too many plants ...?

10 years ago

I have a small 200 gal. pre-form pond that I added some pond lilies from my son's pond. Well, they have adjust TOO well & covered the surface of the pond now! Can there be too many floating plants on the surface ?...I know it has kept the algae down but hard to see the goldfish & can't feed them as the canopy is so thick! When I planted the 3 lilies in pots, I forgot to put a fertilizer tablet in each ... well, good thing, as wonder how much bigger the lilies would have gotten!? At least it seems free of algae in all that shade!

Should I thin the plants out or is it OK that way now for the fish?

Thanks!

Featured Answer

vieja_gw
Original Author

10 years ago

Yes, the few are in pots in the bottom ? 30/36 inches deep so the tops die back in winter here but the roots in the pots live & come back every year. I am in zone 7 high desert at 5280 ft./mile high so it does freeze at night in winter but I keep a bubbler going & a hole kept open in the ice that forms. Right now the pond is full of lilies in bloom on top of the surface of lily pads covering the whole pond surface!

Odd, the pond comes alive with the long strings of black 'dots' after the mating uproar! & then the hatched 'teeny black things with a tail' : polywogs... but then all of a sudden they disappear & don't see any young small toads; not sure where the developed toadlets go & get transformed so quickly? The big fat mature toads are everywhere & I find their droppings all over the sidewalks & driveway. They have no fear of our 5 dogs & I can handle them with no problem ... they just lay there & don't attempt to jump away & the dogs oddly pay no attention to them at all?!

I guess the plants/shade are responsible for little algae too but son also this year installed a UV light on the water before it enters the filter which may account for some of the clear water (UNDER the lilies!).

Think it is illegal to get rid of excess lilies in the rivers/lakes so have to find a local group that wants them in their ponds! I now want to buy some other colors: pink, yellow, etc.!

Oh, I have lots photos of the mating toads ... IN and OUT of the water!

(thanks frankielynsie!)

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Comments (6)

frankielynnsie
10 years ago
It is okay to be covered-keeps the birds from going fishing. Are you picking off the yellowing leaves? I am having a major over abundance of water hyacinth and usually pull out the mothers that have bloomed and toss them on the clippings pile and just leave the babies. I usually overwinter 3 or 4 babies in the sunroom and it amazes me how those ratty looking bits make a butt load of children every year.
vieja_gw
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks! I will then leave the lilies alone & just pick off any dead blooms, etc. So come winter I shall just then let the tops sink, die off & the roots on the bottom will over-winter?! They sure seem to have kept the algae down this year with their shade!

The toads again have mated in the pond this year (OH! what a noise they make!) so guess the tadpoles will develop then in the water beneath the lilies?
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frankielynnsie
10 years ago
Are they in pots? How deep is the pond? If it is deep enough and you don't get bad cold with thick ice they should be okay in the pond during the winter as long as they are not tropical waterlillies. I am in zone 7GA and use an aquarium bubbler to keep a hole in the pond when we have several days of freezing weather and ice forms. Yes, those singing toads are loud and you will soon have toadlets hopping about and sitting on you lily pads. Get your camera out.
spedigrees z4VT
10 years ago
I'm guessing that your tiny pollywogs have become fish food!
vieja_gw
Original Author
10 years ago
that must be- 'spedigrees'! As I never see any stage between the stringy mass of gelatinous eggs & the later tiny black pollywogs- & then the usual adult toads that are all over our yards. Boy! the fish sure must gobble them up ... yet when the pond was more clear of all the lilies, I'd see the masses of tiny pollywogs in with the fish & the fish seemed to ignore them...!

The lilies are now growing so big & over the pond sides ....wonder if their roots in the bottom are tasking up most of the pond there for the fish? What do you do with the excess plant (lilies) material in the pond? Hate to toss it out but is illegal to put it in local rivers or lakes I think.

Thanks everyone .... hopefully down in there somewhere are my goldfish!