1 Pond Problem - Modified!

[Sharon Sharealike]

I have 2 ponds and 2 1 problem!

Both ponds are quite near each other and both have lavender right beside them but in one pond I noticed purple stuff (the exact same colour as the Lavender) in the water in one of the ponds.

While the Lavender was flowering I assumed it was just flowers that had dropped in and gone to mush.

But it is still there and there seems more of it.

Any ideas?


The other problem is hedgehogs - they keep falling it and I have just fished a dead little one out.

I have moved all traces of food away as that used to attract them but other than ring fence it in I am lost.

Any help on the above will be greatly received.

[smiffy]

Not sure about the lavender, but the hedgehogs can be helped if you place rocks and things to make a shallow area so they can get to the water to drink without the need to swim. If they do fall in then they may be able to climb out easier aswell.

[Fi]

smiffy said:

Not sure about the lavender, but the hedgehogs can be helped if you place rocks and things to make a shallow area so they can get to the water to drink without the need to swim. If they do fall in then they may be able to climb out easier aswell.

I second that. Alternatively drape some plastic coated wire over the edge for them to climb up. They are very agile climbers - I didn't realise this until I watched one climb up a vertical dry stone wall.

[Sharon Sharealike]

I had a big rock sticking up out of the water but that wasn't doing the trick.

I have been and got some of that low green hoop fencing that is in sections for the small pond which they seem to be leaping into and hopefully that will solve that one.

Any ideas on the purple "bloom" anyone?

Thanks!

[Fi]

The only thing I can think of is the water fern Azolla. It forms symbiotic relationships with with a bacterium called Anabaena (I may have that spelling wrong) and that can turn it from green to various shades of purple. This is what it then can look like, but as I say, the colour will vary according to how many bacteria are present.:-

[Shuggie]

fi said:

The only thing I can think of is the water fern Azolla. It forms symbiotic relationships with with a bacterium called Anabaena (I may have that spelling wrong) and that can turn it from green to various shades of purple. This is what it then can look like, but as I say, the colour will vary according to how many bacteria are present.:-

Quite correct .. I thought that as well .. although, in my experience, the colour change is not so much to purple, as to a light mauvy puce with subtle overtones of rose taupe .. but that, I suspect, may have much to do with variations in individual colour perception and visual acuity, not to mention the diurnally-dependent cast imposed by the colour temperature of the ambient illumination.

[Sharon Sharealike]

shuggie said:

fi said:

The only thing I can think of is the water fern Azolla. It forms symbiotic relationships with with a bacterium called Anabaena (I may have that spelling wrong) and that can turn it from green to various shades of purple. This is what it then can look like, but as I say, the colour will vary according to how many bacteria are present.:-

Quite correct .. I thought that as well .. although, in my experience, the colour change is not so much to purple, as to a light mauvy puce with subtle overtones of rose taupe .. but that, I suspect, may have much to do with variations in individual colour perception and visual acuity, not to mention the diurnally-dependent cast imposed by the colour temperature of the ambient illumination.

Eh?!


I doesn't look like the pic above, its like a jelly/paste when out of water - I will try and get in on my camera phone later.

But thanks for the paragraph!

;D

[tigerlily]

I don't know what it is, but apparently it may be caused by naturally-occurring bacteria overloading the pond's ecology.

[tigerlily]

A cyanobacteria, quite possibly.

[Shuggie]

sharon said:

shuggie said:

Quite correct .. I thought that as well .. although, in my experience, the colour change is not so much to purple, as to a light mauvy puce with subtle overtones of rose taupe .. but that, I suspect, may have much to do with variations in individual colour perception and visual acuity, not to mention the diurnally-dependent cast imposed by the colour temperature of the ambient illumination.

Eh?!

But thanks for the paragraph!

;D

You have to be careful which one you believe .. personally, I'd recommend Fi's version ..