Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Big boulders !

OK, I need some advice again ! The dozer digging my pond is coming up with several large boulders, 5x5 or larger, maybe 6 of them. Should I place them inside my tank for structure, or outside for cosmetic purposes ? Any and all advice will be appreciated !

Wish I had some of those

You could do some of each, sounds like they might make a pretty neat place to sit if positioned right. Might have to dig them in a little. They definitely would make a nice point of interest in the pond as well. Not more than 2 per acre I would imagine in the pond is what I would think of doing. Sounds like you may have a fun and creative delima on your hands

I know where you can get some if you live in southern, MN. The construction company digging the gravel pit has a whole stack of boulders every shape and size.

Those would be neat no matter whether in or out of the water.

Location in the water is a consideration. Neighbor kids come and swim in my tank. Make sure they can't get hurt if jumping in. Also, I wouldn't put them in a shallow, flat area that I might seine.

Big boulders are probably much more useful (aesthetics)out of the water or at waters edge than submerged below the surface. Boulders by themselves create very few places for small fish to hide; few nooks & crannies. Boulders under water also only provide a few places for ambush predators to hang out. All sizes of tree limbs are much more useful for fish habitat.

The same thing happened in a local pond built last year and they did something a little different. I don't know how the equipment operator did it, but he was able to stack several of these large rocks in a vertical column - mostly a one rock wide column one on top of the other - in about 12 feet of water so that they just about exactly reached the water line when it filled up. Maybe this isn't the best structure, but it's in an open area of the pond and I know from experience in local lakes and rivers that fish will hold very tight to the shady side of any bridge support column I find. I think this would be even better.

What do you guys think?