First get the pond filled with your well water. As soon as water is in the pond, Invertebrates mostly winged insects of numerous types such as midges, crane flies, mayflies, caddisflies, various beetles, true water bugs, dragon & damsel flies and maybe some stone flies will fly in and lay eggs in the water and quickly start colonizing the pond. Underwater habitat structures in the pond will provide surfaces for the invertebrate larva to live and develop toward a later hatching date.
There should be some nearby water bodies with near shore weed beds where you can go collect some grass shrimp or buy some grass shrimp this fall or next Spring when more food sources are available to feed the grass shrimp. Some good local bait shops should sell grass shrimp. Consider collecting some American pondweed (aka long leaf pondweed) or buying some seeds or plants. Adding some clean thin surface muds from a stream or good quality water pond or lake will help with seeding of invertebrates such as aquatic worms, nematodes, snails, aquatic spiders, rotifers, flatworms, leeches, isopods, scuds and colonization of even more organism species that are not species of winged insects.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 07/01/24 08:21 PM.
