Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Bricks (Scattered or Piled?)

I have a pallet of bricks left over from my home construction. Would they make good cover for crawfish and spawning area for forage fish? If so, should I scatter them out, make small piles of a few hundred or one large pile of a few thousand? Also, would it be better to put in the shallow end of my pond or the deeper end? I currently have no fish or crawfish in my pond. I am in the process. Thanks.

if you scatter them they will simply disappear into the sand mud on the bottom. Making piles works well. the bottom will sink into the pond bottom, the taller they are the more are exposed and avail for hides.

Make a couple large piles. That's what I did, and they make excellent shelters for craws and fry with all the holes, and spawning area for FHM. Be sure to save a few in case you ever need repairs to the house. Put the piles in water two to five feet deep.

what I did was make a pile right on top of a pallet. the pallet has been doing a good job of holding them up out of the mud to some degree. had to get it to sink first with tying two cinder blocks on it.

Sound advice, I built a box out of old pallets and put bricks and rocks in it. The first ones I made where set on the ice in winter and went to the bottom in spring. You can't do that in Texas but I did one in summer which was partially filled so it was just barely floating. I then towed it out with a boat, removed my tow rope and add more until it sank. I saw them recently with a fish camera while ice fishing. They look good 5 years down the road.

Bobby is right. Most of my structure did ok. But I had a few basketball size rocks I just scattered around. Waste of time and rock. Should have piled the individual ones up.

If you have some other rocks you could mix in with the bricks it would be good. The bricks with flat sides might group up together flats to flats somewhat. The more air space you get in the pile the better. So mixing in some round or irregular shapes in with the flat bricks could only help.

Thanks everyone. My wife informed me last night, after I told her of my brilliant plan, that she had other plans for the bricks (planter boxes, mailbox, etc.) so it appears we have a custody battle on our hands. Ha ha. Whatever I do the pallet idea was great. And whatever rocks, bricks, concrete I wind up putting in I will try to put on a pallet and pile it up in decent sized piles. Thanks again.

If you can get a load of broken concrete, that would make good fish shelters.

Ok. Thanks. What are some good places to look for broken concrete, etc? Where have you guys found stuff? City dump? One man's trash........

Why not contact some local concrete or construction contractors? They usually remove and replace all types of concrete projects. The look for places to dispose of waste concrete.

One question to ask them is if there are any pieces of rebar or wire mesh sticking out of the concrete. Any that do are much more attractive to hooks and catching fishing line than just pieces of concrete.