Alien Invasion - I want my pond back !

[Eric Salop]

Good news - All paperwork done
The good news is that the environment agency have decided it's ok for fish to be swimming in the pond and have given me a second piece of paperwork, so I can now go out and get a few fish.


Not so good news - Pond Invaded Again
This Alien Invasion thing could be turning into a sequel.
During the paper chase, new Aliens have landed and are trying to steal the pond for a second time. At first I thought it was just native duckweed, then as it changed from green to a red/purple blanket that spread rapidly over the surface, I realised it was something else entirely. Another plant that is alien to this part of the world.

I took that picture a few days back and it has kept on spreading since. Today there is no open water left.


My best guess is that this is from the Azolla family (Azolla filiculoides ?). If that guess is right, I am hoping this may be familiar to some of you, as I understand this grows in North America.

 

[hunt4570]

Are there plant eating fish you could put in there? I'm getting ready to add some grass carp to my ponds.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Maybe try looking here?
AQUAPLANT

 

[Depmandog]

Eric, It sure looks to me this that you have pegged the correct genus. Here is a informative site Factsheet - Azolla filiculoides (Red Water Fern) It sounds like physical control is pointless as it propagates by fragmentation. The use of biological control might be you best option: "using the weevil Stenopelmus rufinasus can be extremely effective in controlling infestations as both adults and larvae feed on the fronds"

 

[Depmandog]

Duplicate post

 

[Eric Salop]

With all the willow trees now cut down, the wind has done a good job of disrupting the second wave of alien invaders, pushing them into the far corner. No doubt that fight will start once again as things get growing in the warmer months and we have a few calm days for the water fern (Azolla filiculoides) to multiply. One way or another I'm fairly sure ways will be found to keep enough of the surface clear to let oxygen in, so as 2016 came along I decided it was time to get on with finally stocking some fish.

Fortunately there is a very good fish farm less than 10 miles away. A phone call and email confirmed they had the species and size of fish I was looking for and I was happy to take delivery any day they liked, as long as it was this winter. Today was that day. The fish farm owner came up first thing this morning with his pickup truck full of tanks of fish. Not great conditions for me and him as the rain came at us sideways in a cutting wind, but I'm sure the fish didn't mind that at all and at least there was no ice on the pond to contend with.

The big concern was to not allow any of my alien infested water to come into contact with any of the fish farm equipment, or else it could get transferred to the next customer, or his rearing ponds. My gear is permanently contaminated, so the easy way was for me to do the wading. That and the weather limited my chances for taking pictures and I only managed a quick snap.




[Picture of a net full of fish would be here, however, TBN doesn't want to play tonight and I can't wait for another day to give you this news !]



As I may have told you before, I grew up in the city of Sheffield, where the main rivers were so poluted by industry that nothing could survive in them (not counting the students, who each year would risk all by taking to the oily water in an annual raft race). As children we found ponds to fish and escape from life on the huge, local authority owned, housing estates. In those days I never anticipated there would be a day in my life like this, when I have, out in beautiful countryside, my own pond full of fish. I am such a lucky man.

 

[Navasot]

We fight a lot of underwater and topwater grasses here... learned to love the lilies but the American pondweed and salvia is terrible.. the lilies help choke out all life below them and helps fish grow big.. just a pain fishing it sometimes

 

[Larro Darro]

[Picture of a net full of fish would be here, however, TBN doesn't want to play tonight and I can't wait for another day to give you this news !]

Eric, I have been forced to post the picture to Face Book, or some other site first, then copy IP address and post to TBN that way. I started a thread over at MyFitnessPal I called Testing123 that I often use for that purpose. It is full of supper and garden pictures.

Glad you got your fish. We have been having lots of rain, but my pond is barely holding it's own. It was stocked the last two summers, but I'm not sure if it's going to last this year. It went from 5 acres down to less than 2 in a few months.

 

[Xfaxman]

-------
The big concern was to not allow any of my alien infested water to come into contact with any of the fish farm equipment, or else it could get transferred to the next customer, or his rearing ponds. My gear is permanently contaminated, so the easy way was for me to do the wading. That and the weather limited my chances for taking pictures and I only managed a quick snap.

[Picture of a net full of fish would be here, however, TBN doesn't want to play tonight and I can't wait for another day to give you this news !]

