Dear Gluggy,
Life in a pond is all about procreation. Yes, sex! This requires a proper living space. You need a house to grow your babies. A pond can provide this house. I am often asked if rainbow trout will spawn in a pond. They cannot if they do not have spawning beds which most ponds do not. Recently, I have been seeing rainbow trout fry in ponds that have the Pond Doctor Pond Engine. This gravel ledge in the pond provides a spawning bed for trout because the respiring plants on the ledge are providing cool highly oxygenated water. Additionally, the fry are offered a smorgasbord of invertebrates that live at the roots of the plants on the gravel. The base of the plants provides shallows for protected growth from predators. The pond becomes a closed system: an ecosystem.
The pond ecosystem is at once complex yet simple as is the beauty of nature. River-run rock, dead rotting log, plants for seed and nectar, trees and birds are all easily acquired. These are the components required for habitat for fish that require all other habitats to survive. You cannot have a procreating fishery without all of the components. The pond is a closed system.
As you can see, there is no killing involved. No removal of weeds using chemicals. The system relies on growth. And the power for this growth is sunlight. Encouraging a stand of sedge to provide microbial habitat and the rot necessary for this growth allows the pond to thrive. My aim is not to manage a pond; quite the contrary, to have it manage itself. Having a clear pool with a self-sustaining rainbow trout population can be attained; it is all possible by creating a complex habitat for all. And not at all surprising: YOU! You are a part of this ecosystem; you build your house and a house for others when you build a closed ecosystem pond; and all will be healthy.
Yes froggie, the PonDoc pond is a formula pond that will work anywhere in the world just because it is “What is”. As a research scientist, I have always looked to nature to describe “What is”. If you use this re-invention of nature, you will have a self-managing pond that will continue generation after generation procreating.
Yours sexy,
PonDoc from the pond
www.ponddoctor.biz
The Pond Keepers Guide, the complete how to guide.