Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction got me a pond! Now what the heck do I do with it?

Now what the heck do I do with it? :P

My husband and I have recently purchased some land with a small pond on it. We would love to start right away to help it become an amazingly healthy ecosystem that could also possibly provide some food resources for our family. Our primary goal is to have it be sustainable with as little intervention as possible. We have taken some pictures and while there in summer found that there are many frogs and signs of healthy life so far. We also noticed deer footprints etc. We would love to know how we can make this pond as healthy and full of life as possible. The pond and land it's on has been untouched for about 20 - 25yrs.

Our Goals:

* Attract natural native wildife
* Introduce fish to clean the pool and provide sustainance (Large Mouth Bass / Blue Gill?)
* Ducks (muscovy) to provide mosquito control and sustainance
* Swimming (recreational if clean enough)
* Plantlife - as many plants that benefit each other and the fish / environment while providing oxygen etc

We do not currently have exact measurements of the pond but are hoping to get them soon... please view pictures linked below if you would prefer a better idea. We may enlarge the pond eventually but we would like to keep the current wildlife as much as possible, and are considering perhaps a deeper, wider environment for the fish.

We would love any input/suggestions. We would like to start right rather than killing the aquatic life needlessly.

Pictures can be viewed: http://s1225.photobucket.com/albums/ee384/batsh1t_crazy/

Welcome to the forum!

You can use http://acme.com/planimeter/ to get the size of your pond.

You will also need to find out how deep it is. You can either go out in a small boat with a weight on a flexible (plastic) tape measure, or a graduated rope. You can also use a fishing rod and slip bobber and a weight heavy enough to sink the bobber. You can use the bobber from shore. Just keep casting and adjusting the depth of the weight until the bobber floats. Then measure that distance.

Ducks and geese are pooping machines. Ducks also like to dabble at the waters edge, and they well erode the bank, and caues the water to be muddy. Even a pair on a 1/4 acre pond will do that as my neighbor found out. Normally, the fish in the pond will control the mosquitoes.

If the pond isn't deep enough, then there is a good chance any fish that are introduced will die during the winter. You could mitigate that problem with a bottom aeration system, but first find out how deep the pond is.

Ok based on the link you provided (never knew google could take measurements like that! Very cool!)

the pond area is approx: 1.633 m� / 0.0001633 hectares / 0.000001633 km� / 17.58 ft� / 0.0004035 acres / 6.304e-7 mile� (this doesn't seem accurate, it seems WAY to small)

I've been pushing for no ducks in the pond, but rather focusing on fish, & wildlife... we'll see if hubbie can be sold on no ducks in the pond and no swimming. lol

Swimming would be O.K., I do in mine. But having the ducks in there is just asking for problems. My neighbors pond was muddy to a point too. Once the pair of ducks were removed, the pond cleaned up. I would have never guessed that only 2 ducks on a 1/4 ac pond could muddy the water, but that's the only explination.

That planimeter is more accurate the larger you can make your pond (zoom in).

I zoomed to the max for that area... looks like I'm stuck planning until I can get up there to take measurements.

What do you estimate it's size (feet across)?

erm... fyi I've only seen this pond twice... the most recent viewing was 6 months ago :P I'm going to go conservative with 20' x 60' + (it's a bit kidney shaped as well).

1200 sq. ft. 0.02 ac (roughly)

well.. we're hoping to go get some measurements tomorrow. Hopefully it's not completely iced over. :P

LOL, I just love her name! Dad Gum I wish I had thought of it!!! Welcome Pond Scum!

Gee, I was sooooo close with my guesstimate... NOT!

Pond length - 110'
Width (taken in several places) 37', 41', 35', 31', 29'
depth 10', 9' 7' (we could only measure in a few places down the middle of the pond as it was frozen and dark by the time we managed it)

Merry Christmas you guys.
Sorry it's so short and sweet, but it's been a long day, I'm off to bed. ttyl.

0.08 ac now!

DogLoyalty - Glad you like it

esshup - ty for all your comments / help / and welcome

so is it to small for fish? Or do you guys think large mouth bass and bluegill might work? Would they overwinter? What sort of numbers would you expect to put in each year? (for the first 3 years?) What kind of numbers would I have to plan to harvest? What sort of plants would you guys recommend? I have about 3000 books on order right now from the local library. Are there any highly recommended books that you just couldn't do without? (I have to admit there seem to be plenty on koi ponds but not so many on 'native fish')

The 2 books that I'd order from the library are "Perfect Pond, Want One" and "Raising Trophy Largemouth Bass". They're available in the Pond Boss library....... I keep going back to them at least once a year.

As for fish, it all depends on how intensely you want to manage it. More management = more fish per acre of water.

For numbers:
Stock 1,000 BG per acre, and 100 LMB per acre (fingerlings). Do the math to downize the numbers for your pond. A 1 ac pond can support between 300-500 pounds per acre of fish. Guys, help me out here, but I believe you should shoot for 1# of LMB for every 15# of forage fish in the pond (in your case BG).

How cold/how much ice do you get on the pond during the winter, and how long does the snow/ice last? You might want to look into an aeration system - that will help the pond support more fish per acre.

As for harvest, it's not as much numbers of fish, but pounds of fish per year.

Neither book has been reviewed on Amazon.... anyone with a few minutes to spare??? (I must say I always look up books there, before I get them from the library/order them) A local guy my hubbie talked to earlier seemed to think we were crazy for even considering LMB & BG in a small pond. He seemed to think we would never be able to pull it off? And suggested we go with brown trout...

You are awfully far north for wanting LMB/BG pond. Maybe it could work, maybe it would work. I do not know.

What would the concern be with it?

Lack of oxygen in a small shallow pond with ice and snow cover = winterkill.

Maybe I'm having a blond moment but uh, wouldn't that be the concern regardless of what I put in there???

It's probably a trial and error situation, unless your going to put in aeration it might be best to stock something like YP which have a better chance to survive than LMB, but ponds can be fun to experiment with.
Trout need more oxygen than most fish so I wouldn't stock them unless you had aeration.

Another fish to consider in your climate would be Pumpkinseed, not as big as BG, but can survive cold ponds better.

Ohhhhh that so sounds right up my alley! Know next to nothing about it, but hey lets experiment! wohoo fun... now if only he hadn't quoted the price difference between trout and lmb earlier when he spoke to hubbie :P

Guessing it would be wrong to pick them just because they're pretty? *adds yet another fish type to the 'need to research list'* ... NEED MORE HOURS IN THE DAY!!!

Here's a pumpkinseed.

Looks very much like the 'sunfish' I caught as a kid.