Anacharis? What are your thoughts?

[pecan]

I have heard you need a lot of anacharis to keep a healthy pond. I put some in last year and did not like them. They get covered with the blanket algae and look yukky, they are a pain to clean out in the fall and they are expensive for the amount I am told I should have (400).

Do you all run ponds without them and do they do fine?

I have a lot of other floating, and marginal plants, am planting a small bog this year and am installing skippies today. Plus I have about 7000 GPH flow out of two pumps in a 5000 gallon pond.

 

[sissy]

I tried them also and they clogged the pump up and I took them out and put them in the stock tank ,and plus the koi just ripped them to shreds and thats what cause some of my pump problems and then got sucked into my filter and started to grow there also .Still getting some growing here and there and I only put them in 2 months ago .

 

[j.w]

I have tried keeping them and know a good spot to get some free growing in the wild but the ones I collected did not winter over well and did get gunk all over them in the bathtub pond where I tried to over winter them. I think the variety that I have needs to be planted in soil and doesn't so good free floating. Mine is a skinny kind and have heard that the really thick kind that grows like a rope free floating is a good kind to have. Can't find that anywhere tho. Think it might be the kind called Canadian Elodea or ? My fish sure like to eat up whatever I put in the pond tho. It doesn't last in there at all!

 

[taherrmann4]

I actually like the stuff but my fish devour it all. I used to buy 100 clumps of it a year but quit about 3 years ago b/c they eat it so fast. I am going to try and grow some in my aquarium and move it to the pond this year, put it in one of koiguys ring thingys where the fish can't get to it.

 

[addy1]

I had a few pieces, the fish ate them, the pond does fine without them. But I do have a lot of other plants, in the pond and bog.

 

[adavisus]

Anacharis can be a bit jaded this time of year, it's last Summers growth which has spent maybe four months close to dormant in perilously cold waters through Winter. Given a month or two of good growing temperatures in conditions it likes it will be growing lush thick strands and popping white blooms about a half inch in size.

Not to be confused with elodea and a couple of other submerged aquatic plants that can be scrawny and choke a pond.

A pond largely planted with anacharis will be crystal clear to four foot down, the lush thick stands a haven for small critters like turtles, tadpoles and fish, a tricky hunting ground for pesky herons and burly bullfrogs, though, dragonfly larvae are well adapted as ambush predators

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[j.w]

Ok then Andy maybe it's Elodea that I'm finding out in the wild pond cuz it's rather scrawny but sure grows well in the soil of the wild ponds and it is growing all over in them!

 

[j.w]

I just found this on the net from our state info telling the difference between the species:
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/plants/weeds/aqua002.html
I think I am getting the thinner shorter stuff at the wild ponds.

 

[adavisus]

Elodea has a rampant tunneling habit, when it colonises lilypots its capable of choking and destroying waterlilies before they can get going in Spring. When weeding is attempted, the top growth can be ripped off and it springs back worse than before from its tunneling roots. Anacharis does not have a tunneling habit, it has simple roots, which when you rip it out, its out.

Alas, elodea is one of those native plants which is far more of a nuisance than the 'exotic' anacharis, lol. The larger lush growth, easier to control is however groused at by numbskulls in botany and government who through their neglect and incompetence (or hopes of vain environmental crusading aka grabbing government gravy) have failed to monitor freshwater ecologies and allowed such wonderful plants to grow out of control in unsuitable locations.

As many habitats are going to be invaded by something, native or exotic, it's kinda too late (or mugging taxpayers) to discover five, ten, twenty years after the event...

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.co...s/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[pecan]

I put 150 bunches in my pond last year and they did not do well at all. I actually didn't see again until fall when I pulled them out because they were on the bottom covered in blanket algae all summer. They don't come back in the spring here so I pulled them out in the fall when I mucked out the pond and they were all dead stems. I had to buy them online because none of the pond shops sell them here and one told me the reason why is because they don't do well here and they only stock pond plants that do well in our location.

This is why I am installing skippies and a mini bog this year. There are other under water plants that do well here but I am told they are extremely invasive so don't I want to got that rout.

 

[j.w]

Today I went outside to do what now I can't even remember but it was cold and windy but not raining and the next thing ya know I was fixing rocks and moving things a bit and then I found myself pulling the pieces of Anacharis, Elodea, Egeria or whatever ya call the stuff outta the big floating ring w/ the algae clumps in it putting it in a holding tub for a bit while I could pull that ring out and clean it out. I noticed the Anacharis was actually starting to grow again so there is hope for the stuff yet. Put it back in the floating ring once I had all the algae out and rinsed off the Anacharis and now we'll see if it grows. I have a hose now running from a pump in the pond into the ring for a bit of water movement hoping that might discourage the algae or just kinda keep the holes in the ring screen cleaned out better so it's not so much like stagnant water in there. That way this year if little baby fish squeeze through the holes like last yr they will have some oxygen to breath better w/ the hose running from above splashing down on the surface. I think some died in there last yr due to lack of oxygen..........just a guess tho.

 

[oneofakindcritter]

OK all you that have experience with oxygenating plants, Suggestions please, my other half the non pond keeper has decided that oxygenators are a must so ordered a mixed batch of 25. I have 7 Koi in pond that average around 9 inches in length. What is the best way to put the plants he bought in the pond bareroot with some type of weight or potted ? I do have a pond vac. & don't like the idea of having to try and vaccume around a ton of pots without tipping them over. Will these plants get invasive ? will they winter over ? will the koi just shread them ? What am I looking at in the future with these

 

[Meyer Jordan]

OK all you that have experience with oxygenating plants, Suggestions please, my other half the non pond keeper has decided that oxygenators are a must so ordered a mixed batch of 25. I have 7 Koi in pond that average around 9 inches in length. What is the best way to put the plants he bought in the pond bareroot with some type of weight or potted ? I do have a pond vac. & don't like the idea of having to try and vaccume around a ton of pots without tipping them over. Will these plants get invasive ? will they winter over ? will the koi just shread them ? What am I looking at in the future with these

Never had much luck keeping Anacharis or any other submerged plant and Koi in the same pond. These plants are ideal for providing micro-niches for various small invertibrates to inhabit. And this is what attracts the Koi. They will destroy the plants forthwith to get to these little tasty morsels.

 

[addy1]

They winter over, well, mine freeze up solid come back as it warms up. Just gf pond, they get eaten a little, but grow well. I like the look of them.
If you want some, put them in a milk crate or something the fish can't get into, anything that grows out will be up for grabs to be snacked on.