Congrats on the new pond. You will get great enjoyment out of it.

Although I am pretty new to this fish stuff, I already know the answer to your question about aeration.

"It depends".

Now I will turn the floor over to someone who can give you actual useful guidance.

I myself built a pond last year and it is now fully stocked, waiting for the fish to grow up. I also decided this fall that aeration is going in next spring. Even though our pond is fairly new, already starting to get filamentous algae.

I originally was not going to feed the fish. Then decided I would supplement them a little till they got on their feet (figuratevely speaking, of course) to give them a little boost to the reproduction. It worked, but also about then I found Pond Boss and filamentous algae.

Seems the more you push a pond, the more critical management gets. Add feed means adding nutrients. Adding nutrients to make more fish means more fish poop. More fish poop means something else is going to take advantage of those nutrients.

So that is what I have learned to date. The more you manage your pond for larger production, the more you will be required to manage it. And along those lines, the more beneficial aeration would be.

That is why I say, as I have learned from the best here on Pond Boss in my short tenure, "it depends".

The first thing they are going to ask you is "What are your goals?". Those goals will determine a lot of what best management practices will be for your pond.

So think about it some more, if you have not already (I had extremely fuzzy goals to begin with, thus my slow learning curve), and let us know what you would like from your pond. Big trophy fish? Pan fish to supply the table? A fish every cast for some young kids? Etc, etc.

Once your goals are known, the experts on here will do a bang up job with some good ideas for management.

Again, congrats on your new pond. I gotta go eat some Christmas dinner!

John

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