Pond Boss Forums AERATION Should I aerate? Anatomy of an oxygen crash, or "Am I Willie Mays, or Jose Canseco?"

Bruce the quick decline of some pondweeds is common behavior when it is dying at the end of its annual cycle - the beds can collapse fairly quickly - in a few days. The dieoff could have been also enhanced by the lower transparencies due to affects of your bloom (24").

I suppose you could apply a hericide early to knock back the initial growth. Zannchillia produces a lot of seeds so expect to see some new plants form or sprout from old seeds after the herbicide dissipates. To counter this, maybe use a long lasting herbicide like Sonar - check label for effectiveness.

The abundant growth of Zannichellia consumes a lot of nutrients from the pond so I am not sure how much plant growth would be needed to provide an equivalent alternative nutrient sink. A lot of all this depends on which nutrients are in excess or limiting in your system. If you don't have enough of a vascular plant nutrient sink you are liable to see a big growth of FA instead of a plankton bloom. Often bluegreen algae surface films appear when phosphorus is available and nitrogen becomes a limiting factor because surface growing bluegreens can get their source of nitrogen from the air.

Try the islands and see what happens. You now know what to expect if they are not absorbing enough nutrients - FA or bluegreen algae or maybe even another type of growth. It is hard to fool "mother nature".

Perch survival. I know what to exect with my YP stock but I'm not really sure about your stock or strain of YP. I, like Cecil, suspect you still have some YP. You probably lost the most vulnerable individuals leaving behind those most tolerant. Once the water cools a little, try fishing specifically for YP - use fish as bait. Bgill and RES do not usually bite well on medium sized minnows 2"-2.5". Even dead minnows work well on my YP.