Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Water Clarity

This picture was taken from the shore, of the plants in a foot of water. The abundance of coontail plants has made the water quite clear. Too many plants, so next spring I will add 6 grass carp to 9 I already have in a slow process of getting a better balance. I have 4 wood ducks staying in the pond, no doubt eating the coontail, so that is a plus.

Wow that is clear!! You can hardly tell there is any water in that pic... Very cool looking although not ideal but cool looking!

RC

John did the coontail crowd out your eel grass?

Cody I have been out in the boat the last two days looking for the eel grass and haven't seen any so far. I surely still have ell grass in the pond but the grass carp were eating it earlier and large amounts were floating up to the surface. Up until 6 weeds ago I had I had lots of curly leaf pond weed and didn't see all that much of the coontail but when the curly leaf pond weed died back from the heat of mid summer the coontail exploded. So next spring it will be interesting to see the battle between the two plants.

John - the eel grass was likely the most palatable to the grass carp of the 3 salad types in your pond.

Will grass carp eat Water Primrose? In my old refurbished pond just starting to see small amounts of it starting around the bank. Had lots of it before cleaning out. Also noticed a sprig or two starting already in my new sediment pond, so I guess birds or something brought it there. Want to be aware of it and not let it get away from me as I understand it can be pretty invasive. Is it ok to have some, or safer just to get rid of all I can? I have 4 triploid grass carp (two in last fall, two this fall)in the old pond (1 acre) kind of as preventative measure, but see I'm getting Lilly Pads (or something similar) starting back. Would like a few of them, but not excessive amounts.

Bill I was thinking that GRASS carp had that name for a reason. They probably eat grass before anything else.

Snrub grass carp will eat the food they like best first then eat what is left. When I used to have a large amount of grass carp I would see cattails and lilies floating in the water. When I had muskrats I seemed to have good control over both plants. As much as I hate to spray I will do some selected spraying next spring on both the lilies and cattails.

Snrub IIRC, George's GC ate primrose once all the other vegetation was gone.