-----------------------

Pictures now need to be less than 1000 KB or they will be ignored. I don't know if there is a pixel size limit, so I will try to upload one of your previous pictures that is 493 KB and 2559x1919.

Well, that pixel size worked. :thumbsup:

 

[clemsonfor]

Eric, I have been forced to post the picture to Face Book, or some other site first, then copy IP address and post to TBN that way. I started a thread over at MyFitnessPal I called Testing123 that I often use for that purpose. It is full of supper and garden pictures.

Glad you got your fish. We have been having lots of rain, but my pond is barely holding it's own. It was stocked the last two summers, but I'm not sure if it's going to last this year. It went from 5 acres down to less than 2 in a few months.

what is myfitnesspal?

 

[Larro Darro]

what is myfitnesspal?

It's the {free} site I use to track my calories ate and burned. It has a social network feature kind of like TBN. I lost about 75 pounds using their app.

 

[Eric Salop]

A Memorable Day
The 15th of September, 2016 was a day to remember for me and the alien pond. I thought I ought to tell everyone who has followed this thread from the beginning about it, but first a quick update on what has been happening in the pond this year.

Previously this year
With the willow gone from the west bank, over the winter the wind was able to put a good ripple on the surface many times. I was hoping this would to deter the Crassula from coming back. The other invader, water fern, disappeared completely.

Come spring time there were lots of presumably wave dislodged pieces of Crassula collecting around the outside. I briefly tried to take some of this out with a pitchfork, but it wasn't matted together enough to lift out, so I left them for later. The thinking was, once they form floating rafts, I could easily drag them out with the 4-in1 bucket like before.

Other than that, everything was looking good. No signs of any of the fish that went in during winter, but I was fairly confident they would show once the weather warmed. It would soon be time to do a spot of fishing.

Then ...

 

[Larro Darro]

Is that a new outbreak?

 

[dickfoster]

Nice lookin pond. You sure did enough work and deserve it. I hope your wife is doing better too.

 

[Eric Salop]

Back with a vengeance
The water is usually deep blue, caused by the dye introduced previously to make it more difficult for the Crassula to grow below the surface. Once there were fish in there I stopped putting dye in and now I was noticing a green tinge to the water. I would have thought that was just algae, however one other strange thing was that the floating Crassula islands were no longer changing shape and moving around the pond with the wind. They had to be anchored to something, but what ? Only way to find out was to put on my waders and go see.



I got a cold feeling down my spine that I wasn't going to like what I would find. I got an even colder feeling as I waded in - my waders had developed a leak big time.

The Crassula on the surface was not as thick as last year, but it was still quite hard to walk through the water. Previously, even before I introduced the blue dye, it had been content to stay within the top foot or so of water. Now I could feel it as far down as I could reach. It was back with a vengeance, only now the Crassula has found another trick and was growing up from the bottom of the pond. I didn't like the feel of it tangling around my legs at all, so I retraced my steps back to the bankside straight away.

Many of you warned me that this plant could grow from small fragments when I started pulling it around, but with chemicals not being an option, at the time there seemed no other way ( apart from filling it in and starting again, as Luke kindly suggested). What I hadn't appreciated was this new form of growth. Why oh why didn't I wait another year before putting fish in? I could have drained it and cleared everything out. Ah well, too late for regrets, I was just going to have to find a new way to fight off the alien before it starved the fish of oxygen.

 

[the old grind]

Sounds like the floating Crassula blocked enough light that it just didn't need rooting. Creeping fertility is a 'given'. I put in 1 gal of dye/yr (Blue Bayou, Aqua shade) for 18-20 acre feet. I adds quite a bit of color, IMO not enough to suppress growth (avg depth is ~6' or 2m). Two gallons would be closer to what the bottle recommends, but I don't like the inky look at that amount. (in retrospect, ... oops!)

A friend has a 'pond guy' scatter some pellets where he doesn't want cattails (I love 'em) in his 1/2 ac of water. (avg depth ~10 12') He has good fish populations, but feeds them and has a windmill/bubbler setup to keep water oxygenated and 'open' in Winter. The chemicals are added minimally and help to maintain an o'all bare look not helped one bit by mowing to the water's edge on three sides. :confused3: Whatever is used doesn't seem to harm the fish.

