Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants cat tails and clear water

Hi Everyone,
I have a pond that is 60 feet wide, 100 feet long and 17 feet deep when it is full. Right now the water is about 9 feet deep. ( I have a small seep)This early summer, I had hair algae for the first time in the 10 year history of the pond. Also some curly pond weed around the edges. All of a sudden, after a week of rain, (6"), the pond is crystal clear. I can see all the way to the bottom. I do have an aeriator going, it sits on the bottom and sends up a column of bubbles 24/7. The pond has never been green from algae blooms. All of the hair algae disappeared too. Just vanished. The one thing that I have plenty of is Cat tails. They grow all the way around the pond and are about 8 feet tall. They keep the pond water cooler and also shade it. I went snorkeling and I didnt see any fish. I used to have Sunnies and Bass in it. They were good sized, I had a good population of minnows. Now everything is gone except for a few turtles. I use the pond mostly for swimming. But I really miss the fish swimming with me. They used to come up and grab the end of my hair. They would follow me all over the pond. My question is this. Are the Cattails responsible for the pond being so clear?
I really like the clear water, but the Cattails make a big mess in the spring when I have to clean out all the dead stalks.
How do I get pics on here? I can show you a before and after pic of the pond. Before Cattails and after! I love this forum. Pond lovers everywhere! Bobbi

Bobbi:

Extensive cattails are using up a lot of the nutrients in the pond, leaving much less for a nice (phytoplankton) algal bloom that would decrease the visibility (and provide a better food chain for the fish.

The rain probably sank the (filamentous) algae by knocking the trapped gases out of it. FA does not usually grow as well in warmer water, so you may not see as much of it until things cool off later this year.

See the Archive thread on posting photos.

P.S. We have some threads on chemical control of cattails if you are interested.

Thank you for the help. I will post some pics tomorrow. Next spring I would like to knock down the cattails. I see pond pics on here that are cattail free! I would love that again. Bobbi

My dog Sammy in the Winter.

ok, it worked!Testing one two three! That was easy. I have my pics on photo bucket. I will get pics of the pond on here instead of my dog, Sammy.

This first pic is the pond before the catails. Then pics after catails!

Here is my pond with the gazilloin catails on it. The last pic is of the ladder just showing the clear water. It is really nice to swim in.

this is the pond in the summer without catails. This is what I like my pond to look like.

Except for the dead Sunny floating on the surface. This is the first time I saw that! I have looked at this pic for years and never noticed the dead fish.

This is my pond with Bass and sunnies in it.

This is a big golfish that became buds with the Bass. Those two swam around all day together. You didn't see one without the other.

This is one of those wonderful moments by the pond. The fish would come up to the edge to be fed.

Are there that many cattails around the entire pond?

It appears to me as though you have two species of cat tails.

That kitten needs to be careful.

I would eliminate the cat tails and do a water quality test. Clear water is great for snorkeling but bad for fish.

Yes, the cat tails are that thick all the way around the pond. They took off like wildfire. Just started at one end and went all the way around. They get this thick every summer. I feel like I am behind a wall in the pond. Compleletly surrounded.
Yes, it is great for swimmng, but the cat tails just dont look very nice.

The one species of "cat tails' aren't as invasive as the other one! But I still get lot of them!

There are two species of catttail found in your area. The common cattail and narrow leaf cattail. The narrow leaf is much less common and fairly easy to differentiate from the common as it's leaves are noticeably thinner. It is also less invasive and therefore more desirable of the two if you wish to have cattails around your pond.

I am surprised the herons haven't gotten that goldfish yet... Must not have much of a heron problem in your area.

I agree!

With all those cattails, the water might be too deep for them to stand in, or the cattails might be too high for them to see over and they can't see any predators sneaking up from behind them?

I saw a Heron a few years back, but you are right, the pond is too deep for a wading bird. It has steep sides. I should of asked for a shallow beach area. I didn't know he was going to just dig a big deep hole. So it's not very good for spawning fish either. It has a mud bottom, I could see where the Sunnies dug out nests in the mud in the slope of the pond sides. There is an area where the water flows in that isn't so steep, but its full of cat tails. No fish could make a nest in that mess of weeds.

Sometimes sunnies and bass will actually spawn right over cattail and water lily roots, particularly in situations like yours where there is limited spawning locations.

One year we burned the cattails, all the way around the pond. But they still came back. Just didn't have as much stalks to clean up in the spring. So do I spray or wipe the cat tails with an Herbicide? I wiped them one year with a herbicide, but new little ones kept popping up. What do you do, wipe or spray an herbicide all summer? Is it safe to swim in? I have a feeling I will be battling cattials for a long time. I would like to see my pond cat tail free before I die! If I want it free of cat tails, I will have to destroy all of them, but I have a Red-winged black bird that has been nesting in the same spot for three years now. If I could contain the cattials to just a small area, that wouldn't be so bad. I know, make up my mind! I just remembered the black bird. I can't destroy her nesting site. I have the only pond around for miles. We have alot of ravines around here. I like sharing my pond with the wild life, they just have to remember who's pond it is and let me swim in it without dive-bombing me.

Here's a bit or reading material for you.
cattail control

One of the few advantages of cattails is the herons don't like wading through them if they are unsure of water depth on the deep side. When I had prolific cattails I had no problems with herons.

That was some heavy reading!Thank you, now I have to get going and spray those cat tails. This is the time of year to do it. I have nothing in the pond, and if they die like they are suppose to, I can burn the dead stuff this winter. They will come up again in the spring, but if I keep it up, I can control them. Thank you for the help. I appreciate it.

How did it go?

Yeah kinda interested myself,(dealing with the same problem) how did it go?