in my tiny pond

I got into the container pond today. Just to see what was up. I did not find anything alive- except for one leech, which I threw into the lawn haha. It's the reason why I'm still reluctant to transfer any of these plants into my indoor tanks.... although the hornwort in here looks fantastic. This is the amount of it, not even spread out pretty in the water, but just set on the decking while I removed stuff to clean. It has great color and density- seems like the amount of shading greater duckweed and water lettuce plants have created is perfect for it now.

The three water lettuce still look healthy enough, even though outer leaves are yellowing and melting  away. Roots are nice and thick.

Spirodela polyrhiza also very thick- their roots felt like fur against my hand when I was scooping them out! The undersides are a bold rosy red.

One of the water lettuce plants had a stem growing from its underside smoother and thicker than a regular root. I think if it didn't get too cold soon, this would spread sideways and grow a new plantlet?

I was also suprised that a few of the outer, fading leaves I pulled off came away with roots attached to them. I wonder what would happen if I left these in water- would they re-generate a new plant too?

The water was really murky. I couldn't tell if there were still any trumpet snails alive in there. I pulled out some hair algae and used shrimp net to scoop out coarse debris, dead plant parts and more algae.

Replacing everything- my three water lettuces are smaller, but tidier now for what time remains to them.