Welcome to the forum. It's best to water the animals with water from the pond in a water trough or tank vs. letting them walk into the pond.

The smaller the pond, the harder it is to keep a viable reproducing population of fish in it, smaller ponds are better suited for low reproduction rates of hybrid fish.

The design of the pond is driven (sort of) by the species of fish you have in it. Most fish are like wild critters, they like edge cover, so a more uneven shoreline is better than a round, square or rectangular pond.

Depth all depends on the ground and the area. Being in Florida, you probably won't have many issues with drought, BUT since Florida has a lot of sand in the ground and it will most likely be a water table pond, you need to figure out how much the water level will fluctuate over the course of a full year. I wouldn't feel comfortable having a pond that would be shallower than 8' deep during the driest time of the year.

With sand, you are limited to a max slope of 3:1.

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3/4 to 1 1/4 ac pond LMB, SMB, PS, BG, RES, CC, YP, Bardello BG, (RBT & Blue Tilapia - seasonal).