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Removing Unnecessary Life Forms from your Water Garden Pond
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You’ve constructed a lovely little pool in your backyard, and you’ve stocked it with the fish and water plants that you need to have live there. All looks peaceful and serene, until the water starts turning murky and becoming stagnated. You might be surprised at how many living things have invaded your once pristine tiny pond. If you were to take a look at a drop of your pond water under a microscope you’d see that it’s literally crammed with life. Would you like to know what lives in pond water? Let’s have a look :
Bacteria — It’s hard to believe that bacteria are the oldest lifeforms on earth and that they were in charge of putting the oxygen into the atmosphere that higher forms of life all needed to live. They are highly minute creatures, and one drop of pool water could have more bacteria in it than the number of people who have ever lived on earth. Some bacteria are useful, and others are threatening.
Protozoa — the term protozoa includes a diverse group of organisms that include amoeba, flagellates, numerous forms of ciliates, and heliozoans. This group of organisms varies a lot in shape, size, habits, and features. Protozoa are more animal-like than bacteria but are neither plants or animals. Some protozoans swim and others are still. They have chloroplasts that transform light into energy and then store the energy in storage grains.
Algae — these simple plant organisms are present in all wet environments. They can be so tiny that they’re hard to pick up on a microscope, or they can take the form of much larger water plants and seaweeds. As difficult as it is to believe, algae serve as food for other minute water creatures ; however, they can simply multiply to take over a pond environment.
Hydra — though most hydra are native to saltwater environments, there are some kinds of them found in freshwater. You can bring hydra into your pool on water plants, and they will survive as long as they have plants and rocks to stick themselves to. While hydra can be beneficial by eating water insects, like sand fleas, they also are nuisances in fish hatcheries, because they also eat the babies.
Worms — there are many species of worms that can live in a freshwater pond. These include both flatworms and roundworms. They are multi-cellular creatures and larger than the types of organisms mentioned earlier in this article. Roundworms are parasites that prey on each sort of lifeform.
As you can see, you can find a micro-ecosystem in just one drop of pool water, and all of these organisms, and lots more, create your pool environment. There are many pool treatments that you can use in order to rid your pond of harmful organisms, including disinfectants and UV sanitizers. When you have a water garden, it is important for you to stay in control of what lives in pool water.
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