Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose New 1/2 acre pond near Sacramento CA

Hey guys, I'd love some advice! I've been trolling this forum for hours and have learned lots.

I bought my house with what seemed to be the beginnings of a pond except the dam had a channel cut through it so it would drain. Essentially there was a swamp with tules and willows and mosquitos thriving. So I bought a track hoe off craigslist and have ripped it to shreds. I'm about to dam it up and was wondering what I should do next.

I plan to install a waterfall pump that moves roughly 60 gpm from the deep end to the shallow end to keep the water circulating through 400 feet of 4" drain pipe that I'm going to drill many small holes in on the intake side to keep the fish out.

Size: almost 1/2 acre
Depth: 50% 8-10 feet, 25% 4-6', 25% 3-4', plus one 15' hole that I dug where the ground was soft
Location: Sacramento CA (100+ degree highs in summer, 30 degree lows in winter)
Water source: 5-10 gpm groundwater flow
Shape: horseshoe
Soil: mostly decomposed granite on the shores, hard rock at the bottom.

Goals:
Swimming hole for me and my dogs.
To have a wildlife habitat that is fun to observe and listen To (turtles? fish? bullfrogs?).
To eliminate mosquito habitat
To have a couple fountains that look/sound nice.
To have some fun and tasty fish to catch that are low maintenance (I would rather not add supplemental feed and new fish yearly. I would like them to be self sustaining. I would not mind strategically harvesting to maintain healthy fish populations).

Questions:

What kind of fish would you recommend? My county provides free mosquitofish that they will stock.

What do you think of my waterfall pump circulation plan? I would rather not buy an air pump and air stones but I guess I would if it is absolutely necessary. How small should the holes that I drill be for the intake to spare fishies from the impeller?

Would adding some red eared slider turtles mess with the ecosystem too much? Bullfrogs?

Any other advice on things I need to do before I start filling this thing up?

DO you think it will hold water with rock on the bottom and sides?
Perhaps thats why it was abandoned before?

"Water source: 5-10 gpm groundwater flow" is this from a well pump or natural head pressure. Is it coming in via pipe or is it an under ground spring?

I do think that it will eventually hold water (if not immediately) since it the floor of the pond right now is almost solid puddles and it is still running through the dam. Also, just about everyone in my neighborhood has ponds so the soil should seal up. I only mentioned the rock because I wanted everyone to know that I dug the pond as deep as was practical.

5-10 gpm groundwater is from a french drain so part pipe and part just flowing through gravel. I also have access to another 1/2" of irrigation water in summer which is another 7 gpm or so.

Arby, welcome to Pond Boss.

Groundwater ponds, by definition, leak and are dependent on the depth of the surface water table. They don't need dams. Most ponds are dependent on rainfall and runoff. I recall some ponds there that never went dry but, in absence of rain, certainly varied in depth. You will be dependent on and at the mercy of the water table. In the event of a heavy rain, you will need a pump controlled by a float to maintain the depth of the pond.

If the neighbors ponds are successful, yours should be. Should be is all I can say because I'm not standing there. I believe you can take a cue from the neighbors ponds.

I've never seen a self maintaining fish population. I'm also not aware of what fish are allowed there. Free mosquito fish(gambusia's) sounds good but you will find that stocking fish is the cheapest part of the whole project. No matter what you stock, they will eat the mosquito larvae. I recall one 10 acre housing development pond with huge channel cats but don't recall what other fish were in it. They were welfarites that residents fed bread to but they looked healthy and can't maintain body condition on bread. They were certainly eating something else.

Do some research on what fish seem to be successful in a small pond in your area. You will want to concern yourself with what doesn't over spawn in the lack of predators to maintain a balance. Strategic harvesting sounds good but fish in smaller ponds become hook shy pretty quickly. My quick recommendation is about 100 hybrid bluegills and 50 channel cats with a feeder. I know that you said that you don't want to supplemental feed but might find that feeding is more fun than you might think.

You mention fountains. You need to understand that they are only good for aesthetics and provide virtually no aeration benefits. I have often said that fountains are like beauty contest winners and race horses. They are nice to look at but are expensive to obtain and maintain but don't do a lick of work.

Before stocking, check around and see what others are doing and if they have same goals that you do. Keep asking questions.

Turtles won't hurt anything but you don't have to stock them. They will show up on their own and have very little effect on fish populations. They are pretty good at cleaning up dead fish but have almost no negative side effects on healthy fish.