What makes a pond...a pond?
It seems as though we've gotten to the point where any old container full of water is being called a pond. I have a buddy in town who is proud as punch about the fact that he has gotten a "pond". I use the quotation marks because what he has set up is a half-whiskey barrel with a preformed rigid liner. I'm guessing it holds about 40 gallons of water; he plopped it onto his balcony and stuck a couple of goldfish into it and he thinks he has hit the big time. I pointed out that those fish would need to brought indoors within a month or so, tops, and that his "pond" would be a solid block of ice not much later than that. He looked at me with the kind of blank stare that said he hadn't thought that far ahead. He has no aquariums at all, no place to house those fish during the winter unless he moves his "pond" indoors...which of course can be done in about 10 minutes...
But there are all kinds of threads on MFK where people use the term "pond" as if it somehow confers superhuman powers of fish-keeping upon their owners. You can't keep a RTC or other true monster fish in a 100-gallon aquarium...but a 100-gallon "pond" is a limitless expanse of open water, suitable for anything. It's as though pond-gallons are about ten times the size of tank-gallons.
Is a pond just an aquarium that must be viewed from above, rather than through a transparent side or window? That's what my friend asserted when pressed. I opined that his pond was, in fact, a large-ish bucket of water, which did not go over well. It wasn't until I conceded that it might be considered a "water-feature" that he began to relax.
I have a "pond" in my yard, an in-ground dug-out with an EPDM liner. It's maybe 12 feet wide, 16 feet long, not much more than three feet deep in the middle. It's still a puddle by natural standards, but I grandiosely call it a pond because everyone who sees it calls it that. It's nice because the fact that is in-ground insulates it from rapid temperature changes.
I set up a number of stock tanks in summer for outdoor fish; just snapped up a new-to-me round stock tank that is 8 feet in diameter and holds, by my calculations, just under 1000 gallons of water. Experience has already shown that it will vary in temperature many degrees within a single 24-hour period. It's decently big, will allow breeding and good growth, will have fairly stable water chemistry...but it ain't no pond...
I have one small stock tank that is set up in my basement, mostly for overwintering fish; that same buddy calls it a pond, but we already know that his judgment is suspect. I know that it's just a plastic tub standing on concrete blocks.
What's the consensus? When does a plastic tub of water, or a kiddie wading-pool, or a department-store frame-and-liner cheapie "swimming pool kit"...become a pond?
]
It seems as though we've gotten to the point where any old container full of water is being called a pond. I have a buddy in town who is proud as punch about the fact that he has gotten a "pond". I use the quotation marks because what he has set up is a half-whiskey barrel with a preformed rigid liner. I'm guessing it holds about 40 gallons of water; he plopped it onto his balcony and stuck a couple of goldfish into it and he thinks he has hit the big time. I pointed out that those fish would need to brought indoors within a month or so, tops, and that his "pond" would be a solid block of ice not much later than that. He looked at me with the kind of blank stare that said he hadn't thought that far ahead. He has no aquariums at all, no place to house those fish during the winter unless he moves his "pond" indoors...which of course can be done in about 10 minutes...
But there are all kinds of threads on MFK where people use the term "pond" as if it somehow confers superhuman powers of fish-keeping upon their owners. You can't keep a RTC or other true monster fish in a 100-gallon aquarium...but a 100-gallon "pond" is a limitless expanse of open water, suitable for anything. It's as though pond-gallons are about ten times the size of tank-gallons.
Is a pond just an aquarium that must be viewed from above, rather than through a transparent side or window? That's what my friend asserted when pressed. I opined that his pond was, in fact, a large-ish bucket of water, which did not go over well. It wasn't until I conceded that it might be considered a "water-feature" that he began to relax.
I have a "pond" in my yard, an in-ground dug-out with an EPDM liner. It's maybe 12 feet wide, 16 feet long, not much more than three feet deep in the middle. It's still a puddle by natural standards, but I grandiosely call it a pond because everyone who sees it calls it that. It's nice because the fact that is in-ground insulates it from rapid temperature changes.
I set up a number of stock tanks in summer for outdoor fish; just snapped up a new-to-me round stock tank that is 8 feet in diameter and holds, by my calculations, just under 1000 gallons of water. Experience has already shown that it will vary in temperature many degrees within a single 24-hour period. It's decently big, will allow breeding and good growth, will have fairly stable water chemistry...but it ain't no pond...
I have one small stock tank that is set up in my basement, mostly for overwintering fish; that same buddy calls it a pond, but we already know that his judgment is suspect. I know that it's just a plastic tub standing on concrete blocks.
What's the consensus? When does a plastic tub of water, or a kiddie wading-pool, or a department-store frame-and-liner cheapie "swimming pool kit"...become a pond?
]
