Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Pics for Bill Cody.

Wood -- Thanks a whole lot for providing these photos. They were informative and helpful.

From the photos the plants look like coontail (Ceratophyllum demersum). Your photos are good enough to see the teeth along the margins of the leaves. The leaves are obviously not whorled and not feather-like which are characteristics of the milfoils which superficially look similar to coontail.

Coontail is tolerant of cool water and low light conditions. It can overwinter as an evergreen plant which is evidenced by your pictures of green viable plants after extended ice cover in your region. Seeds rarely develop on Coontail and the plant reproduces mostly by fragmentation. The stiff whorls of leaves reportedly offer prime habitat for lots of critters especialy during winter when many other underwater plants are reduced to just roots. Your reports also verify this, since you find lots of scuds in the patches of coontail. Good work reporting this. I give you a great big "atta boy".