®óñ© © ²°¹° wrote:
On Sat, 24 Apr 2010 14:32:01 +0100, Janet Baraclough
wrote:

The message
from ®óñ© © ²°¹° contains these words:
On Fri, 23 Apr 2010 22:45:08 +0100, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:
someone" wrote ((big snip))

I found some celery-like plant in the stream on our local golf
course and brought a bit back, and it has cleared all the water, this
plant eats everything and keeps the water clear. If you want some, post
here with your munged email and I will send you some. It becomes a bit
rampant but does no harm, you can just yank it out.

Water Cress does the same thing and is excellent on the compost heap if it
becomes too rampant. Just buy some at the supermarket and throw it in, it
will soon grow roots and can be planted as a marginal. Just one
thing, don't
use it from your pond for eating as you may end up with liver flukes.
I think that very unlikely unless you allow sheep to crap in your pond
(or unless you fill your pond with water from a rivulet downstream
from crapping sheep)
IIRC water snails are an intermediary host of one stage of liver
fluke's lifecycle . Snails are easily introduced on aquatic plants.

Neverthless, water cress shouldn't be eaten from garden ponds.
Still water may be contaminated with rats urine, the source of
Weils disease in people.

This seems to suggest that you should also not eat any thing grown
outdoors in your garden or allotment. Rats are everywhere and urinate
everywhere. And so do dogs.

IIRC, Weil's is contracted through cuts and abrasions, or through
getting contamination in the eyes.

However, watercress grown in stagnant water should not be eaten. (It can
be grown in beds like any other vegetable provided it is kept well watered.)

--
Rusty

OP he thanks for all the posts on this topic. I'm going to increase
the marginals as Chris has suggested. I'm also glad to note two things:

(1) The problem suddenly doesn't seem so bad: the annual algae bloom has
subsided, leaving the pond much clearer, and blanket weed seems less
threatening.

(2) My snails are returning! We used to have hundreds of small-to-tiny
ones. Then about 3 years ago I had a brief experiment with fish (can't
remember the kind, but nothing exotic). The buggers ate everything and
anything, including (duhhh) tadpoles, and (duhhh) snail eggs. It's taken
until this year for snails to reappear, and I'm hoping that they will
help me control the unwelcome weeds.

Oh, and I'll clean out a lot of the sludge in the bottom of the pond,
after the tads have disappeared.

Cheers
John

If you want to try fish again, try sticklebacks, which are not large enough to trouble the taddies or the snails. Or green tench, which seem to be totally vegetarian. We had one for many years until finally the heron got him when he was about 12 inches long.

"kay" wrote in message
...

John L;886003 Wrote:
OP

(2) My snails are returning! We used to have hundreds of small-to-tiny

ones. Then about 3 years ago I had a brief experiment with fish (can't

remember the kind, but nothing exotic). The buggers ate everything and
anything, including (duhhh) tadpoles, and (duhhh) snail eggs. It's taken

until this year for snails to reappear, and I'm hoping that they will
help me control the unwelcome weeds.


If you want to try fish again, try sticklebacks, which are not large
enough to trouble the taddies or the snails. Or green tench, which seem
to be totally vegetarian. We had one for many years until finally the
heron got him when he was about 12 inches long.




I think you may be mistaken in believing tench to be vegetarian. Most
authorities have their natural diet as comprising mostly of whatever
invertebrates are available to them.

In article ,
kay wrote:

If you want to try fish again, try sticklebacks, ...

yes, I'd like to try them, but where do you get 'em? Fancy pond/garden
places round us never seem to stock such humble fish.

John

"Another John" wrote in message
...
In article ,
kay wrote:

If you want to try fish again, try sticklebacks, ...

yes, I'd like to try them, but where do you get 'em? Fancy pond/garden
places round us never seem to stock such humble fish.



Some places do sell sticklebacks, e.g.

http://www.cheshirewaterlife.co.uk/s...ish&Plants.htm

Out of stock at the moment, unfortunately :-)

kay wrote:
John L;886003 Wrote:
OP

(2) My snails are returning! We used to have hundreds of small-to-tiny

ones. Then about 3 years ago I had a brief experiment with fish (can't

remember the kind, but nothing exotic). The buggers ate everything and
anything, including (duhhh) tadpoles, and (duhhh) snail eggs. It's taken

until this year for snails to reappear, and I'm hoping that they will
help me control the unwelcome weeds.


If you want to try fish again, try sticklebacks, which are not large
enough to trouble the taddies

Oh won't they?(!)

/stickleback/
"Mmmmm! Tadpoles!" gulp!
"Seconds?"
"Wot's for afters?"

or the snails. Or green tench, which seem
to be totally vegetarian. We had one for many years until finally the
heron got him when he was about 12 inches long.

Though on the plus side, fish and snail eggsa are distributed on the
feet of herons (etc.).

--
Rusty

Another John wrote:
In article ,
kay wrote:

If you want to try fish again, try sticklebacks, ...

yes, I'd like to try them, but where do you get 'em? Fancy pond/garden
places round us never seem to stock such humble fish.

Well.........

I'm not suggesting you go trawling, of course, but any half-sensible
stream will have them in shoals.

They like moving water, but a wellaerated pond isn't spurned.

--
Rusty