After several years of a reprieve from curly-leafed pondweed in my smb/yp pond, it appears to be coming back with a vengeance. I thought that the papershell crayfish had it under control, but with so few submerged plants over the last few years, perhaps the smb knocked them way back? Hopefully, the crayfish population will build back up and a balance will be reached, rather than boom-and-bust cycles.
I think you have just described an example of the reasons for boom-and-bust cycles in nature.
As your crayfish prune back the cover used to avoid predation, the predators are then much more capable of pruning back the crayfish population. If the crayfish are not extirpated from your pond, then they should come back subsequent to the come back of your submerged plants.
Do you have any rock available? I think the more angular the better - to create jumbled stacks in the pond with lots of crevices.
You could place some on a shoreline that is causing you erosion problems and extend the stone placement out into the water for the crayfish.
If the "look" of the exposed stone doesn't match the preferred vision for your pond, you could put some stone below the normal water level in a few spots around the pond. I don't know how small of a stack could still serve as a crayfish refuge from your SMB?
If you are contemplating placing some stone, maybe you should start a new crayfish thread. Another option would be to PM Quarter Acre, he is definitely one of our crayfish experts!
