Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Any help welcomed

Hello all,
Being new to the pond world I feel lucky to have stumbled across this forum.I'm not sure if I am posting in the right section but I suppose I will be directed elsewhere if not. I dug a small pond about three months ago and I have been overwhelmed with information since. Pond size is 17' long by 5' wide with an average depth of around 4'. The pond is fed from an underground spring and took about a day and a half to fill up. My primary goal was to have a place for my pet ducks to swim and my wife and I to sit and watch them. I currently have an aerator running 24/7 as well as 4 koi and a few dozen japanese trapdoor snails. Water quality seems okay but I would like to create a more naturaly healthy underwater environment. I have tried floating plants but the ducks destroy them in short order. I guess I have two main questions I would like opinions on: Given my ponds size is there any type of feeder fish I can or should introduce ? Is there any type of underwater plant I can put in? I can't put shallow water plants because the pond has no parts less than three feet.
Thanks for any thoughts as long as they don't involve putting lead in the ducks

sequoia, welcome to the forum! I did the same thing as you when I raised Wood Ducks and Mandarin Ducks. The only way that I found I could keep the ducks from eating the plants was to make a floating framework from PVC pipe and cover it with chicken wire. It kept the ducks from eating the Water Hyacinths.

With the amount of poop that they generate, and the digging that they do in the pond banks, you will always have water quality issues unless you have a lot of water running thru the pond to wash away the nutrients. Just one pair of Pekin Ducks was enough to keep a neighbors 200' x 50' pond turbid.

Thanks for the input, I think I am going to try adding a shallow portion to the side of the pond and fence it off so I can at least add a few plants to the mini eco-system.

Fence it off good. I had one Woodie even dive under the water and come up inside the fenced off area....

Dropping another layer of wire 1' down into the water seemed to stop that problem.