Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking a new pond and have some questions.

Hi all!
I live in Ontario,Canada and I am setting up a pond soon. I have a small budget and I am willing to spend $300-$400 on setting it up. I have a 60x40 backyard. There are underground pipes 20 feet in from the back fence so I can only use the first 40 feet. I am not quite sure on how big the pond is going to be but I am thinking of a 10x10 pond. I want to be able to go fishing but I think a 10x10 pond is too small. Now for some questions. What can I put in there? The closest fish farm is 3 hours away. I am willing to drive there. They specialize in walleye and trout for ponds. I am making my pond 6-10 feet deep. The people at the fish farm currently sell: Walleye,Rainbow trout,Speckled trout,mudminnows,golden shiners,black crappie and largemouth bass. I know someone how can give me some Smallmouth bass too. I am going to stock my forage first of MM and GS. They sell them buy the thousand or by the pound. Could any of the following fish besides the forage fish get along well in a 6 foot deep pond that is 10x10? I might make the pond bigger than 10x10. I will keep you posted. I really want to go fishing in my backyard and I dont want goldfish or koi at the moment.This is my first pond ever.I will keep you guys posted. Thanks for your time!

Hi James and welcome to Pond Boss. One of the experts should be along shortly to give you a good answer. A 10x10 pond that is 6-10 feet deep won't hold very many fish so stocking numbers will have to be carefully considered. Aeration could be used to increase the carrying capacity but that alone could exceed your budget.

I believe (but not being an expert don't really know) that a sunfish only pond might be easier for you to maintain as any type of bass would require a forage base and/or feeding.

Trout have special requirements in order to get the to reproduce. As is happens we have several experts in raising trout here at PB so hopefully one of them will chime in.

But hang on and you will get an educated opinion (as opposed to the ramblings of one of the village idiots that you have been subjected to so far.)

James - A 10'x10'x10'deep pond will be like a big box buried in your back yard. Esentially you are talking about somesort of backyard lily pond. 10 ft deep is very deep for a pond that has 10'x10' surface size. I do not even know if this is physically possible if the basin is dug from soil. It will essentially be similar to a hole dug for a grave. Vertical sides will want to cave-in or slough slide due the consistancy and behavior of even very good clay soil when flooded with water.

Unless you have exceptionally good clay soil you will need a "rubber" liner to keep the pond from excessively leaking. A quality rubber liner that is not fish toxic will probably consume a good part of your $400 budget. Note cheap rubber roofing material can be toxic to fish. In my opinion and realistically, the deepest you can expect to have a pond that is only 10'x10' is 3-4 ft deep.

In a couple cases, I have seen very small ponds with trout raised in a very small area such as 10'x10' and smaller - both ponds were cement basin ponds. However for this to succeed the water cannot get higher than 68F, 20C. The small ponds that I saw were successful ONLY because they had either spring or well water CONSTANTLY flowing through them, similar to what Cecil Baird does with his trout pond. For you raise trout, you will also have to do something similar to this. Flowing well-spring water not only provides cool temperatures essential for trout, but flowing water flushes nutrients and waste materials out of the very small volume of water the fish live in. Filtration will not be acceptable to maintain healthy trout and stay in your budget.

Your other option is to build the 3-4ft deep lily pond and stock it with 5-10 BG, all the same sex - preferably males in the 5"-8" size range. Stocking 5-10 adult BG will reqire good water filtration that includes very good biofiltration AND good mechanical filtration. The larger the filter the better. You cannot have too much water filtration when raising fish in a small water body. This will depleate your budget. Trying to maintain a predator fish in a very small pond will keep you constantly busy finding food or depleating your budget buying food for one to two 8"-12" bass - not practical for your situation. Bgill that you train to eat pelleted fish food will be much easier, cheaper, less time consuming and easier to raise. Maintaining these fish in the 4 ft deep pond during your harsh Ontario cold winters will be pretty difficult, but maybe not impossible. I would plan to eat the fish at the end of each year and restock every spring.

You could try some rainbow trout like suggested above if you have the temp