Before the muskrats destroyed all of the APW the shrimp would hang out in there.
Now, aside from a few remnants of cattail and arrowhead that the vermin haven't yet eaten, the only vegetation in my pond is bladderwort. Any time I mess with it I can see shrimp flipping around. The fish see them too and then poof gone no more shrimp.
Before the rats ate the APW I would catch PK every time I soaked a trap. I haven't trapped any PK since the rooted plants were wiped out. So I'm gonna say the nice stand of APW that I used to have made a happy home for PK shrimp.
Augie, I finally have a pretty fair amount of APW, but it’s too little too late for my shrimp. When we had that drought a few years ago the water level dropped down below where I had any cover on the banks. I haven’t seen any since. My traps catch about 20 tadpoles for every baby HBG, and about 20 HBG for every GSH. Only a couple YP in the traps, and 0 SMB. I think that’s more about where I place the traps vs fish numbers. I’m worried about muskrats. What’s the first sign I should be looking for that they are around? FYI, my cormorant never came back. I guess he didn't like the noisy neighborhood.
9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep. RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these. I think that's about all I should put in my little pond. Otter attack in 2023
