Living Pond

Gluggers,

You being a pond froggie know that the entire pond is alive. However, when people dig ponds they do not leave space (habitat) for the pond life. A pond is alive and has thousands of species feeding in it. The microbial life of a pond is the most important. Its habitat is simple being river run rock and a dead log. The major problem of ponds is over-feeding with fertilizers overwhelming the balance of predators and prey. Simply if you have algae, you have too few algae predators. The trees and plant life feed the pond making it respire. This is powered by sunlight. Sunlight also overwhelms the balance in the pond. Too much heats the pond causing increased growth of weeds and stimulates plant growth. However, balance is achieved when the shore plants cool the water causing circulation in the pond.

By taking care of the plants and microbial life of a pond, you can have all of the animals associated with ponds. Often we want fish immediately. Because fish are very hardy, they often will survive in very poor conditions. This is unhealthy for you as well as the fish. Feeding them compounds the problem as a healthy pond doesn’t need artificial feed. The idea is to attract the life needed to feed your fish. This is often a few flowers and a dead log.

I was tutoring a family about the need for a dead log. They wandered into the forest and came back with a piece of rotting maple. They placed it in the pond. Within two minutes a dragonfly was laying eggs on it. I was astonished; however, not that it had happened but at the speed nature finds a niche for her young. Dagonfly larvae are excellent fish feed and themselves a large predator of invertebrates. You find them tasty too, don’t you froggie?

When you design your pond, make room for Nature! She will arrive and it will be a seething pool of algal goo with a foul odor. Or with some plants, flowers and trees along with some river run rock and a dead log, your pond will become alive and a healthy frog home.

PonDoc                           from the pond
www.ponddoctor.biz
“The Pond Keepers Guide”  Amazon.com

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