Saw some little fish at a pond!

I tried to catch one and take a picture but they jumped out of my hand every time I grabbed the camera. It’s so weird how real river and ponds and be full of so much mulm and the fish love it, but in our tanks it’s something to be avoided. This is the same pond I talked about that had lots of dragonflies and pondskimmers swooping around. There was also a little turtle.

Detritivores (mulm eaters) are really common among small fish. I watch mulm as it can be a home for Oodinium sp parasites, but otherwise, I only remove it for show. It's only to be avoided if it's the result of overfeeding - otherwise, it's cosmetic.

You're small enough south that there could be small species of shiners or killies, but most likely those are young of something that grows large.

My small 40 gallon pond in the backyard always has 0 nitrates. I don't do many water changes when there is rain weekly. I just did a 10% change today actually but it has been almost 2 months since I've done one on it. And the one I did 2 months ago was only 5%.

Fish stock: Rosy Red Minnow (7), Guppy [male juveniles] (23)
Plants: Louisiana Iris Bog Plant - Dixie Deb, Water Poppy, Frogbit, Water spangles. (recently had a lot of duckweed but just removed all of it today, and cut back overgrowth of water poppy.)

JackGulley said:

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I tried to catch one and take a picture but they jumped out of my hand every time I grabbed the camera. It’s so weird how real river and ponds and be full of so much mulm and the fish love it, but in our tanks it’s something to be avoided. This is the same pond I talked about that had lots of dragonflies and pondskimmers swooping around. There was also a little turtle.

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The only reason we avoid mulm in our home tanks is because it's a little unsightly. It's natural and doesn't hurt the fish.