Best oxygenating plants for a small garden pond?

Like the title says - I'd be most grateful for all your suggestions!

The pond's in a sunny position and it's one of those rigid plastic ones - about 3' across by 4' 6" long by 15" deep.

I put it in a couple of years ago, to replace a larger, leaky old pond. There are quite a lot of plants in there already - a couple of small waterlilies on the bottom, assorted marginals in the shelves around the edges, floating frogbit which is not yet in evidence but I am sure will return as it did last year. All are doing well.

However so far as oxygenators are concerned all I have at the moment is some manky old Canadian pondweed, transferred across from the old pond and thick with blanket weed. It's actually not too much of a problem to keep under control - I just reach in and pull out the surplus - but I was thinking now would be a good time to replace it with something more interesting and maybe even less attractive to blanket weed ? (No frogspawn in the pond, alas, or I would leave it for later.)

Looking online I can see bunches of oxygenating plants readily available by post - names coming up include hornwort, milfoil, elodea crispa, ceratophyllum demersum, fontinalis antipyretica, callitriche. What should I go for? One, or a mixture? Any other suggestions?

Many thanks in advance for your help

 

Hornwort Ceratophyllum demersum and milfoil Myriophyllum spicatum are good natives which are good for wildlife and what I put in my wildlife pond. Your Canadian pondweed is now a banned species I believe so best to get rid of it by putting it on the compost heap.

Recommended natives recommended by RSPB are:

• Spiked water-milfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum)

• Whorled water-milfoil (M. verticillatum)

• Curled pondweed (Potamogeton crispus)

• Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum)

• Water starwort (Allitriche stagnalis)

• Common spike-rush (Eleocharis palustris)

• Willow moss (Fontinalis antipyretica)

• Marestail (Hippuris vulgaris)

• Water violet (Hottonia palustris)

• Water crowfoot (Ranunculus aquatilis)

and recommended by Sussex Wildlife Trust

• Curled pondweed (Potamogeton crispus)
• Rigid hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum)
• Water crowfoot (Ranunculus aquatilis)
• Common water starwort (Callitriche stagnalis)
• Spiked water milfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum)

 

Thank you very much @Redwing; I have just ordered some hornwort and milfoil, plus some marestail as that looks so intriguing. And I'll do as you suggest and put all the Canadian pondweed in the compost bin!