Do you know The White Amur?

A shadowy mystic living in an HOA in suburban Istanbul? Nah. It’s another name for the grass carp, and I am seeking advice.

We have two ponds, about 4 acres total, which over the past three seasons have experienced water lily creep. The smaller one is now covered about 60% in the summer (they sink to the bottom in cold weather), and the larger one with our fountain now about 5%. Chemical control by a pro is prohibitively expensive, and self control too complicated and possibly dangerous. Dredging, just once, would likewise exhaust much of our reserves.

Our Board Prez has been told that stocking them with white amurs, especially the triploid (non-breeding) variety, which voraciously feed on various pond grasses, including water lilies, would be a less expensive and a very “green” partial solution to our problems.

Here in PA, we’d need a $20 permit and would have to purchase them from an authorized breeder within the Commonwealth (of which there are a number).

Does anyone have, or know of, experience with this possibility, or for that matter, any other potential fixes? Thanks.

Is this the one that grows to about 6 feet long?

David, the green solution is obviously the way to go, even though you state that it is only a partial fix. Has the Board Pres. been given any advice on how to fix the part that isn't solved?

Is this a problem that is occurs only in PA (or suburban Istanbul)? :-)

Carole,

Partial because the fish would not kill them off. But alas, it appears this idea is frought with naught. I found a PA site that stated they - the carp, not the writers - were only good for submerged graases, not floaters. Soooooooo...back to the old drawing board. Any other ideas would be appreciated.

What I found in looking around is that the carp are effective at eliminating this and nearly every other kind of water grass. The thing is that they will eat everything below the surface of the water which will kill the whole plant eventually. So what is the drawback?

The fish consumes up to twice its weight a day and puts out a high amount of feces. Thus the water clouds up and you have an algae bloom. This in turn kills the fish which feeds another bloom. And then you have a huge mess to clean up. Also, as the plants die off, you still have to clean up the part left at the surface.

I would look into herbicide methods. From what I read, you can apply either bush-b-gone or roundup to the part that is on the surface. (You should paint it on from say a canoe.) It may take a couple of treatments to kill off the plant, then you can take up the dead plants. You can also pull the stuff up though it will take a number of times before it doesn't come right back since you would be leaving the part in the water behind.

Sorry - lowering the pond's water level is called a draw-down.

I was not aware that water lilies are considered "weeds."

I've been growing them for many years now and would cringe at the idea of destroying them or killing them!

And, while we have carp, we don't have any white amurs. Mostly ornamental koi.

They do a pretty good munching job on ours, but rarely do they eat enough to kill it.

What constitutes a weed can vary based on where you are and the context. For instance, I love seeing wildflowers on the roadways. But many would consider them weeds in the yard. By the same token, Bermuda grass is the most popular in this area. But the stuff is extremely invasive and could just as easily be considered a weed when you try to keep it from your flower beds.

True, this is essentially a matter of aesthetics, but the ponds, fountain and common areas set our operation apart from our neighboring subdivisions. In this market, a very important asset. First impressions count, and an easy first impression is that right now they look uncared for, as opposed to the winter months, when they look peachy.

I'll look into the enviro. protection suggestion. Thanks.

Sorry for the late reply but it is so hot in KS our computers are shutting down.

Our HOA has a 80 acre sandpit. It has visabilty of about ten feet and averages 30 feet deep. Unfprtunately, this is the environment filamentous algae likes (the gooey green stuff). Experts (fish salesmen) told us to buy 1,000 amurs to clean up the algae. The amurs cleaned every green plant out of the water, even stripping leaves off off tree branches that were in he water. They didn't touch the filamentous moss. Now the bottom of the lake looks like a sand desert with no living plants and the edges have three foot thick layer of moss. Now that there are no plants to use up the goose and duck waste after their winter lay-over, we get more filamentous moss plus some blue-green algae in the summer time which shuts down water activities due to its toxicity.

I wouldn't suggest amurs. Trap some muskrats and let them go. We planted lilies and lotus but the rats ate them all. Check your county extension agency for herbicides to control pond plants. Or advertise free water lilies in the paper if they dig them up. Our city crews here in KS drag a cable between two tractors across the city ponds severing plants. Then when they drift to the edge they rake them up. They same thing could be done with motor boats if the water is deep enough.