Good evening,

This is James Bond, from the greater Houston (Magnolia, TX) area.

I have a family residence with some land, maybe 8 or so acres where my some of my family members reside.

We want to dig a pond, just big enough to keep some freshwater fish, and maybe some (nishikigoi) Koi fish?

Our original thought was to dig a pond 15 feet in diameter and about 5ft deep but I was told, by the folk who referred me to this site, that such dimensions (15ft by 5ft) would be too small for any type of freshwater fish.

So my question is, what is the smallest pond size that can support some freshwater fish in South East Texas (Houston, TX) area?

We primarily want this pond for some aesthetics and some fish, nothing commercial or for fishing etc, just for family viewing pleasure and catch the odd fish now and then.

What do you folks suggest please?

Cheers,

James

.007 of a hectare, James. Shaken, not stirred.

That's tiny, like Austin Powers' mojo

A pond 15 ft in diameter and 5 ft deep can raise a lot of fish if it has a flow through system. Amount of flow will determine type and amount of fish. There is a lot of information on the web for building and maintaining a backyard "lily" pond for which some of them are quite large.

There are also complete pond kits available for small ponds that include, liner, filtration, etc. that might meet your needs.

Northwest of San Antonio, we put in a one tenth acre pond, seven to eight feet deep, lined with 30 mil poly. Stocked with too many catfish (channel and hybrid blues), bluegill, a few bass and three types of minnows. I also threw in some ugly crossed koi/goldfish to get them out of our little koi pond. This pond is nineteen months old, the fish are fed, the catfish approaching 27 inches...pushing the limit of biological load. At one year, I put in aerators...two bottom diffusers and one fountain. I also started regular infusions of aerobic bacteria to eat bottom muck and suspended organics. Also use dye for color. I have two pumps to circulate water up a ravine to feed a fake river. This summer I put in a sand filter between the pumps so I can run one pump through the filter and discharge through the intake of the other, inactive, pump. Two months of heavy rain fired up various plankton blooms and delivered dirt into the pond. I tried a flocculant that cleared the water nicely. I'm about $40,000 into this project...$25k for the pond, etc, and another $15k working on the river and landscaping.

Nice thread so far about mini-ponds. Danny - any pictures of your pond with homemade stream? Lusk could do a Pond Boss Magazine article about your mini-pond. It would be an interesting story for readers. Lusk can help you write it - contact him or the PB office.

I'll try.

Some pictures...I think.

There's lots of bare ground (the big rocks were free, just gas and labor) for which, (second attempt from a year ago) during Sep and Oct rains I planted $400 worth of prairie grass and wildflower seed, along with borders of deer food plot seed, and a covering of rye. This time I got pretty much 100% germination! This time, the deer can't possibly eat all the new shoots. Bluebonnets sprouting everywhere! A patch of bare ground halfway up the river is to provide a large bog filter. Two smaller bog filters just need plants. I plan to grab plants from local golf courses...watch out for the guy playing golf and also carrying a trash bag.

In my initial posts under "new member," and titled "A Balcones Escarpment Pond" (I think), I posted early pictures and a link to a YouTube video from last June showing the best of fish living.

Two more pics. A video of the river running?

Looks very nice be proud of that.

Get with Lusk. Your small pond will make a good article in the Mini-Pond Section of PB magazine.

Beautiful place Dan. Agree with Cody.

Thank you gentlemen, all y'all.

My big holdup is the damn river. I was running out of time and money on a rented ride behind track loader (those things can kill easily when you're backing up and the tail wheel under your stand gets jammed!), so dumping big rocks into the "river" liner in a hurry made some serious leaks. So...gonna fix this with concrete...the concrete allows water to soak through it...so now I'm gonna try a concrete sealer. I want those pools to hold water so I can raise minnows and such for forage...without having to run the pumps continuously.