Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Pushed shrubs into pond

I bushhogged the back side of my pond. I had not cut it in over a year. There were small trees and bushes that had grown up. Instead of pulling them up, I decided to push them into the water. My pond has no shelter for small fry. I pushed them in yesterday and today I saw swirls around them. Is there any reason not to do this? If so I can drag them out with my tractor.

If you ask my wife she would say it looks tacky (cause I did the same thing) least you can pull the junk out after it starts to deteriorate, I have hidden some by weighting it down to where it is out of sight

Johnny, if any of the trees are oaks, remove them. Oaks contain tannins which are lethal to fish. I killed an entire 2 acre pond doing that. Of course, I had some big oaks in the piles.

I will check, but I think it was all scrub brush. One or two small sapling pines. It is not that much volume in debris. Thanks for the heads up! If there is any oak, I will pull it out.
I put a large oak tree root in my aquarium that I keep tilapia in. I lost half of them before I realized they were being poisoned. It took two 90% water changes and then a long slow recovery time before they started eating again. They just sat on the bottom.

I think it's a great idea. Dense brush like that are exactly what your fry need to survive, and like Pat said, you can remove them when they start to deteriorate.

Felled two trees into the water. Wife not thrilled, says any more will have to be on opposite shoreline!

Tell her, anymore resistance about creating fish habitat and she'll be living on the opposite shoreline. Jk

That would create a major bear market in the Domestic Tranquility Index.

Crap are you positive about the oaks? I have nothing but oaks and was gonna topple a few in sometime soon...

I mean if they've survived all the leaves falling in 1 or 2 trees shouldnt kill it right?

Yup oaks are bad.... also the age or dryness has some to do with how much tannins leach out, as well as how big the pond is. I put a few large oak stumps in ..... 6 acre pond ..... tea colored water .... also from 1 acre flooded timber. Cedar are ok

My big pond is surrounded by oaks but that’s ok. It’s when you drop them into the water that creates the problem.

Do a test. Cut a chunk of green oak and put it in a bucket of water. The water will turn black.

I mean water is aalways kinda black. Guess thats why? Also- Pond is currently 5ish acres, but will be 12ish next time a tropical storm passes by (theres a shallow area dividing the pond into two sections right now, plus the stuff that dries up seasonally-ish

Have some minnows in the bucket when you put the green Oak in there and see what happens.

Regarding oaks, would a medium sized oak stump thats been weathering in the sun for 2 years be ok to put in a 1 acre pond?

After a year, I would expect that the sun had dried it. Also, one stump shouldn’t be an issue. In an acre sized pond.

I've located a few maples and palm trees I might be able to topple over but they aren't in places I really want them.

Might have to test out the 4wd on my truck and see if I can drag a few to where I want them.... after we get a little dry again cause truck would definitely sink right now.

ON a related note- do stacks of wood pallets provide good structure for fish that aren't flathead minnows?

Yeah, what he said. ^^^