"Pete C" wrote
Koi don't,
I beg to differ Bob..........but hey, what's a bit of duckweed between
friends ;')

Funny that 'cause in the 30+ years I've kept Koi I've never seen them eat
it, they always spit it out if taken by mistake with a mouthful of pellets
and I've certainly never seen them deliberately eat any. Perhaps I've just
got fussy fish. :-)

--
Regards
Bob Hobden

On Fri, 6 Mar 2009, Pete C wrote


Kate Brown wrote:
On Fri, 6 Mar 2009, Bob Hobden wrote

"Sacha" wrote
Any chance that frogs and/or tadpoles eat duckweed?!

It's taken me years to get rid of the stuff on our pond, had to buy a
skimmer (Oase SwimSkim) in the end and that has worked so far. Never
seen any of our fish eat it, indeed when they gulp down a mouthful
of pellets and accidentally get some Duckweed too they spit it out.
Maybe it's not carp that eat it.


Well it's not frogs either, or water snails, both of which are
plentiful in our tiny pond in France. I even saw a water snake
basking in it, resting on a cushion of duckweed. I wish I could find
something that would eat it - what fish might?
Koi and Grass Carp

We investigated Grass Carp, but they eat other kinds of weed, I think,
but we were told, not lemna minor. It's a very small pond, and Koi are
rather large, aren't they?

--
Kate B

PS 'elvira' is spamtrapped - please reply to 'elviraspam' at cockaigne dot org dot uk if you
want to reply personally

On 6/3/09 19:05, in article
, "Judith in
France" wrote:

On Mar 6, 5:26*pm, Sacha wrote:
Any chance that frogs and/or tadpoles eat duckweed?!
--
Sachahttp://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials online

Straw will clear it. Don't know about Frogs though.

Judith


It's quite a large pond and barley straw hasn't helped in the past - or not
enough, anyway. I suppose we could try dragging some clumps of it across
the pond.....

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials online

On 6/3/09 21:17, in article , "Bob Hobden"
wrote:


"Sacha" wrote
Any chance that frogs and/or tadpoles eat duckweed?!

It's taken me years to get rid of the stuff on our pond, had to buy a
skimmer (Oase SwimSkim) in the end and that has worked so far. Never seen
any of our fish eat it, indeed when they gulp down a mouthful of pellets and
accidentally get some Duckweed too they spit it out.
Maybe it's not carp that eat it.

Thanks, Bob. I'll look that up but probably not to be used until after the
tads have hopped it?! We have all sorts in our ponds, some carp, some
goldfish, some goodness knows what. All seem happy and are breeding, so
something must be right. But the wildlife pond need the skimmer most so
I'll look at that once the spawn has hatched.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials online

On 6/3/09 22:39, in article ,
"Rusty_Hinge" wrote:

The message
from Sacha contains these words:
On 6/3/09 18:01, in article ,
"Charlie Pridham" wrote:
In article ,
says...

Any chance that frogs and/or tadpoles eat duckweed?!

Something must eat it because it will not spread on my pond stays at one
end and that's the end the frogs use to lay their spawn, but its most
likely cover rather than food supply.

Won't spread on your pond??!! Mutter, mutter, sulk and mutter!
Nonetheless, you give me hope!

I'll ask a neighbour who keeps Koi, goldfish, and amphibians.

That would be terrific, thank you.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials online

On 6/3/09 22:37, in article ,
"Rusty_Hinge" wrote:

The message
from Judith in France contains these words:
On Mar 6, 5:26*pm, Sacha wrote:

Any chance that frogs and/or tadpoles eat duckweed?!

Straw will clear it. Don't know about Frogs though.

Barley straw controls algae, but not duckweed, AFAIK.

However, if you put some straw in a basket beside the pond and scoop
duckweed into it, the water will flow back and the duckweed remain
amongst the straw.

Goes well on the compost heap.

I can try that once the tads have gone.

