12 X 8 X 3 pond

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Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 20, 2009
153
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massachusetts
Hey guys, so my friend and i are building a pond in his backyard. he has a tiny stream running through it, about a foot and a half wide and 4 inches deep. we are planning to dig out an area of it and put in a pond liner. Then we will put up some chicken wire to separate the pond from the stream and make debris removal easier. this is just a rough plan and most of the details have not been worked out yet. we were thinking that if we somehow heated the water flowing in from the stream above the pond that maybe we could use that to heat the pond. we have not decided on if we are going tropical or native yet. I will post pics as we begin to dig later this week. any suggestions for design or stocking let me know. Also the depth is not definite, we may drop the center of it down to 4ft :D

I am leaning towards natives btw. I was thinking a small school of crappie, a pair of pumpkin seeds or so, a smb, and maybe a few bullheads. This is my first big project, so i really have no clue how much i can put in there this might be too much already, or maybe i can put more? :naughty:
 
I don't think heating the pond will work so you're best off sticking to natives. It'll be about 2 thousand gallons so you could get those fish in there but you may want a decent filtration system if you want more fish, most ponds i see recommend about a 1/2 times turnover so you'd want a decent pump, also explain the stream as it may help for aeration thus lessening the need for heavy filtration. I'd like to see it as it comes along so put some pics up when you get started.
 
Depending on the stream you may not need any filtration at all. My parents pond in Northern Wisconsin is spring fed and is stocked with natives. It has no filtration on it at all. You may want to consider what the stream would be bring in to the pond as well. My friend was super stoked when he found he had a lake in his back yard in Florida until the Realtor told he it is actually a huge collection basin for toxic run off from the neighborhood.
 
i would double check your local laws and no non natives as you are introducing them to a native waterway you could get in to a hell of alot of trouble
 
not only could you get in trouble for non natives, but digging in and or modifying a waterway or wetland could get you royaly bent over by EPA or your local fish and wildlife police.
 
so we are going with natives, we wouldn't want to risk have any exotic species getting into the watershed. we are going to have filtration and a waterfall in addition to what we get from stream, because the only time it really flows is after a rain, the rest of the time it is just muck and puddles

Stocklist (temporary)
1 smb
1 redfin pickerel
6 crappie
4 pumpkinseeds
?yellow perch
1 bullhead
some minnows

open to other ideas for natives
 
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