Is this daphnia?

[Insomniak]

Hi guys,
My pond is up and running since beginning of May and the water has been slowly clearing. Then suddenly it was teeming with these little creatures and within 2 days the water became 100% clear.

Do I have water fleas to thank for this?

I have many other creatures living in the pond, most of the water came from tubs and tanks I've had plants growing in for a couple of years so there was plenty of silt and life forms to get the pond started.

[ollyk]

Yes water fleas flourish off algae I believe. They will reduce in numbers unless they have a plentiful supply.

[Insomniak]

Originally Posted by ollyk

Yes water fleas flourish off algae I believe. They will reduce in numbers unless they have a plentiful supply.

Wonderful little creatures, I'm spending hours looking into the pond fascinated by everything in it!
Thanks!

[ollyk]

Yes they are fascinating - I saw massive dense gatherings at a lake the other day quite interesting how they all gather together sometimes. I wonder if it is something simple like algae rich hot spots or maybe water temperature / shade etc...

[Malcolm Banks]

The dense clustering may be in some way connected to algae, but in my pond I could move the clusters around with the shade of my hand, so they like the light. When the whole of the pond is in full sun they cluster, so may be algal hotspots, as ollyk suggested.
M

[Insomniak]

From observing them I can agree that they cluster in the sunny part of the pond, and their huge increase in numbers coincided with 3 very hot sunny days.
There *seem* to be less of them visible now after a very wet and dull yesterday.