess was a Green Heron, my second is an American Bittern. Both are herons, both eat whatever they can fit down their throats! Although I'll bet these little guys are probably targeting tadpoles and smaller fish.

Might be this or something closely related.
Rush

If the blades are three sided, it is a sedge instead.

No expert here. Just guessing.

Soft rush is my guess also.

We used to have a sizeable population of spiders that preyed upon 3" bluegills, but then we got serious with our BG program and they've long since starved to death from lack of forage.

Green heron.

We had a couple of those earlier in the year (Green Heron) that just loved our forage pond. They would sit on top of the pallets I put in for the FHM to spawn and pick off the spawning minnows.

Of course chased them off, but they must have raised their brood and moved on. Don't see them any more.

Why is it that I can count at least 8 spots on this Six-Spotted Fishing Spider?? Maybe even 10 spots….

The plant is commonly called Knob rush or blunt spike rush (probably Eleocharis obtusa). Very beneficial plant along shorelines and never grows very deep and stabilizes the shoreline from wind action.

Thanks Bill. Glad to hear the plant is beneficial. They look nice. Maybe if I leave them alone they will start to spread on their own.

I was delighted tonight to see our 4 mo old puppy Scout suddenly notice the GBH and start running after him/her. The whole family came out on the front step to congratulate Scout and shower him with praise as he happily trotted back. He seemed to grow an inch. Later I noticed him sitting down by the pond and anything that moved at the waters edge or in the water he immediately went to investigate. Who knows, maybe there is hope and he will start to 'protect' the pond for us.

I noted that in the evening the water surface shows tons of little ripples, the minnows must be feeding. I never see the GSH, they must stay hidden all the time.

what is the best time to see the tilapia since I don't have a feeder to bring them to the surface?

I've tried turning my large light on at night to see if I can see more fish that way but that didn't help much either.

I imagine I'll only see the tilapia when they are belly up here in the next week or so due to dropping water temps.