Avoid freshly cut oak. The tannins in it killed every fish I stocked. I had to pump it dry.
I use cedars and haven't seen a problem. But I dang sure don't overload it. Lusk told me that a cedar will last about 4 years in the pond.
If you question a piece of wood, test it by cutting a fresh piece and put it in a bucket of pond water. After 3 or 4 days, toss in some small fish and see what happens in a day or so.
The most rot resistant woods I know of are black locust, red mulberry, osage orange, and Pacific yew. The Osage Orange is has a very tanglely web of branches and the native indians would use these trees for corrals to hold their horses.
I know where there is one grove of osage orange close to me.
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