Rose Cottage Ltd

Unfortunately, warm weather brings a few potential problems for pond and lake owners.

Plants, underwater and at lake and pond edges, are in full leaf, adding nutrients to the water, which may mean algae growth. My pond has problems with water meal, usually starting in June and lasting through September/October – depending on temperatures. It looks like this:

Watermeal

I put a penny in this shot to give you some idea of the size of the water meal. This is different than duckweed, also a problem this time of year. Duckweed has tiny leaves that are easy to see with the naked eye.

Both duckweed and watermeal stress the pond environment in warm weather at a time when oxygen depletion may already be a factor. See your fish swimming flat on the water’s surface? Chances are there is an oxygen depletion problem.

I wrote an article about oxygen depletion that may be of interest. My response on my 4-acre lake? Install a fountain ASAP.

Fountain – Adding Oxygen

After losing 7 dozen bluegill Summer of 2007, something had to be done and I am not one to run directly for a chemical “solution.” Since I added a fountain to the lake, I’ve lost one or two fish during summer – probably normal attrition – but no massive kills from lack of oxygen.

Symptoms – Oxygen Depletion

Signs of oxygen depletion are easy to see once you know what to look for.

Fish are struggling at the water surface, usually laying flat. They are now too weak to stay deeper in the water where they normally swim. On some fish, you may see a blue tinge around the eye area of dead fish – again, a sure sign of lack of oxygen as cause of death. Other than that, the fish appear healthy. A little “Fish CSI” if you will…

This may all seem like too much work and worry for those with very small ponds, or for those who have not spent time and money stocking their lake with fish. For those who have, seeing several dozen dead fish suddenly floating dead one morning will be a discouraging sight. Knowledge is power, which is why I am referencing again, the article I wrote after my first experience with watermeal and oxygen depletion.

Back to watermeal…

This problem is also not easy to fix. Expensive chemicals are available that supposedly reduce watermeal’s ability to reproduce. Maybe they work. I’m just not adding chemicals to my lake. So, we hold watermeal gathering days on the lake. The stuff floats on the surface so, using long, small-mesh scoops, we scoop it out of the lake and into buckets – many buckets-worth – to try to stay ahead of the problem. I won’t kid you, this is a messy job, especially since the work to clear watermeal is required during the hottest and most humid time of the summer. You will NEVER get all of it out of your pond. Don’t even try. But every tiny piece of the stuff you can remove is another piece that won’t multiply further.

But it works. Watermeal can double on your lake in about 24 hours. Common sense says the more you remove from the lake, the less there is to spread. Watermeal, since it covers the surface, adds to low oxygen problems that may already exist in your lake, compounding problems for your fish.

I wish I had a better solution for watermeal and if anyone does I will be glad to hear it. But you can quickly help your pond and lake fish breathe easier with the addition of a fountain. I got mine from Fountain Mountain and have been very pleased with it. More info on this in the article I referenced above.

The good news?

It seems that a lake with watermeal experiences much LESS string algae – something else many pond owners curse from the sidelines of their ponds each summer. Watermeal isn’t easy to remove, but it is much less messy and evasive than algae.