That means that the water is way too basic. An extremely basic water level can be as dangerous as extremely acidic water. We have also spent time gathering Benthic Macro Invertebrates. These are the little creatures that swim around on the bottom of ponds. You can see these little bugs with the naked eye.
Invertebrates are indicators of water quality.
In our case, we found a wide variety. This is good because the greater the variety of creatures, the better the water quality. So far the information we've gathered doesn't provide any answers, but we aren't going to be stopping our research once winter comes. One of the plans for spring is to gather tadpoles. We hope to raise them to find out if the deformity is hereditary.