Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Balance of plants in the environment plants to establish during drawdown

roger that. thanks for the help. i might be dumb, but i aint stupid.

any help on IDing the mussel from that great pic?

Looks like this one
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshwater_pearl_mussel

The mussel in the above picture, is that the maximum size or are they larger? If so how much larger. BE careful trying to ID a mussel from wikipedia and pictures. There are definate features on the shell to examine to determine the species with any confidence.
I think your mussel is too narrow (width:length ratio) to be the freshwater pearl mussel. FW Pearl occurs primarily in eastern Canada and New England. Also the front end is too pointed to be the "FW Pearl".

To determine the species one should first check to see if there are freshwater mussel pictures for the state of SC - Key to the SC Mussels. If so choose from that list. Your mussel looks similar to the midwestern mussel - the Black Sandshell (Ligumia recta) a narrow bodied, pointed end mussel. Not sure if it occurs in SC. Maximum size will also help with matching it to a name.

Any idea how much water is in the pond at low pool?. A good dose copper sulfate drug around in a sac on the bottom at the rate of could kill a lot of them in not all.

Biologist is probably correct. A large population depending on density of mussels can filter a lot of water and reduce the plankton.

Planting submerged plants will also promote clear water. Worst case - to eventually eliminate the mussels you may be looking at a major pond drawdown and retenone renovation.
My advice is stay away from transferring local plants unless you really know what you are doing. Even planting nursery plants can be risky due to the common presence of unwanted,nuisance and or exotic "piggy back plants".

thanks, bill. I agree its not a Freshwater pearl. mine are not that round. I think I will find the answer in the link I posted. I just need some in my hand to examine. Too bad I have a job and all I can do is talk about it until tomorrow.

bc no dentist, in his right mind, would work on fridays.

agreed on being careful with transferring plants...but, with all the troubles we have had, i am ALMOST ready to risk it. I have a fabulous fishing pond down the road in which to examine some plants. that pond has grass carp, so my thoughts would be, IF IF IF the transferred plants become a problem, i have carp as an option before a complete overhaul? Am i correct in assuming that in some cases? all-in-all, this pond is very "fishable" for members and kids but I am certain we aren't going to grow BIG bass in our current state, although I would absolutely hate to kill the nice bream we have.....

Your pond with its current water quality condition is big enough to grow really big bass, just not a lot of them per acre due to clear water and lower fertility. To grow big bass one does not HAVE to fertilize, although fertilizing can get the job done. As an example check out the history and success of the fishery at Richmond Mill lake (PondBoss mag May-Jun 06). A search on the forum may provide some info. R.Mill lake has flow through, low fertility and tannin stained acidic water. Basically they grow big bass & BG on Aquamax pellets combined with great habitat.

biggest snowfall in ten yrs....

and this is the only way we have been able to make "cover"

Great pics, 2thDoc! Really pretty setting, though I suspect everything will melt by the weekend at the latest, huh? Enjoy it while it's there - I think there are few things in nature more beautiful than a setting like that - or like most of us have with our ponds/lakes - covered in a blanket of pristine white!

its back to normal, already. dang it....

I know the feeling. For the last three years I have dropped the level in my 20 +- foot pond about seven feet.

We've had really wet fall and winter weather all of this time, and except for removing some unwanted "cover" it has filled up so fast we've not been able to place cover, have enough low temperatures to kill weed seed, let the biggun eat the smalluns in previously deep water where there is no cover to protect the littleuns, etc.

Bing