← Fish H30-02 · Module 2 of 7 · Pages: 18 · Worksheets: 5

Building a small fish pond

A pond of 150 to 1,000 m² that can be drained and harvested: bottom profile, monk outlet, screened inlet, catch pit, heron protection and first filling

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Building a small fish pond

In short

  • A fish pond must have an outlet down to the bottom. No outlet means no harvest, no cleaning and no rescue when something goes wrong.
  • The bottom falls 0.2–0.5 % towards the outlet within each zone, and in front of the outlet is a catch pit 30–50 cm below the bottom.
  • The deepest part roughly 1.5–2 m (5–6½ ft), the shallow part 0.6–1 m. Water shallower than 50 cm only along one safety bank.
  • The inlet runs through a screen, the spillway and outlet through a grille: your fish don't get out, wild fish don't get in.
  • An embankment or a dammed stream is another matter: banks higher than 1–1.5 m and any work in a watercourse need an engineer and a permit.
  • First filling: the water stands 2–3 weeks before the fish go in.

What's inside

Chapters

  1. A fish pond is not just a pond
  2. Size, shape and depths
  3. Site and soil
  4. Outlet: monk or pipe with elbow
  5. Inlet, spillway and screens
  6. Digging step by step
  7. Predator protection
  8. Plants and the feeding place
  9. First filling and preparation
  10. Maintenance
  11. Common mistakes
  12. Printable checklist

Worksheets

  • Digging calculator
  • Liner and bottom fall
  • Pond sketch
  • Cost sheet and work plan
  • Building calendar and bank log

Fields and checkboxes can be filled in with Adobe Acrobat Reader (desktop and mobile), and the calculator adds up by itself. Filling in may not work in some browsers. A print version comes with the screen PDF.

This guide in other languages:

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