Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Pond Plants

Every spring I get a healthy growth of various pond plants and by late summer/early fall they are gone. What happens to them?

In the pond I have CNBG, BCP, LMB, TP and lots and lots of Turtles. An electrofishing survey 8-9 years ago claimed to have seen a GC(did not boat it) but I have never seen one myself.

Do you have an ID on any of the plants?

Are you far enough south that your tilapia survive over the winter? If so, then you could have a population of all sizes. Perhaps they consume at different portions of the plants' growth cycle and manage to clean up most of your growth.

I suspect you may also have grass carp, since they are pretty efficient at consuming many types of plants. Do you have a connection to a creek (and therefore could have fertile GC), or would any carp be sterile triploids? I see carp the most in the spring where they are "rolling" in the shallows during the spawn and really churning the water muddy in the area. (If you have a lot of them, I think you would have noticed.)

Do you have crayfish? Those dudes can also mow some weeds.

I only have questions! Hopefully, some experts will drop in and actually help you with some answers.

No, TP do not survive the north Texas winters. No connection to a creek, all runoff from surrounding fields. I'm not sure about crayfish. I don't see any of their mounds. I have been meaning to purchase some. The plants are mostly rooted to the shore and float on the surface.

You have falsified all of my easy reasons!

Going to have to wait for an expert.

Do the turtles eat pond vegetation?

I think most of the common turtles are omnivores.

I know they have eaten the lily pads and some of the other emergent plants that some of the members have tried to establish in their ponds. I think they also like duckweed.

Perhaps after they eat the spring bounty of crawling/swimming organisms that are part of their diet, they later turn to your plants?

There was a discussion on Pond Boss earlier this year about pond turtles. Most of the people saw them as a net positive and/or a natural part of their ponds. Some people lamented that they will go after newly-planted desirable plants. However, I don't believe anyone said they were capable of clearing out an entire pond's worth of plants?

Once again, still waiting for some experts - and you are stuck with me!

Top suspects for eating them would be GC, Crayfish, Muskrats for me. Turtles will eat plants, but it would take a crazy population to completely eliminate a whole pond's worth, in my opinion.

lmoore (and others),

I see muskrats or their burrows when I have been fishing. However, I haven't observed them enough to know their preferred food. I have seen them digging up shore plants with bulbs or rhizomes like iris or cattails.

Is that their favorite dinner? Do they also eat aquatic plants if they have eaten all of their favorite emergent near-shore plants?

I would be surprised if 8-9+ yo grass carp would clean out a pond. Like a geriatric, they slow down their eating as they get older. Declining appetite is one of the reasons we should ladder stock GC. Also, during electroshocks, GC often float in place like catfish so getting an accurate number can be tough. Crayfish, turtles, muskrats, beavers, and nutria, can all be problems. Have you seen any huts, or muddy water in the same area every day?

What plants have disappeared? Were they all completely under water, or were some rooted on the bank and spread in the water? Cooler water temps with longer nights could also be an issue.

Just throwing darts at it.

Without knowing an ID on the plants there is no way to get an answer for you. Some plants are seasonal and disappear on their own in late summer. Other than a bunch of GC, none of the other critters listed will do what you are seeing with the exception of a boatload of Rusty Crayfish. Do you have them? When I say a boatload, the BOW's that I have seen with minimal weed growth due to them have 1 every square foot seen in the shallows when a flashlight is used at night to look at the pond/lake bottom. i.e. 9-10 per square yard walking around searching......