Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Chara Question

I was wondering if you have Grass Carp and they eat / pull Chara up by the roots and all will the Chara in your pond start to slowy go away? Or is that wishful thinking?

RC

First of all Chara does not have roots. Second of all Grass Carp will eat the Chara if they don't have anything that they prefer better. I doubt the Chara will ever go completely away as it's actually an algae that spreads by spores.

Interestingly I see in literature that Chara allegedly preferred by Grass Carp but I have had several people tell me from their personal experience only if there isn't anything else.

That said Chara does hold a lot of invertebrates and is not altogether worthless. There are much worse plants out there!

The pros - Each sprig of Chara does offer competition to filamentous algae. If a pond has enough Chara there will be very little FA. The con - Chara beds become dense and inhibit water circulation at the mud water interface creating anoxic conditions and phosphorus release that tends to feed more Chara and little else. Plankton blooms are sparse in ponds with lots of Chara.

My lake had large amounts of chara. I stocked grass carp and they cleaned it out within a year. The chara has not come back and I stocked the grass carp in 2006. So in my case, I can say that they did eat the chara.

Thanks Bill I I think they will eat it if nothing else is there for them to eat.

I need to get a couple more.

RC

I've also cleaned up chara infestations with grass carp.