Nitrogen and other nutrients in the water encourages duckweed, so be
sparing with fertilisers where any run-off may get into the pond(s).

No, nothing like that around there.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials online

On 6/3/09 22:33, in article ,
"Rusty_Hinge" wrote:

The message
from Sacha contains these words:
On 6/3/09 18:01, in article ,
"Charlie Pridham" wrote:
In article ,
says...

Any chance that frogs and/or tadpoles eat duckweed?!

Something must eat it because it will not spread on my pond stays at one
end and that's the end the frogs use to lay their spawn, but its most
likely cover rather than food supply.

Won't spread on your pond??!! Mutter, mutter, sulk and mutter!
Nonetheless, you give me hope!

Try ducks?

Ours have gone and the pond is no longer fenced so we can't risk ducks=
foxes.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials online

On 6/3/09 22:32, in article ,
"Rusty_Hinge" wrote:

The message
from Sacha contains these words:

Any chance that frogs and/or tadpoles eat duckweed?!

Tadpoles, a little, possibly, frogs, not a chance.

And be careful while raking it out - you'll get lots of creatures out with it.

I'm not touching it until I think the tads have turned into frogs and gone.
But I always leave any weed pulled out on the side of the pond to let the
critters hop back in.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials online

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 6/3/09 19:05, in article
, "Judith
in
France" wrote:

On Mar 6, 5:26 pm, Sacha wrote:
Any chance that frogs and/or tadpoles eat duckweed?!
--
Sachahttp://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials online

Straw will clear it. Don't know about Frogs though.

Judith


It's quite a large pond and barley straw hasn't helped in the past - or
not
enough, anyway. I suppose we could try dragging some clumps of it across
the pond.....

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials online

Are we confusing duckweed Lemna minor with algal blooms and filamentous
algae which barley straw does control.
We had huge problems on the shoot with a pond being covered with a thick
carpet of duckweed and despite a serious effort to remove it during which
we scooped off around 60-80 kilos a week over a month or more it came back
within days.
This year 2008 it had all but disappeared the only difference being the
introduction of proper pondweed the previous year which has finally taken
hold and colonised the margins it could be the heavy rain or the weed
reducing the nutrient level or even overspray when our farmer applied
herbicide (unlikely he's extremely careful about when he sprays and the pond
is about 30 yds from the nearest cultivated area) We do get a lot of duck
but in the covered years they didn't make an impression on the carpet and
they positively avoided the pond we have few frogs ( heron activity) and no
fish.
Common Koi and Grass Carp do eat duckweed and I did a little research and
found freshwater shrimp also do .
One other suggestion about the sudden reduction in duckweed under windy
conditions when the water gets a little ripple the weed stacks up in layers
at the windward end a good time to scoop a pile out!
DerekW

The message
from Kate Brown contains these words:

Well it's not frogs either, or water snails, both of which are plentiful
in our tiny pond in France. I even saw a water snake basking in it,
resting on a cushion of duckweed. I wish I could find something that
would eat it - what fish might?

ITYF it was a grass snake.

--
Rusty
Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk

The message
from Kate Brown contains these words:

We investigated Grass Carp, but they eat other kinds of weed, I think,
but we were told, not lemna minor. It's a very small pond, and Koi are
rather large, aren't they?

Not to begin with - but - back to submarines?

--
Rusty
Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk

The message
from "DerekW" contains these
words:

Are we confusing duckweed Lemna minor with algal blooms and filamentous
algae which barley straw does control.

I take it that's a question? I would guess that the OP would know the
difference.

We had huge problems on the shoot with a pond being covered with a thick
carpet of duckweed and despite a serious effort to remove it during which
we scooped off around 60-80 kilos a week over a month or more it came back
within days.

Arable land nearby? That growth could be due to fertilisers leaching
into the pond.

