Submerged Plants for Your Backyard Pond

Underwater plants are necessary for the ecological balance of the pond. If the pond has an appropriate number of goldfish, floating plants and underwater plants, maintenance will be an easy and quick task. The underwater plants serve so many purposes it is next to impossible to have a pond without them.

IF YOU HAVE KOI, NONE OF THIS APPLIES! Koi eat the submerged vegetation faster than it grows, so it becomes very expensive fish food.

Watch your submerged vegetation. It is the first indicator of pond problems. If it starts to turn yellow or it starts losing all its leaves, you will have foul water soon. Mushy or yellow submerged vegetation is a sign of chemicals in the pond. Check for run off from your yard or roof. Check to see if neighbors are scraping and sanding their house. Treat your submerged vegetation like the canary in the mine. At the first sign of trouble, check and treat your pond.

So in a goldfish pond, you need one bunch of underwater grass per square foot of pond surface. The underwater grass or submerged vegetation takes in carbon dioxide given off by fish respiration. It gives off oxygen for the fish to breathe. The fish eat it, but not as fast as it grows. The underwater grass serves as a filter to keep your water crystal clear.

The underwater or submerged vegetation may not be as pretty as the floating plants or the emergent plants, but the job it does is the very most important for the balanced pond.

Before you buy or find any submerged, oxygenating plants, check with your local extension service or aquatic nursery. Many of the submerged plants are illegal in some of our states. They can be invasive and upset an ecosystem to the point of destruction. If you do have invasive plants, keep them in your pond. Never throw them in a local waterway. Compost them immediately if you get too many.