The plants are both a hinderance and a blessing. They provide places for small fish to hide in, thus increasing the #'s of small BG and do limit some BG bedding, but I've seen them clean out areas in bottom growing algae (both FA and Chara) to spawn. I haven't seen BG spawn under mats of floating FA, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't happen - it just means that I haven't seen it.

If you are light on larger BG, keep whacking the smaller LMB, and start a feeding program that is geared to growing larger BG.

How many years have the BG been in the pond, and if recently stocked, how big were they when stocked?

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3/4 to 1 1/4 ac pond LMB, SMB, PS, BG, RES, CC, YP, Bardello BG, (RBT & Blue Tilapia - seasonal).