Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Pond Shape vs. Fish yield

Jimmy - I'll try and adress thes point by point.
1. Yes, I had the same response for my search of periphyton. A quick scan of the items indicatated it was almost all too technical and esoteric or specialized for the layman. I'm sure there are probably some simplified and generalized descriptions out there I just right now cannot think of any that are commonly available.

2. Frogs are having very little direct impact on the insect life (larvae) for small fish that I mentioned above in relation to periphyton community. Frogs, juvenile & adults, are feeding only on air borne insects). Tadpoles feed on algae and periphyton and probably some small invertebrates that too slow to escape the slow grazing tadpole. The insect larvae that I referred to as being associated with periphyton are immature stages of several thousand species of aquatic insects that occur in aquatic habitats of North America. Numerous patterns of these larvae are imitated by the fly fisherman's wet flies. These larvae spend a big portion of their life span underwater and then hatch or emerge, and as adults fly around, mate, lay eggs and die. This type of insect is commonly called and aquatic insect. Frogs only eat the adults not the larvae.

3. This periphtyon based type of ecosystem prevails in all ponds & lakes. The more underwater structure (surface area) that is present the more periphyton that will grow there since periphyton reqires a surface for attachment. As a general rule, repeat general, (not in all cases & exceptions do occur)the amount or height of the growth of periphyton tends to increase as the fertility increases providing adequate light hits the growing surface. When perphyton mats get too thick, they will slough off the surface and may float to the surface or sink. Surfaces are then quickly recolonized.

Water clarity determines how deep periphyton will grow underwater.

Also as the fertility increases and/or the nitrogen - phosphorus ratios change the compostion of species composing the periphyton community also change. This is one reason why periphyton communities are studied because the presence of certain species and/or species combinations can indicate environmental condition/health, changes in condition, nutrient enrichment or pollution levels.

4. Normally periphyton amounts are NOT abundant enough by themselves to cause oxygen shortages. More likely large die offs of aquatic rooted plants, filamentous algae blooms or phytoplankton blooms will be the major cause of your DO shortages. Associated peripyton deaths will also then contribute to the total oxygen losses due to bacterial decompostion of all the dead material. In your case the collapse of rooted weed bed growths in the pond's "handle" during winter will be more of a concern for DO loss in winter than the periphyton. This is why you may not want to let them get too thick or try and keep them confined to the shallow arm of the pond. Spot treatment of some of the weeds in the "handle" may be a viable option if you ever experience winter kills.

5. Note, chemical algae treatments also impact periphton growths since it is algae based or dominated.

6. Periphyton maintains healthy growths during winter if light intensities are adequate. Although species composition will likely be different during each season of the year.

7. Perch growout idea is a good idea in your case esp if you have LM bass present. Also practicing selective harvest and keeping the majority of bass in the smaller size range would help with improving the perch numbers.

More questions?