Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Self sustaining Fish Mix

I believe your question is too broad. You need to state your goals. You can have a self sustaining pond with just fathead minnows in it. How much work are you willing to put into managing the self-sustaining pond per year? What is your definition of a self sustaining pond? It all comes back to goals that you have for the pond.

#1 priority is water. Without water in the pond it can't be self sustaining.
#2 is the quality of the water in the pond. i.e. nutrients, alkalinity, hardness, pH, etc. etc.

I believe you need to start from the bottom and work your way up, with the very first thing on the list being your goals for the pond. That even ties into how the pond is designed, while there are a lot of "work arounds" that can be done, the basic structure of your pond has to be accommodating to the goals (including the fish population) of your pond. i.e. if you want to have a self sustaining LMB/BG pond, that is unrealistic if your pond has absolutely no reproductive habitat for the bluegills or the bass. In my book, structure is the pond bottom itself, cover is what is placed in the pond for fish habitat.