Got a bunch of plants in the mail yesterday! Woohooo, was all evening getting everything in the pond. Supposed to be getting another box today!

One of the things I got was a rather large container of Azolla. I knew the fish would eat some of it, so I split it up between the main/lower pond and a totally separate large container/urn "thingie" that I am going to be putting a lily and a couple of other things in. I put some in the urn to make sure I always had some, and a darn good thing I did!!! LOL

When I dumped a bunch in the pond it was like turning a bunch of homeless people loose at a Chinese buffet! Talk about a feeding frenzie!! The fish were literally jumping over each other trying to get at the stuff! I put enough Azolla in to cover about a 2 foor square patch. Within minutes they had it busted all up and scattered around, and by the end of the evening there were only a few little pieces left in the pond that had gotten tucked away into the rocks where the fish couldn't reach them.

What a bunch of pigs! They had already been dining well on a thousand tadpoles that had hatched. I bet there isn't a dozen left uneaten now! hahaha :huh: :P

LOL that must have been very entertaining to watch. My poor fish only get fish food and cherrios! I can't buy anything like that up here. Where do you get your plants in the mail from Derrick?

I ordered them from Moore's Water Gardens. They are in Ontario. Reasonable prices and they send very nice sized portions. Many were much bigger than I was planning for, which caused some last minute change of plans! hahaha

My fish usually just get the flakes and pellets, but of late have been fine dining on tadpoles and azolla. Things will be getting spoiled if I keep this up! hahaha :P

Derrick

My fish will only eat azolla if they can't get any duck weed. Then they have preferences for certain types of azolla vs other types.

Just about every plant fish like to eat and that is easily maintained in a pond gets banned here. Elodea was banned earlier last year, can't buy it anymore. Azolla is one of the few that can still be bought - they can't really ban it because red azolla is a native.

ColdGold

Elodea is such a staple for biology teachers, I'd like to know what they are using as a viable substitute. I is used almost universally for student studies of plant cell cyclosis, osmosis and cell lysis, and photosynthesis. I can't imagine teaching without it.

Don

There are like HUGE, HUGE bunches of Eloda here which are about the size of rooms in Peace river.

I drive 2hr to get to Moore Water Gardens. Its a nice drive and worth it. They have many university students working there to help you out. Thats were I got all my lillys and orfes.
They have huge clay ponds with their lillys show cased in them.