Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction What did you do at your pond today?

Mystery poop..
Three of these floating in one corner of the pond this morning. It’s been a few weeks since my grandkids were here, so I don’t think it was one of them. 😂
The otter scat I found was green, and on the bank, so I don’t think otter.
Any ideas?


Finally getting a few drops of rain. Just a drizzle, but it’s better than nothing. Hopefully we will get .5”.

Food plots are barely hanging in there. Not much rain. But we are starting to see a few decent bucks around. Probably should wait on this guy, but he’s tempting.

Probably should target this one. I think he only had one antler last year too.

We need a feces-expert to determine what those brown things are....

Hopefully, said expert doesn't ask what it smells like.

Now you’ve got me wondering who the feces expert is? I won’t be able to add any info on smell.. 😂

Probably the worst thing we could do is bequeath that title on someone.....

I nominate Sunil!! All in favor raise their hands.

Setterguy you shared with us pictures of your pond covered in some sort of algae and then it disappeared. It undoubtedly settled to the bottom and started to decay. Big clods of dead and decaying algae (organics) will float to the surface and can look just like that. I found two online articles, both in FLorida where reports of floating 'feces' alarmed the public but on review and testing of the water quality and the clods it was decided it was not feces after all.

It fits with the description of your massive algae collapse that some floating decaying organics may resurface?

Maybe that isn't what this is but outside of Bigfoot using your pond as a latrine, I'm hoping it is just good old organic debris.

here is one article. I'd love to know what sort of suction rig can suck up that organic material so well. Sign me up for one of those vacuums!!

Floating poo....

and this one with a few more pictures (click the right arrow on the picture display to scroll through them)

poo #2..

CC, thank you so much! There wasn’t any odor, and I got pretty close. The wind had once again blown everything into one corner, so the floating “stuff” came along.
I tried to move one and it practically dissolved.
It’s just been a weird year with the American Pond Weed, then the giant algae bloom, then the otters, and now mystery poop.
Still had lots of fish, frogs, crawdads, and glass shrimp. And herons and kingfishers. Two painted turtles that have been there for years have made their presence known since the otters seem to have left for an easier life elsewhere.
Thanks again.

Good news if it just falls apart. Just more recycling of nutrients I guess.
I wish I could unlock the secret of ghost/grass shrimp. I think you have to have magic vegetation and then magic water quality. With all your predators you still have a healthy population it sounds like. I'm tempted to keep trying to stock more and hope it takes hold but with no change in my water characteristics (relatively soft ground water with a hint of iron) and very little vegetation, I'm afraid it is money burnt up for nothing.

I love painted turtles. We had about 8 enjoying our turtle floats this year. I don't see young ones so not sure if eggs didn't hatch or maybe eggs weren't laid this summer. I didn't catch any turtles making nests.

I’ve found three turtle nests this year. All were dug up and the eggs destroyed. A lot of coons have decided never to return to our place, but they have a lot of relatives. We do have more turkeys than we’ve ever had, but the poor turtles can’t get a hatch off.
Those shrimp really surprised me. Maybe yours will too. I thought they were cleaned out after a bad drought and low water levels. We’ve been near full for a few years now, and they have really come back.
I don’t think we’ve got nearly as many SMB as I thought we did. Maybe that’s why they are doing well.

Put 100 PK grass shrimp in today. Very minimal vegetation in the pond yet, but with nothing to share the pond with besides FHM, a few map turtles & possibly a couple paper shell crawfish, I'm hoping they'll be all right.

Had wanted to get the minnows & grass shrimp in earlier, but with the last of the excavation not done till recently, I wasn't sure if that'd be a good idea or not.

I can say the FHM have definitely spawned/reproduced. Saw several small schools yesterday afternoon & there are way more of the normal colored FHM than we stocked. Not an ideal situation for the forage currently, but at least they won't have to worry about predators till April or May & I hope to have some beneficial vegetation planted by then. Guess we'll see.

Finally got my BC stocked in my pond, somehow they got missed in the earlier stocking, I should be catching and eating some by now.
I will try to post a pic but don't know if it will work, I haven't been able to open or see anybody's pics in a little while, don't know if its just me or if something is off.

Got the ol tape measure out today and im sitting at 30" inches low. GGGrrrrr we even had a couple small storms roll thur. Nothing that amounted to much but its the only moisture we have had in a couple three months.

RS, we haven't had a rain over .15 since may 14... If I had a watershed pond, I believe I would be in trouble. Small lakes and ponds in the 150 mile range of us are drying up-and have never been dry in my adult lifetime.. A couple of western KS community lakes have been salvaged in the last month, never seen it like this before.

Put the picture on an on-line image hosting site and then copy/paste the image link here. No idea when UBB will fix the attach image part of this forum.

Went to pull out some weed(slender spike rush) the underwater kind and pulled out a glob and noticed hundreds of grass shrimp flopping around,so I put it back in so not to kill them. Pond is over 3’ low with not much hope for rain till next year…. Don’t look good . Got a trackhoe coming and gonna clean out flooded timber in upper pond so I can fish it if it fills back up

Pat, got near an inch of rain today at my place. Did you get any?

Just a bit not enough to mark the gauge….

That is pretty impressive Pat!

I would have been worried that the dropping water level would have left your grass shrimp with no place to hide from predators. They appear to be bunching up very effectively in the cover that is still available.

Well Rod the weed goes out to 6+’ deep and as the water dropped the weed just follows it out… it’s a problem that I don’t think there is a cure for, carp won’t eat it and poison won’t touch it

In that case, I hope Black & Decker is developing a line of tiny weed-whackers that your grass shrimp can operate!

I still hope your cover protects your forage broodstock, but your top predators used this opportunity to feast while the water level is low.

Have you caught any fish this fall and observed the relative weights?

Rod I don’t think the shrimp are qualified to operate machines that well…. Worth a try though. The larger bass seem to be almost thin, where the 12-14” are ok due to eating shad schools. Lots of 2” bg in weeds but lacking on 3-4” bg. Haven’t fished that much due to higher temperatures. Got tons of larger bg that live under the semi-floating pier an come to feeder.got a good bloom going that helps the bunch of shad,and hopefully shiners. Will see what shakes out as weather cools a bit. After dark the fish have been busting the surface all around the pond

Darn, I was hoping your large bass were getting fat and happy!

When I started reading Pond Boss many years ago, I was so excited to realize that pond management is a science. I concluded that if you did everything right, then you would have a great pond.

Now that I have read much more, I have realized keeping a pond in balance is hard work. Eventually, it will go out of balance despite our best efforts. You then go back to the science and start performing the corrections.

Good thing there are so many knowledgeable posters on the forum to help with that complicated process!

Haven’t fished for the big guys since it has been so hot…. Think the large ones have plenty to eat as the 6+” bg are very plentiful. Gonna start going after the jumbos soon now that it is cooling off some

Sounds like some enjoyable fall "work" at your pond.

Hopefully, you have some kids/grandkids or good buddies to help you out on that pond project!