Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations dragonfly territory

There are 30,000 facets in a dragonfly eye. A dragonfly sitting on a blade of grass and facing the middle of the pond is watching for intruders to his domain. If the intruder should be a female dragonfly, they’ll chase around until he catches her or she allows him to. Then, they literally hook up.

Our pond projects really began in 1987 when we got dogs, two big ones to keep an eye on things. When we first moved to midtown, there were some harrassing, prank phone calls while I was working evenings. A new, unlisted phone number stopped that, and the big dogs were an insurance policy against a frustrated bad guy who might try anything to breath heavily into my wife’s ear. The dogs needed water, and lots of it. When the weather cleared that spring we dug a hole in the backyard and set a 450 gallon stock tank into it. The dogs could drink; birds could drink. An ornamental tree and some flowers dressed up the project and it was good. Later some gifted goldfish livened things up but required filtration and a pump. That is when the dragonflies arrived.

Dragonflies mate in the air for several minutes at a time, the female arching her back under the male and attaching to him to accept his cache, or they can mate on a branch of vegetation for longer, as long as ten minutes. Considering most only live a few weeks as dragonflies, that is a fair percentage of their above-water life spent copulating. They are waterborn and water-matured, up to six years before emerging to the air, drying their new wings and taking flight. Then sex. Now wouldn’t that be something, to go from the boggy depths to the azure heights, then sex, all in a few weeks time. No wonder they spend such a percentage of it locked in conubial bliss. What might that dragonfly male be communicating to his beloved during that ten minutes, and she to him, and how might they be doing it? We saw a pair of dragons mating one afternoon over the pond, and when they fell too low, the resident bullfrog rolled out his tongue like a welcome mat and got the lower one, the female. The male buzzed off, a frustrated victim of a particularly gruesome case of coitus interuptus.

The rest of the dragonfly’s time on earth is spent eating flies and mosquitos, fighting each other, or laying eggs.

The stock tank went into the ground in 1988. In 2003, the backyard pond project expanded to 1300 gallons. The oldest daughter was graduating from high school and wanted a party in the back yard. An expanded water feature (dug out to 30 ft by 16 ft with the 3 foot hole in the middle where the stock tank is) added visual interest to the backyard party area. The benefits have been rewarding in unplanned ways. Increased filtration has made the water crystal clear and the fish have responded with lots of babies and are easy to see and enjoy. The dogs’ prefer the pond water as the water quality has improved, also. And the dragonfly visitors have increased.

The backyard pond expansion came in early June. Later that fall, the 1 acre pond was dug out at the farm.

A country neighbor was having a pond cleaned out and enlarged. In order to do that, it would have to be drained and the water would run over my land. The pond digger contacted me and asked if I was interested in digging a pond, that because the equipment was already there, he could be in and out quickly and the runoff from the neighbor’s project would help to fill mine. The timing seemed good and the price reasonable.

He started quickly. There were challenges immediately. The slough where he dug had once contained a little pond, and it always had a foot of standing water in it, even in the dog days of August. When the pond digger began escavating, he uncovered a spring at the south end, the shallow end fortunately, that ran strong and clear right into the hole the dozer was trying to dig out. They had to push up a temporary berm to hold back the water so they could scoop out the muck from the old pond, dig the core trench, then find clay to seal it with. There was also a vein of limestone that ran along the west side that was excavated out as much as possible and sealed with clay. It may be that vein that is leaking out under the dam.

When the pond was finished, estimated to be a surface acre and 14 feet deep, the pond digger returned to work on the neighbor’s, and a week later the water from that project flowed into the lower pond that had been steadily filling with spring water. What I didn’t consider was the fish that inhabited the neighbor’s pond. It was absolutely filled with gizzard shad, generations descended from the contents of a minnow bucket emptied years before, instant forage.

This spring was wetter than normal and the pond filled up early and has stayed full. A local fish farm stocked it with bluegills, hybrids, redears, fatheads, crayfish and channelcats. Next spring, the bass and a few walleye will go in. About a hundred fatheads and one channel cat rode back to the city in buckets and went into the backyard pond. I don’t get out to the country pond but a couple of times a year so having some of the country fish in the backyard allows me to monitor their progress and learn their habits.

