Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Question about chara life cycle

I second Archer's comments. I just can't top it off like him to keep it down. I know where the cattle go in the chara is non-existant. They don't eat it but they stir up the water and it kill them.

Is it really "floating" or does it just expose itself when the water goes down? There's a difference.

Hey I'm keeping an open mind on this and please don't be offended. I just can't see the Chara I have floating. Getting thick enough to reach the surface yes and being exposed when the water goes down yes again. However the Chara I have would never "float to the top." I wish it would as it would be easier to remove.

Great masses of the Chara in our pond will float to the surface if we have a normal (hot sunny) summer. These floating islands appear about AUG 1st. Its not the actual chara that floats but the gasses that are trapped in it when it dies and decomposes then breaks loose from the bottom. If I run the boat through the masses with the motor wide open then they will break up and sink but that doesn't really accomplish anything. In a bad winter we have a shortage of DO as a result of all the dead weeds.

Chara is typically coarse stemmed and leafed. I cannot envision how the mat would be tight and dense enough for decompositional gasses to be entrapped and cause it to float. I would really like to see some close up photos of this happening.

I have not seen chara float up like that. What you are describing in the trapped gas and float up is part of the life cycle used by FA. Often both can be in the same pond.

Please see the photos at the top of this post...they are from my pond about 1.5 months ago. You can see how this stuff makes it up to the surface. I wouldn't say it floats up, but once it gets exposed to sun, it dies and becomes brown goo.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=11412&Number=130706#Post130706

Darryl, From the photos which are taken too far from the weed mass for a good visual, it looks to me that the Chara has a layer of degrading or old filamentous algae intertwined through out the top portion of the Chara canopy. The FA will tend to float at the surface on top of the Chara esp as the water receeds and the weed mass is close to the surface. I have seen similar situations in other ponds.

Well, tomorrow I'm going to paddle out in my canoe and take some close-up pix of the chara in my pond ... I've been putting off hauling it in too long now-- I keep on hoping it will sink!

From what I've observed, when chara grows to the very surface it emerges and "sun burns" -- turns white. Then, I have noted on several occasions that filamentous algae will become attached, almost like it's colonizing on it.

When that has happened (the FA build up) over the past couple years, I've used a powdered hydrogen peroxide product that really works well on the FA -- literally dissolves the stuff. The chara? Unscathed, of course! -- Mike

Okay, paddled out this afternoon and got a few more pictures. Hope these are helpful.

By the way, I was going to try to haul a bunch of it in ... but the wind kicked up a bit, so I thought I'd adopt a "wait and see" attitude to see what happens to this mass of chara out in the middle of the pond.

First a close-up



Now a medium shot



And a wide ...

ML - From the first photo, that is Chara. Interesting. Doesn't the wind bow it to shore where it can be drug or raked out?

Bill --
You would think so, since it's not rooted. But what I have out in the middle of the pond this year is almost like a reef. Very dense and heavy -- and darn near immobile!

The only encouraging thing I can report is that it is actually thinning out down below. My pond is very clear and I could see today that the chara is actually quite a bit thicker and wider on top than it is about 4 or 5 feet down. Perhaps there are some gases holding it up a bit. Whenever I smack it with a canoe paddle (in the interest of science, mind you -- never out of frustration), thousands of little bubbles well to the surface; and the chara seems to sink just a bit for a few moments ... and bounces back.

Where it is right now really doesn't interfere with my fishing, I just don't care for the look of a real weedy pond. It's starting to get down into the upper 40's here at night -- that may prompt some chance. -- Mike

Mike, Good info. That helps explain the floatation for me. Gas bubbles probably mostly oxygen adhering to the leaves and stems of the mat are causing it to float. Smacking the mat with the paddle dislodges the bubbles in a small part of the mat. Other bubbles quickly take the place of old bubbles as mat remains floating. My explanation is correct if you break loose a small handfull of the Chara and shake it in the water to release almost all bubbles and put the mat back into the water the handfull of Chara should now sink.

Bill --

I will do that tomorrow. Right now we're getting a good (and much-needed) rain. It's been a long, dry summer -- probably another reason the chara flourished the way it did.

On the topic of dissolved oxygen, I wonder how chara ranks as an O2 producer in bright daylight, compared to regular aquatic plants (or other algae, for that matter). Conversely, I almost shudder to think what the 02 profile of my pond would be pre-dawn without an aeration system! -- Mike

I stocked 3 Grass Carp last year in a 1/2 acre chara infested pond. The TPWD Biologist told me that the GC wouldn't eat it. I talked to the owner last weekend and he told me that he can now fish with lures. He also told me that he has never seen the carp but knows that they are earning their pay.

DD, I see you're surviving. Finally allowed back on line?

Yep, coming right along.

Bill --

Indeed, I compressed a good handful of the chara, and it sank.

Late yesterday, when the wind and rain relented a bit, I decided to heck with my chara-hauling for the day, and decided to try a bit of fishing ...



... first trout of the fall from my pond. I was able to snap this quick picture and get it back into the pond. Seemed to swim off just fine. -- Mike

Mike, that's a beautiful Virginia rainbow, look's about 18 or 20 inches.