This year 2008 it had all but disappeared the only difference being the
introduction of proper pondweed the previous year which has finally taken
hold and colonised the margins it could be the heavy rain or the weed
reducing the nutrient level or even overspray when our farmer applied
herbicide (unlikely he's extremely careful about when he sprays and
the pond
is about 30 yds from the nearest cultivated area) We do get a lot of duck
but in the covered years they didn't make an impression on the carpet and
they positively avoided the pond we have few frogs ( heron activity) and no
fish.

I'm told - but haven't tried it - that duckweed is very nutritious and
makes good a soup ingredient. The odd water snail amongst it should
provide a little body...

Common Koi and Grass Carp do eat duckweed and I did a little
research and
found freshwater shrimp also do .

The shrimp will eat anything, but you'd need a lot of them.

I'll ask the local head keeper about the condition of his flight ponds.

--
Rusty
Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk

"Sacha" wrote after...
, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:
"Sacha" wrote
Any chance that frogs and/or tadpoles eat duckweed?!

It's taken me years to get rid of the stuff on our pond, had to buy a
skimmer (Oase SwimSkim) in the end and that has worked so far. Never seen
any of our fish eat it, indeed when they gulp down a mouthful of pellets
and
accidentally get some Duckweed too they spit it out.
Maybe it's not carp that eat it.

Thanks, Bob. I'll look that up but probably not to be used until after
the
tads have hopped it?! We have all sorts in our ponds, some carp, some
goldfish, some goodness knows what. All seem happy and are breeding, so
something must be right. But the wildlife pond need the skimmer most so
I'll look at that once the spawn has hatched.

It will need cleaning out at least daily at first, then after it's removed
the visible duckweed and other floating stuff you can extend the clean out
period. There is always duckweed hiding in places to take over again.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden

"Kate Brown" wrote
We investigated Grass Carp, but they eat other kinds of weed, I think, but
we were told, not lemna minor. It's a very small pond, and Koi are rather
large, aren't they?

Grass carp get very big too.
Koi do get very large if given the space.
Here are some small ones for sale...
http://www.nishikigoi.co.uk/index.ph...1&home_style=1
or if you want the most prized type...
http://www.nishikigoi.co.uk/index.ph...=1--RegardsBob Hobden

On 6/3/09 23:47, in article , "DerekW"
wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 6/3/09 19:05, in article
, "Judith
in
France" wrote:

On Mar 6, 5:26 pm, Sacha wrote:
Any chance that frogs and/or tadpoles eat duckweed?!
--
Sachahttp://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials online

Straw will clear it. Don't know about Frogs though.

Judith


It's quite a large pond and barley straw hasn't helped in the past - or
not
enough, anyway. I suppose we could try dragging some clumps of it across
the pond.....

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials online

Are we confusing duckweed Lemna minor with algal blooms and filamentous
algae which barley straw does control.

No, what we have is duck weed. And it's worst on the pond we don't want to
put fish into!

We had huge problems on the shoot with a pond being covered with a thick
carpet of duckweed and despite a serious effort to remove it during which
we scooped off around 60-80 kilos a week over a month or more it came back
within days.
This year 2008 it had all but disappeared the only difference being the
introduction of proper pondweed the previous year which has finally taken
hold and colonised the margins it could be the heavy rain or the weed
reducing the nutrient level or even overspray when our farmer applied
herbicide (unlikely he's extremely careful about when he sprays and the pond
is about 30 yds from the nearest cultivated area) We do get a lot of duck
but in the covered years they didn't make an impression on the carpet and
they positively avoided the pond we have few frogs ( heron activity) and no
fish.
Common Koi and Grass Carp do eat duckweed and I did a little research and
found freshwater shrimp also do .
One other suggestion about the sudden reduction in duckweed under windy
conditions when the water gets a little ripple the weed stacks up in layers
at the windward end a good time to scoop a pile out!
DerekW

Absolutely right. Last time we had a gale that blew the duckweed in the
right direction, I noticed it as I came in through the gate in my car -
though "must go and scoop that off" and promptly got diverted so never got
round to it. I'm waiting for the wind to be in the right direction because
it had it all arranged in a neat little pile for me!

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials online