The fish for your pond
Which fish fit in?
Consider carefully which animals you would like to add to your pond. Removing them later involve huge problems and challenges!
There will never be a pond without animals, because most animal just come on their own (see Pond dwellers ). You only need to select and add a few specific fish species and mussels.
As soon as you add your fish to the pond the water pollution will increase. The fish feed and excrete. One basic rule is, that all ponds with fish inside need a filter (see Technical items ).
For the fish to survive a very cold winter the pond requires a depth of 180 cm at its deepest point. It is not easy to state a general rule for the stock density. Some fish need more space than others. Roughly you can say that per 10 cm of fish there ought to be 500 l water available. For a few species, like sturgeons and grass carps, the pond has to have a minimum size in addition to the minimum quantity of water. A 80 cm long sturgeon would feel cruelly constricted in a 4000 litre pond even when the above mentioned minimum water quantity of 8x500 l has been complied with. Strictly speaking, 80 % of ponds are not suitable for sturgeons.
Fish species for your garden pond
Species, sizes and requirements
You will find the most important information about the most popular pond fish, from the little minnow to the large sterlet, here:
And as a final request: Please DON’T put shrimps, crayfish or other aquarium animals in your pond! They are quickly spread by water birds in native waters and become invasive species. Even if the thought of beautiful shrimps and crayfish in our natural lakes and ponds sounds enticing: invasive species cause the greatest ecological problems imaginable. Please – confine them to the aquarium!