3 replies to this topic

[mattknepley]

So, the good news is at least one Carolina darter and two of the suspected threadfin fry survived the winter in my at-one-point seriously frozen over 100 gallon stock pond. As did the java moss and other aquatic plants. And the snails. Have yet to see any other fishes, though.

The fine, stringy algae that I tangled with last summer has gone on two growing rampages; I have manually removed as much as possible and everything seemed fine. Now, however, my water has a seriously whitish quality to it- very cloudy, foggy even. We had a bit of rain yesterday, and temps have been trending up. Is this a normal phenomenon for a tub this size,or do I have a problem? None of the life in the tub that I can observe seems to be stressing.

[gerald]

Could the cloudiness be a protozoan and/or bacterial bloom growing on nutrients released from decaying plants?  Or amphibian breeding by-products?  I get huge masses of that fine stringy-slimy lime-green algae every spring and fall in my outdoor tubs. 

[Michael Wolfe]

I have not stirred mine up yet.  Still a lot of fall leaves and such down there to be pulled out.  But the higher temperatures have got the fishes active.  I saw Bannerfin Shiners, Flame chubs and bluespotted sunfish today when I added a little food to the various tanks.

 

I would bet that you are just having a reaction to you stirring everything up.  If you are getting that much of the green stringy stuff, you need to come over here and help me clean one of mine out and we will divide some water lillies... you can take some of that home... they suck the nutrients out of the water, create shade, and make your wife think that fish tanks are growing flowers!  Bring the little helpers and we will get muddy and make plants.

[mattknepley]

Went ahead and cleaned all the dead leaves out. Removed more plants than I kept, but still have a bunch of hornwort and Java moss in there. Also removed the shredded tennis balls, et cetera, that the wife's Dumb Old Groundfouler deposited in it. Plenty of snails, and snail eggs. No sign of frog eggs. Was surprised to see a couple live Corbicula in there.

We'll see what kind of impact this all had on the WQ. I'm hoping that I didn't mess up any Etheostoma collis breeding, as this is there time of year to get going, I think. I might take you up on that lilly offer, Michael. There were so many plants in that tub I didn't think algae would be able to come on like that; but it did. Maybe I do need more surface plants- can't argue with your results!