Blue - Green Algae

[elma]

looks like my crayfish hunting days are over for a while the pond I go to is now banned as its infested with blue - green Algae I didn't know what it was until yesterday but looking it up has been quite an eye opener, its pretty nasty stuff for animals and us humans

Ian

 

[janiepopps]

Wow, I didn't know we got it in the UK. Won't the colder weather rid it from your pond?

 

[Nat]

looks like my crayfish hunting days are over for a while the pond I go to is now banned as its infested with blue - green Algae I didn't know what it was until yesterday but looking it up has been quite an eye opener, its pretty nasty stuff for animals and us humans

Ian

Had that stuff about 11 - 13 yr ago at Rutland Water. Played havoc with the sheep and fish, and peoples dogs!

 

[elma]

Wow, I didn't know we got it in the UK. Won't the colder weather rid it from your pond?

hope so I'm running low on both trout and reyfish now


Ian

 

[Goose]

looks like my crayfish hunting days are over for a while the pond I go to is now banned as its infested with blue - green Algae I didn't know what it was until yesterday but looking it up has been quite an eye opener, its pretty nasty stuff for animals and us humans

Ian

A good cure for blue/green algae is to chuck in a couple of bales of barley straw. Sounds daft but it does work. If you go to your local garden centre and buy the algae mats for your garden pond that is what you are buying, a handful of straw for the price you could get a couple of bales for! It works as it rots down apparently, and as far as I know is completely harmless. In one of my past jobs I had to go and change the straw in some floating cages on a boating lake, just straw but it was costing them a fortune!
There are some enzymes on the market that work faster but they use straw as a base.
I think I was affected by blue/green algae, I was working around it quite a bit and went down with flu like symptoms it could have been flu, but I guess it was the algae.

 

[Matt Weir]

Years ago a sign went up at Pennington Flash, a local wild spot, that warned folk to stay out of the water. Bad news as I recall

 

[gorilla]

strangely enough, the fact that they eat so much blue-green algae is what makes flamingos pink.
don't know how i know that, but i do

 

[Matt Weir]

strangely enough, the fact that they eat so much blue-green algae is what makes flamingos pink.
don't know how i know that, but i do

I thought that it was shrimp that hey ate hence the pink colour?

Ah...

A flamingo's pink or reddish feather color comes from its diet, which is high in alpha and beta-carotene. People eat beta-carotene when they eat carrots.

What do flamingos eat?
The typical flamingo diet consists of diatoms, seeds, blue-green alage, crustaceans, and mollusks they filter out of the water. Using their long legs and partially webbed feet, flamingos will stamp on the muddy bottom of lagoons to mix the food particles with the water. Different species of flamingo have slightly different shaped bills; the different shapes helping it obtain slightly different types of food. Flamingos drink fresh water.

 

[Aragorn]

you'll proberbly find it easier to round up a couple of bails of straw than two dozen flamingoes though but seriously good luck with it, what would be the solution if they can't rid the stuff, would the pond have to be filled in ?

 

[Goose]

you'll proberbly find it easier to round up a couple of bails of straw than two dozen flamingoes though but seriously good luck with it, what would be the solution if they can't rid the stuff, would the pond have to be filled in ?

It is seasonal if I remember right, and does clear itself eventually.

 

[gorilla]

I thought that it was shrimp that hey ate hence the pink colour?

Ah...

confusingly, blue-green algae is high in red pigments - the whole shrimp thing is a myth!

 

[Matt Weir]

confusingly, blue-green algae is high in red pigments - the whole shrimp thing is a myth!

You live and learn. Cheers G

 

[Richie O]

I thought that it was shrimp that hey ate hence the pink colour?

Ah...

Shrimp aren't pink till you cook them, but i wouldn't trust those wily birds to not be carrying around a stove hidden from view with their other leg

 

[jon r]

Sounds like you have a case of Eutrophication.

See here: http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?i...es?q=eutrophication&svnum=100&um=1&hl=en&sa=N

 

[Matt Weir]

Shrimp aren't pink till you cook them

This is very true Richie.

but i wouldn't trust those wily birds to not be carrying around a stove hidden from view with their other leg

I knew there was an explanation though