Earlier this year we put in a small pond - 50' diameter, sloping sides to 8' deep, liner, aeration, riprap on edges [see attached photos - don't know how to embed them].
The plan is to have something vaguely natural with water plants and frogs. Sometime in the future we might add a small number of domestic waterfowl or try to attract wild Wood Ducks. The pond has the frogs and water plants, but leeches came in on the plants and now we have a bumper crop.
Since I'm too lazy to catch the leeches and sell them for bait, we've been thinking about adding some fish to eat them. I've read here that a few RES might do the trick (or pumpkinseeds? I'm fond of pumpkinseeds). Do we need other species to have a balance?
I would like the pond to be balanced, and would prefer the fish preferentially eat the leeches and mosquito larvae over frogs and frog eggs. Yeah, right...Also on the dream on list is not to have to feed (much) and not to have to restock (much) and not to have to add a lot of pond products, or change the water.
DH would like to add some channel cats. We'd have to feed cats, though, and with such a small pond, I think nutrient build-up could be a problem. Before the leeches got us thinking about about adding fish he was planning to do his aquaculture in the greenhouse in tanks - so it would not be a sacrifice to not have them in the pond.
Obviously we're not much into rod fishing - we've both spent too much time trawling to have patience for that! Now it's time to sit on dry land and not catch fish.
