Oxygenating plants

As I'm not proposing to have fish in my pond, at least not in the
first instance, are oxygenating plants necessary? My gut feeling is
that they'd probably be a good thing anyway, but then the question is
what to use? Elodea is one of the commonest, but may not be the most
appropriate in the absence of fish. Also, I understand it's fairly
vigorous, and as my pond is only 10 sq.m. in area and about 0.9 m deep
at the lowest point, I don't want it to be chock-a-block with a
vigorous and perhaps not entirely necessary oxygenator.

Any views and suggestions?

--

Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net



Chris Hogg

Chris Hogg wrote:

> As I'm not proposing to have fish in my pond, at least not in the
> first instance, are oxygenating plants necessary? My gut feeling is
> that they'd probably be a good thing anyway,

I agree. While you're not adding as many nutrients to the pond as when
you're feeding fish, it's still good to have submerged plants to take up
nutrients that would otherwise feed algae.

> but then the question is
> what to use? Elodea is one of the commonest, but may not be the most
> appropriate in the absence of fish. Also, I understand it's fairly
> vigorous,

Not that vigorous in my experience - but that's because it gets killed back
every winter. If that doesn't happen in your area, yes, it can choke a
pond fairly well!

> Any views and suggestions?

It's not that hard to pull Elodea if it gets overgrown.
--
derek

On Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:48:01 EDT, Derek Broughton
<> wrote:

>Chris Hogg wrote:
>
>> As I'm not proposing to have fish in my pond, at least not in the
>> first instance, are oxygenating plants necessary? My gut feeling is
>> that they'd probably be a good thing anyway,
>
>I agree. While you're not adding as many nutrients to the pond as when
>you're feeding fish, it's still good to have submerged plants to take up
>nutrients that would otherwise feed algae.
>
>> but then the question is
>> what to use? Elodea is one of the commonest, but may not be the most
>> appropriate in the absence of fish. Also, I understand it's fairly
>> vigorous,
>
>Not that vigorous in my experience - but that's because it gets killed back
>every winter. If that doesn't happen in your area, yes, it can choke a
>pond fairly well!
>
>> Any views and suggestions?
>
>It's not that hard to pull Elodea if it gets overgrown.


Thanks for that reply, Derek. Do you know if there's an obvious way of
distinguishing Elodea crispa (aka Lagarosiphon major) from Elodea
canadensis (aka Anacharis canadensis)? I understand the latter is the
less vigorous of the two.

--

Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net

Chris Hogg wrote:

> On Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:48:01 EDT, Derek Broughton
> <> wrote:
>
> Thanks for that reply, Derek. Do you know if there's an obvious way of
> distinguishing Elodea crispa (aka Lagarosiphon major) from Elodea
> canadensis (aka Anacharis canadensis)? I understand the latter is the
> less vigorous of the two.

Not a clue. Sorry.
--
derek