There has been a fair bit of discussion about the disadvantages of allowing goldfish to get started in a pond. I dumped about thirty of them into the country pond. There are no predators yet, though some have said channels will hunt. I see little evidence of that in the backyard pond where there are an abundance of fatheads, now, and yoy goldfish. Mr. Cat goes for pellets and the other fish don’t seem bothered by him, despite how active he is and how much bigger he’s getting than everyone else. And, one wonders about the relationship between fatheads and goldfish, that they may be members of the same family of fish, and if so, shouldn’t goldfish fry be every bit as tasty and nutritious as fathead fry to any yoy bass or walleye? Maybe it depends on other factors, the general health of the pond, water clarity, the bloom, aeration and hiding places. Some of those factors will be addressed when projects are completed in later years. That’s part of the hobby aspect of this watergardening/pondmeistering. It is easy to get in a rush to do everything by tomorrow. But this man’s life doesn’t unfold that way. There aren’t enough hours in the day nor dollars in the bank to do the dock project, to buy aeration equipment, to have electricity run to the property, to install the stuff (only to have it vandalized or stolen because no one is there to watch over it), to build a cabin, to raise kids, to work for a living, and to have time to enjoy the flight of the dragons and their aerial pairings.

Things have happened despite my attentions and inattentions, however. Nature is filling in the gaps. There are choruses of frogs, tons of turtles, and Blue Dasher dragonflies and damselflies have found the country pond. The water is slowly clearing, the meadow mix took off robustly from the spring rains and the area doesn’t look like a wound any more. It’s green and lush, pretty. Ducks, turkey, deer and racoons are using it and it’s become a nice place to camp. The dogs love it. The two leaks at the back of the dam are still flowing, but it isn’t a heavy flow. And, as has been pointed out several times on this board, all ponds leak. And leaks do sometimes stop. It may be that some leaf litter from the surrounding trees will be a good thing in this regard. Owing to those regular rains, the pond has been full all summer.

When I first added the fatheads to the backyard pond, they disappeared under the waterlillies and it wasn’t clear whether they survived. It is now 4 months later and there are minnows everywhere, the hidden cove, the stream-beds, open water, under the waterfalls, fathead minnows are spreading to all corners of the pond, and there’s no telling how many fill the hole under the water lillies. But, they are little ones rather than the full-sized minnows that were stocked. Watching this process, it is obvious that now is not the time to stock predators. Better to wait until these babies are ready to have babies and the real, exponential population explosion begins. Also, the country pond doesn’t have any aquatic plants for the fatheads to spawn under or to hide around. All the more reason to put off stocking bass as long as possible, until next year when some flora has taken root and the fatheads are in high gear.

When it is time to stock the predators, one will go into the backyard pond to evaluate its habits and the effect it has on the resident population of goldfish and minnows. It will be interesting to watch how fast it grows, where it likes to hang out and how it behaves during different times of the month and year. Considering how many snails there are in the pond, it would have been interesting to have included a readear in the April addition with the minnows and catfish. If one is ever caught while fishing, it may find itself in a new home.

There has been a large (apprx. 3 inch), green dragonfly ovipositing around the lilly pads. She’ll work one area, inserting the tip of her tail over and again, then moving to other spots, over and again, before flying off. It seems a bit like posting to this website, leaving something and seeing what develops.

Fantastic post Joe, just fantastic.
Thanks.

P.S. My accidental 'goldfish' experiment has gone from 5 wee ones to 1000's of 8+ inchers in a little over 2 years... with little of size enough to prey on them.

Joe:

It was great to read your post. I just built my dream pond last November and have begun stocking it slowly, starting with fatheads and shellcrackers this May.

28 channel cats (1/2 - 1.5 pounds) this summer from various outings have added to the mix. Sept. IDNR will give me gills and more cats (fingerlings) and bass in the spring.

