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Water Slaters –
Water slaters are relatives
of the familiar garden woodlouse, and
are often found living in rotting leaves at
the bottom of ponds. There are only two
likely to be seen in Britain: the Common
Water Slater (
Asellus aquaticus
) with two
white spots on its head, and the more
uncommon, One-spotted Water Slater
(
Asellus meridianus
) which has only one.
Water slaters cannot fly, and have to move
to new ponds by hitching a lift. Despite
this, they are one of the most common
creatures found in garden ponds, in part
because they are able to tolerate low
oxygen levels.
Snails –
There are about 40 different kinds
of water snails in Britain, and you will find
some in almost every pond. They vary in
size when fully grown from the tiny Nautilus
Ram’s-horn, which is just 2 or 3 mm across,
to the Great Pond Snail which grows up
to 4 cm.
Common water snails are good at
getting around from place to place.
Most are probably carried by birds or
amphibians, or attached as eggs to bits
of introduced plant.
It’s sometimes said that snails are important
for keeping a pond clean. However,
although snails will thrive in polluted ponds,
grazing on the algae, in reality they are just
recycling the nutrients.
Wigglies –
Worms, fly larvae, leeches,
flatworms and other worm like creatures
tend to get lumped together as together
as ‘wigglies’.
Many of these animals are nature’s hoovers,
gobbling down rotting organic matter, or
feeding on those that do. But the ‘wigglies’
are such a diverse group of animals that
you can find just about every possible
different way of living amongst them: from
docile grazers to fierce predators.
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