I bought a 'Weed Gator' and while it uproots vs cut there are few pond plants that don't regrow from little bits. I also have so much area to cover that I realize I'll never make much of a dent in o'all bottom growth.

So many folks say "I wish I had water like that in my yard", but IMO most who have wouldn't want that 'job' in their retirement place. Away from home adds to work to maintain, so the OP has his hill to climb. Guys like me have to maintain an 'easy care' appeal to resell later. You have to have 'been there' to appreciate or disdain the burden of keeping it nice. I hate to think that such a beautiful pond as Eric's won't stay that way without a lot of work. Good luck! "I'm pullin' for ya ..."

 

[Doloe]

Sounds like the floating Crassula blocked enough light that it just didn't need rooting. Creeping fertility is a 'given'. I put in 1 gal of dye/yr (Blue Bayou, Aqua shade) for 18-20 acre feet. I adds quite a bit of color, IMO not enough to suppress growth (avg depth is ~6' or 2m). Two gallons would be closer to what the bottle recommends, but I don't like the inky look at that amount. (in retrospect, ... oops!)

A friend has a 'pond guy' scatter some pellets where he doesn't want cattails (I love 'em) in his 1/2 ac of water. (avg depth ~10 12') He has good fish populations, but feeds them and has a windmill/bubbler setup to keep water oxygenated and 'open' in Winter. The chemicals are added minimally and help to maintain an o'all bare look not helped one bit by mowing to the water's edge on three sides. :confused3: Whatever is used doesn't seem to harm the fish.

I bought a 'Weed Gator' and while it uproots vs cut there are few pond plants that don't regrow from little bits. I also have so much area to cover that I realize I'll never make much of a dent in o'all bottom growth.

So many folks say "I wish I had water like that in my yard", but IMO most who have wouldn't want that 'job' in their retirement place. Away from home adds to work to maintain, so the OP has his hill to climb. Guys like me have to maintain an 'easy care' appeal to resell later. You have to have 'been there' to appreciate or disdain the burden of keeping it nice. I hate to think that such a beautiful pond as Eric's won't stay that way without a lot of work. Good luck! "I'm pullin' for ya ..."

I'm beginning to think like this poster. Perfect backyard ponds are far from low maintenance.
My problem is duckweed and herons.

I've really enjoyed your story/saga and can't wait for the next episode.

 

[Eric Salop]

I don't want to think about how much time I have spent on that pond, although I suppose it gives me some good exercise and so far only one heron has made an appearance. Now and again I will have a search on the internet to see if anyone has come up with an easy answer to control Crassula in this country. It always comes up as :confused3:

About the only person who seems to have a good word for the plant is my wife. She says it keeps me out of other trouble and wants some more of it composted down for her plants.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Would sterilized carp eat it?

 

[Eric Salop]

Know your enemy
Back in the days when photographs were more about chemistry than digital electronics, the first camera I bought for myself came from Russia. It was a very sturdy thing that was focused like a WW2 artillery rangefinder and looked like it had been made in a tank factory. It did the job though for many years, although I longed to have one of the fine Japanese optical masterpieces that didn't require me to fill my pocket with a separate light meter (that pocket space now being filled for the last few years by a phone).

When the first of our children was about to be born, I persuaded my wife that I simply must buy a new camera, or we would never be able to remember just how cute they were. A baby girl and an Olympus OM10 joined the household.



It was the sort of camera looked down on by photography enthusiasts, but to me it was almost as beautiful as the little girl I saw through the lens. That was over 30 years ago, many electronics gadget have come and gone in that time and I happily switched from film to digital as soon as that was affordable. I occasionally think I should have replaced the tiny Cannon compact that didn't survive being introduced to a fence post, but most days I am content to snap away with a relatively cheap Android phone.

I can hear you all thinking, what's all this got to do with Aliens ? Well I came to realize that unless I can see what is going on below the surface of the pond, the Alien is always going to have the upper hand. If I am going to try and keep it from taking over, it would help if I could get a better understanding of how it grows and how it reacts to what I do when trying to get rid of it. There are lots of underwater cameras now on the market and that sounded a lot better than taking a peek with a mask and snorkel. An Olympus waterproof came out quite well in a lot of reviews I read, so with past fond memories of that brand, it was time to win my wife around again and explain why I simply must buy a new camera.