Your right, time and money are not in bottomless supply. With 2 daughters entering their senior HS year, I've done about as much as I will get to do before about this time next year, but what I've seen has been amazing.

Hundreds of grass frogs, and at least one bullfrog have meandered. Many painted turtles (maybe one snapper?) are evident and the deer and coons hang out there constantly. It's become quite an addition to the habitat on this homestead, and I can't seem to spend enough time on it. End up at approximately 1.75 acres, when we get the last 5 feet of water in her...

[img]http://images.snapfish.com/33%3B3664%3B23232%7Ffp47%3Dot%3E232%3C%3D847%3D556%3DXROQDF%3E2323569%3B%3B8836ot1lsi[/img]

Joe, that post has the be the best I've read. I see you are a enjoyer of fine wine. Was that post inspired by any particular vintage? Exactly the diversion I needed as I watch the clock head towards 5 pm. Be careful, you might be asked to contribute to the magazine!

Joe,
I'm not much for poetry, but that's pretty good stuff!

Brad B.

Joe, inspirational at the very least.....in this very fast paced world. Thanks

Rowly

excellent post!. i had to forward this to a couple of my fishing buddies!...

chris

Joe, the renaisance pondmeister. Thank you for the great post.

Pedro

Joe, what is the difference between dragonflies and damselflies?

Norm - If Joe does not mind, I can answer that. There are numerous technical differences but most simply - Both belong to the scientific Order Odonata or vernacular odonates. Both are aquatic and have larvae (immature, sometimes called nymphs) and adult (winged) stages. Larvae live totally underwater, crawl out, sit on a surface and "hatch" into the adult. They leave their old "shell" or cast skin clinging to stems, dock posts, etc.

LARVAE- Damselfly (Zygoptera - suborder) larvae have 3 tails (trachial gills) whereas dragonfly larvae (Anisoptera - suborder) have 5 very short stiff pointed appendages at the tip of the "tail" / abdomen. Damselflies are usu better swimmers than dragonflies. Dragonfly larvae (nymphs) are shorter and stockier bodies, often resembling small armored tanks with 6 legs. Damselfly larvae are usu more slender looking than dragonfly larvae & with the characterisic 3 "tails". Note many mayfly larvae also have 3 tails.

ADULTS - The main difference is Damselflies hold their wings hold their wings together above abdomen when at rest or "perched" whereas Dragonflies hold their wings outspread (horizontally) when "perched".

Factoids. There are approx 650 different species of both odonate types in North America! and abt 5,500 worldwide. Flight speeds are around 15 to 21 mph, with some speeds up to 34 mph.

PS . Joe - Very creative post; thanks.

Joe,
You write well, my friend. Your post, while informative, provided a hard-to-put-into-words insight into the joys and rewards of pond management. I give it an A+.

Last summer, soon after the backyard pond expansion (to 1500 gallons) and adding new plants and fish, there was an infestation of anchor worms, lernia elegans, stringy looking parasites that attach under the scales of a fish and suck blood and produce eggs in an accelerating cycle. Soon, all the fish had anchor worms hanging off them and they looked sad, fins held close to the body and listless. The cure is to treat the pond with a product called dimilin, which interferes with the lernia’s ability to slough its shell as it grows. The dimilin also interferes with the same process in every other invertebrate that may be living in the water, including odonata (dragonfly and damselfly) nymphs. For that reason, it seemed best to avoid nuking the pond with dimilin since dragonflies had already deposited eggs and we were looking forward to the first generation of homegrown dragons in a few years.

It was then that the isolation/hospital tank was built. I lowered the water level in the main pond, caught most of the fish and moved them to the hospital tank. Next, I nuked the hospital tank with dimilin to kill the worms that were on the fish. The main pond was left low for several weeks. There were a couple of yoy goldfish, the frog and a couple of tadpoles left, along with all the plants. Garter snakes found the pond and enjoyed some good hunting while the water was low, cleaning out all the tadpoles and most of the young fish before we caught the slithery thieves and moved them a couple of blocks away to a neighbor’s garden. When it finally rained again that fall the pond filled and later still the goldfish, now cured of anchor worms, went back into the main pond a few at a time. Then winter set in.

