Well, I haven't started the pond yet I know it's location and approx. size. Just want to make sure I do a lot of research to get exactly what I want, which I have for about 4 years now. My goals would be big/trophy LMB with some bonus fish thrown in there. LMB will be the main target, big ones (I could spend a long time talking about the ins and outs but I'll save that for a later post). The eventual site of my pond is in a wooded location. I found that, there will probably be a lot of detritus materials produced by the surroundings of this site that will end up in the pond so I tried to find things that could help with that and it led me to find all kinds of things that are native but probably won't end up in every pond unless you add them and this got me thinking about the benefits it could bring. With the abundance of detritus materials (feeding the fairy shrimp, Triops, Red Ribbon Leeches, scuds, snails, etc.) you could add a few straw/hay bales for a few of them (daphnia), there would need to be established, appropriate aquatic vegetation in place for the Grass shrimp etc. the Green Hydra, Crayfish, and Salamanders, feed on some of the others like the worms and scuds etc. The clams, mussels, and sponges are all filter feeders, needing plankton which would be manipulated by the fertilization, etc.
I realize the snails could cause problems but would try to get as close to a balance with snail predators as I could. Some snails of course are better than others. I did not realize that about the daphnia, what causes that? I'm sure there are several small creatures out there that I didn't mention, anyone have any to add?
Last edited by stang00; 12/09/14 02:51 PM.
