stow-aways

[mogsie]

well the majority of the plants in my pond (iris's, bullrushes, duckweed etc) came from some local ponds down the road from me, and yesterday whilst having a close look around my pond i noticed allsorts of crawly things, which must have been eggs in the plants/roots when i transplanted them from the wild pond to my pond, and after many hours of internet investigations to identify them i have discovered that so far i have : stonefly nymph, caddisfly nymph (with the little tubes they make out of silk and stones), small black water snails and water boatman beetles living in my pond, none are harmfull to fish as far as i have read so all is good !

 

[stroppy]

well apart from the snails ...they multiply like wild fire !!! you could get overrun with them and they can carry disease

 

[stroppy]

you can kill bugs and things from plants by putting them in a mild bleach solution before putting into your pond :0)

 

[mogsie]

ime not too fussed about killing them, i wont get over-run with them as the stonefly and cadddisfly take 12 months to complete their life cycle so they only breed once each autumn, and stonefly and water boatmen are indicators of excellent water quality, i will get insects in the pond no matter, so ime not unhappy or concerned about them being there,

 

[koiguy1969]

problem is you brought those ctitters home,you may have brought parasites, bacteria, leaches and other harmful stowaways as well. just as adding wild fish can bring disease that your nonindigenous fish may not have immunities too.

 

[mogsie]

i understand what you are saying yes, the plants have been in the pond for a couple of month now, and the fish have been in for just over a month and havent noticed any problems yet, the pond they came from must of had good quality in order for the water boatman to breed there, leeches are very un-common in my area so i dont need to worry about them, and to look at it 1 way you could say that i havent introduced anything that wouldnt have made its way into my pond naturally as the wild ponds are only 100 yards down the field away from my garden, ime not going to go all out to remove or kill everything so i will see how things go, ime sure everything will be fine,, thanks for the info and concern tho guys,