Organic Pond Blog

Farm Pond Moss Animal, Algae Monster or Just a Bryozoa

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We receive great questions from our customers, and we are not often baffled by a question. Dan from California writes, "we have been using your Pure Bacteria Muck Reducer and your Pure Blue Pond Dye, and our pond looks much better than last season. However, we recently encountered a gelatin blob that floated to the surface. Is this a result of using your pond bacteria product?" This wasn't just a little blob, but filled a large shovel and appeared almost alien. A jelly structure covered in spores. After discussing the picture with our aquatic biologists we came to the conclusion that it was a freshwater bryozoan-Pectinatella magnifica, "the magnificent bryozoan", also known as a Moss or Algae Animal. Moss Animals are a colony of interconnected living creatures. Fossil records indicate that this species was alive and well over 500 million years ago. The bryozoa form a community that attach to submerged branches, rocks, pilings, etc. and the individual bryozoa feed independently on pond nutrients.

Farm Pond owners encountering freshwater bryozoans should not be concerned. They are harmless to humans, fish and wildlife and are typically an indicator of an eutrophic or nutrient loaded pond. Pure Bacteria reduces nutrient loads and will restore an eutrophic pond.

This video shows freshwater bryozoans in a North American Pond.