Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Southern Naiad. Good or Bad?

First a little background. I have a one acre pond. The pond is man made and 20 years old. It is 14 feet deep at one end and 3 feet deep at the other. It contains, bluegill, crapie,white perch, bass, Koi, catfish and I even found an eel in the spill way. It is spring fed and rarely does not overflow. Due to near zero rain for months, this year is one of the times it is not overflowing.
I have had the tradtional FA problems and dealt with it by removing it. For the first time it has, what I believe is, a Southern Naiad bloom with a little Egeria mixed in, around the entire shoreline. It is getting worse as time passes. It started out close to the bank and is now out ~ 6 - 8 feet. It is becoming very dense. It lifts out of the water very easy with a rake. It seems to only grow in full sun. Any where a tree shades the pond the bloom is near non existant.The entire center of the pond, I assume because of the depth, is weed free. My questions are do I remove this stuff or leave it? Is it detrimental to the pond? Will it progressively get worst next year if I do not act on it? Sorry for the lenghty post but I thought the pond description was relevant.

Thanks
Ron

Left unchecked, the naiad and Egeria/Elodea will continue to increase while causing the water to get clearer. Thus the plants will be able to grow farther and deeper toward the center of the pond. Both of those plants are fairly easy to remove with a Lake Rake or similar wide rake with a rope attached. Both plants can spread by broken or loose fragments from raking sessions. Naiad also spreads by seeds whereas Egeria-Elodea rarely produces seeds. Egeria-Elodea tolerate low light conditoins thus they have a competitive advantage over some other submerged pondweeds. The main problem is that these weeds can spread pretty fast and raking of a one acre pond will be pretty labor intensive to keep the weeds out of the entire shallow end and "at bay" in the rest of the pond esp when they colonize deeper than 6ft. White amur - grass carp will eat both plants to varying degrees if you are interested in some biological weed control and assistance. If you use the grass carp, you should install a fence or weir to keep the GC from swimming out the overflow esp during high water or increased flows.

Bill, Thanks for the response. The pond,up until now, has been self sustaining.I believe it is its own ecological system and I try not to interfere with it unless there is a potential issue like the Naiad. There has always been some FA and a little bit of grass in the pond but never this much. It is by no means over running the pond, at approximately 20% of the surface area, but that is what I do not want to happen. I have to wonder if it is due to the lack of rain.Is there a better time of the year to remove the Naiaid? I am going to do it mechanically first. I do not think it will be that bad due to its proximity to the shoreline. I am not a big fan of chemicals. I have to do some research but I do not believe the grass carp are legal in Maryland because of the Chesapeake Bay. On another note, what is the deal with snails? I see a lot of them on the Naiad. I occassionaly find the empty shells on the embankment, some shells are the size of golf balls.

Ron

Gates, The snails are feeding on the periphyton(epiphyton) that is growing on the Naiad. The epiphyton has lots of microscopic algae and assoicated small invertebrates in and among the growth that the snails are grazing on.
Are you positive that you have Naiad? Southern naiad and most of the naiads are pretty weak leaved and stemed to allow for snails the size of quarters to golf balls to move around on the plants with out colapsing the entire plant. This is especially true for the spindly growth habit of naiad in deeper water. Shallow water naiad often has a growth habit of shorter stouter growing bushier plants that could probably physically support grazing by large snails. Can you post a close photo of your "southern" naiad and Egera.? The various naiads can be difficult to accurately identify.

Bill, The snails on the Naiad are very small, the shells on the shore I have seen are the size of golf balls. Sorry to mislead you. Yes I will get a picture tommorrow. I am not positive on the weed identification and I am by no means an expert on weed identification, I referenced the various aquatic weed sites to look up the weeds. I would appreciate another opinion.

Thanks
Ron

Bill, I posted the pictures under the Id plants category.

Thanks
Ron