Will Koi or Goldfish eat Chara? I'm wondering if I could put just one of these fish in my 1/4 SA pond. Right now I only have bluntnose minnows and spotfin shinners. No Chara yet but I'm expecting it.

Loretta,

Im sure the experts will opin...but the obvious thought flashing thru my head is tilapia...

do their job and die off in MI.

can't wait to see other responses..

Cheers...

A carp (Koi) or a goldfish is't born to eliminate all weeds in a pond. They may eat a little of this or that but it's not the way how you should fight against various weeds.
My thoughts are based on my experience and I'd be glad to hear what others have to say.

I once had 20 KOI in my 1 acre pond while Eurasian Milfoil completely took it over. The KOI had no effect on it at all. Then I put in 18 grass carp over a two year period and in 4 years the milfoil was completely gone and my cattails that I had were mostly controlled. After a winter fish kill last year all of my grass carp were killed except one about 2 feet long and I see a lot of curly leaf pond weed and a little cattails floating in the water that he is working on. At some point this year or next I will probably add 6 more GC.

I didn't realize they ate cattails, good info.

They don't like cattails much. In cases when grass carps have eaten most of weeds, they may start eliminating cattails. If weed amount is sufficient then they won't even think about eating cattails.

They'll (GC) eat about any plant, but they definately have their preferences. If their favorite plant is gone, then they'll start working down the list. Since Mi. doesn't allow GC, I think Tilapia (if they allow them) is the last choice besides chemicals.

Yep MI doesn't allow grass carps, I don't know about Tilapia. I haven't found a place that sells them in MI so I don't know how I would go about getting some.

My chara problem wasn't too bad last year and I treated it but the treatment was late so not as effective as I would have liked. I'm going to treat it again soon so hopefully there won't be any chara left. I thought a single vegetarian fish might be a little insurance and also for a pet For real control I would love to try tilapia.

I only have minnows right now (stocked last summer) and I might not stock anything more until next year. Eventually I would like some yellow perch and RES, a few years later a few walleye. I'm in no rush to increase the biomass so fast.