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Terrible day for my pond...

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chubsta View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chubsta Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Terrible day for my pond...
    Posted: 10 May 2015 at 5:36pm
Have unfortunately had a disaster with my pond - everything was going very well, the weed was thriving and the pond was absolutely teeming with tadpoles.

A couple of nights back we had torrential rain after a long period of very little, which caused the pond level rise to the point of overflowing. The next day I found a black slurry all over the patio which i eventually realised was the remains of pretty much all my tadpoles! I had previously noticed that the tadpoles often spent most of their time at the surface so i guess when the level rose very quickly they were literally carried away over the rim with the water - looking at what i can see in the pond now i must have lost at least 90-95% of all my tadpoles, really sad about it.

I imagine the survival chances for those that are left is going to be pretty small so cannot realistically hope for many adults from this years crop, hopefully those adults that spawned this year will be back again next year and we can start again. In over 20 years of living here this is the first time i have known this to happen so i am hoping it is also the last...
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Suzy View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suzy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 May 2015 at 11:18pm
Chubsta I am sorry for you. I might have had a similar thing, I'm not sure.
My large pond (preform) settled unevenly when originally filled with water. That wasn't such a disaster as it is only a few inches lower on one side (the furthest from the path) but vegetation has spilled over at that point and hidden the actual pond edge. I am pleased that the edges are now getting vegetated, but the thing is I can't see the actual rim of the pond because of this, and so I don't know the height of the water. Normally this is not a problem as newts can soon climb back in again if they overspill.
When we had a lot of rain last week I removed about ten buckets of pond water and tipped it away to reduce the level. I can't be sure that some taddies  hadn't gone over the top before I did this. The other thing is I watched tadpoles climbing or wriggling to get over a plastic bar into the shallow canal round the edge of the pond. I guess the water is warmer there. They wriggle/climbed almost out of the water to get there - quite amazing to watch. Now if some had done this as well at the low point where I think it might have overflowed, they would of course be lost as there is no little canal beyond.
I don't see so many now, but there are some.
So it is a problem with some ponds. Even if you have 5% left that is good. I do know how upsetting it is to have a disaster like you've had - remember mine all got sucked into a pump that I immersed to freshen the water!
Suz
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Suzy View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suzy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 May 2015 at 2:03pm
Was out at 8.15 this morning in full waterproofs baling out both ponds as there was torrential rain. I took the level down about two inches which should be enough. Had to check each bucket for taddies (white bucket) but only threw out a few ramshorn snails.
Suz
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