"CRITTERS" IN PLANTS

[taherrmann4]

I have never been concerned about having to quarantine the plants, I just put them in the pond and don't worry about it.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

I collect a lot of my pond plants from natural sources, my feeling is that by not rinsing my plants I am substantially increasing the biodiversity of my pond.

 

[brokensword]

TM;

you better look REAL careful at whatever you put in your pond, or else you'll get surprises like I did. Both the subjects of my last couple of posts, the frog (original green one) and the crayfish, were STOWAWAYS. Had to come from some plant I transplanted into my new pond. I surely didn't see anything like a crayfish when I bought my originals. And the frog was part of a cattail I was using preparatory to moving the turtles from their summer kid's pool to the new pond. Had to be a tad when I uprooted the original cattail.


Anyway, just realize you're up for surprises if you don't lift a skirt or two, ya know?



And no, j.w., I don't need any gifs or admonishment for that last comment...just in case you were in scolding mood...




Michael

 

[Waterbug]

Fish eggs too.

 

[buckry]

Long before my preformed pond was transformed into a life sustaining device it was a cooling off station for my labs. I put a sump pump into it pointed in the air and it basically made a fountain. This kept mosquitos out, and my dogs loved it that's all I cared about. After about 60 days like this I turned off the pump to clean the intake grill and there was a 4" crayfish in the water. We have a drainage ditch that gets water in it after several weeks of heavy rain, 80% of the time it is dry. The creek that my ditch feeds into is about half a mile away. I have no idea where this little guy came from, but he walked to my house and jumped into my pond. Soon after that of course the leopard frogs arrived, and soon after that the leopard frogs got mutliated by the crayfish. I liked him, but my wife said he was ugly, and she liked the frogs, so I moved him down to the creek half a mile away.

Anyway, stuff like this can be introduced through a little bit of carelessness on your part, but it can also show up on its own despite your every effort to keep them out.

 

[Mmathis]

Advice taken! A good rinse-off and inspection for ANY new plants that go into the pond!

From what I could read, the "critters" might be SCUDS, crustaceans related to shrimp, daphnia, crawdads, etc. Seem to be scavenger-type feeders that can actually be a food source for the fish if they decide to poke around in the roots. :goldfish: :fish2: :spider: :goldfish:

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Actually scuds are a great food source for fish, and should be a welcome addition to your pond. I don't know of any cons associated with haveing them in your pond. I introduced a bunch to my pond this spring when I collected some wild watercress. Fish and turtles love them.

 

[j.w]

Had to look that one up about Scuds and found some interesting info on them. Now I know what those amazing little creatures are: http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/scud.htm

 

[Mmathis]

JW, I think that was the same source I looked at. I went from being afraid I'd doomed my pond to, "OK, not so bad afterall...."

 

[j.w]

Only part that got me a bit was the last part about them possibly being hosts to parasites,nematodes and tape worms!

 

[blessedfamily]

Was it possibly a dragonfly nymph? I have seen tons of those in my pond.

 

[Waterbug]

Yeah washing them off, that'll get rid of the critters and the eggs.