Oxygen Making Water Plants

Putting Oxygenator Plants Into the Pond

• Oxygenators can be purchased as bunches and floated on the pond's surface where they will sink naturally, or they can be placed in a small pot filled with gravel and submerged or fish sinkers can be clipped to rubberbands tied around the plants and dropped to the bottom. Allow 2 square feet of pond surface for every bunch of plants. Most oxygenators are not winter hardy but are inexpensive enough to replace yearly.

Canadian Pond Weed and Cabomba

• Canadian Pond Weed (Anacharis canadensis) has dark green leaves arranged in whorls around a narrow stem and is one of the fastest growing of all oxygenator plants. In hard water it will often be covered with calcium deposits which may look unsightly. It is best suited to large ponds. Cabomba (Cabomba caroliniana) does well in warm, well-lit water. Finely divided, fan-shaped leaves grow on slender stems, and clusters of small white-lavender flowers will sometimes appear.

Giant Val and Corkscrew Val

• The Vals (Valisneria gigantea and Valisneria spiralis) are happiest in temperatures between 68 to 86 degrees F. Giant Val puts out dark green leaves which grow 3- to 4-feet long and is a good hiding place for baby fish. The Corkscrew Val is much smaller, growing only to 12 inches with spiralling leaves that look pretty underwater. Leaf tips turn pinkish-red when in bright sunlight. Both plants produce a tubular seed pod that floats on the surface.

Hornwort

• Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum), sometimes called Foxtail, is named for the small protrusions on the margins of the leaves which give the plant a rather coarse feeling when run through the hand. Because it never roots, all of its nutrients are derived directly from the water. The plant spends its entire life completely submersed, making it an ideal spawning medium and a good hiding place for fish.