This year there hasn’t been any sign of lernia. It’s puzzling what may have eliminated them from the environment since the main pond wasn’t nuked. My favorite theory is that the predatory nymphs from the dragons and damsels may have gobbled them up, or at least has kept them under control, in balance with the rest of the predator/prey invertebrates. The lernia may have gotten started in the first place because there weren’t any nymphs, because it was a new body of water and there wasn’t a base of predators to keep those parasites under control; the environment was out of balance. An Internet search for lernia produces plenty of hits, but nothing that describes their natural enemies or any biological control. Maybe water temperature had something to do with it, the winter-time drop may have been too much for them. It remains a mystery. In the wild, something maintains a balance and those kinds of parasites aren’t so much a problem.

The year West Nile virus attacked, that summer and fall it was common to find dead birds, mostly crows, some robins and blue jays, in random places where they had fallen from their perches and succumbed on the ground. By August, crows were not so common to see, even in trees that had always been regular roosts for large flocks.

West Nile is transmitted throught the bites of mosquitos, and mosquito control has become an issue. It was with this in mind that I scooped some mosquito fish from an ornamental pond in a nearby park and added them to the isolation/hospital tank. I didn’t know a thing about them except they were called mosquito fish and that they must eat mosquitos.

Mosquito fish look like guppies, act like guppies and reproduce like guppies (livebearers). They are intolerant of cold water and may not survive a midwestern winter. I don’t know this from experience, yet. If any survive through next spring, then my bad.

In April I collected the six individual fish, three females and three males (the females are larger and rounder). They have multiplied abundantly, astoundingly; there are too many to count now, but they easily number in the hundreds. The isolation tank is around 500 gallons. The mosquito larvae have disappeared. The backyard is as mosquito-free as we can remember. The isolation tank seems to be working as a magnet (still water) for breeding mosquitos and the little fish take care of the rest. The water has remained relatively clear and clean looking, and the little fish are thriving. All along, I have been tempted to add some to the main pond. What’s not to like about them? With their fecundity, they may make a good forage fish for the country pond, too.

In the isolation tank, the gambusia have done an efficient job of eliminating mosquito larvae. It is believed, however, that gambusia fry predate on many other things in addition to mosquitos and that they may in fact prefer other prey (and young fish) to mosquitos. They become a competitor for microorganisms with other predator species, fish and amphibians included. One website blames gambusia for a decline in a species of frog in California. Gambusia actually eat the tadpoles of a species of tiny frog in the highlands there. Anyway, forage may not be a good reason to introduce them to the country pond, and their appetite and fecundity make it unsuitable for the ornamental pond as well. If they survive a midwestern winter with no care, more power to them and next year the back yard will be mosquito free again. It may be that a ‘mosquito sink’ is a way to trap and cut down on the mosquito population. But gambusia may be good for little else outside its natural range, and a detriment in other ways.

Alien species invade, natives suffer. The global village brings with it carp, northern snakehead, zebra mussels and others. Native varieties/species that are abundant now, that we take for granted, may decline from stress into heirloom varieties of tomorrow.

Bill Cody mentioned story ideas in another thread that may include bugs, part of the foundation that makes a successful, balanced aquatic environment. That aspect of pond management may have larger ramifications, including to the environment around the pond. Why does fertilization help? It fosters bloom, which supports invertebrates, which little fish prey on, which bigger fish prey on, etc. What are those bugs? Which ones do what? Who eats what? Those details will be fun. Bring it on, Bill, and thanks for describing the difference between damsels and dragons in my previous post.

Shawn; We harvested chardonelle grapes from a vineyard in Levasy Mo, that processed into 15 gallons of white wine, the best we’ve ever made. Last year was a stellar year for grapes in this part of the country. Good fruit makes good wine.
Pedro; let’s visit. I’m in KCK.
Others; thanks for reading and the feedback.
All; I hope my ruminations aren’t inappropriately long and that the on/off-topic nature isn’t too off-putting.