Natural ponds are beautiful additions to your outdoor environment and with dragonflies, turtles, and occasional deer coming in for a drink, they can be charming. But let’s be honest here: lively, colorful and curious fish who crowd to the surface in hopes of an occasional treat just can’t be beat. After all, it’s hard to imagine a turtle doing a “Suppertime” dance. Fortunately, there are definitely options for introducing fish to your natural pond. Some popular options are the classic goldfish, shubunkins (basically calico goldfish), sarassas (piebald orange and white), orfes (who actually enjoy schools) and even catfish, (although it’s a good idea to keep in mind that channel cats can grow quite large and eventually might completely dominate your pond!) When you’re selecting your fish, keep in mind a basic rule of thumb: limit your population to 1 inch of fish per 10 sq feet of water surface area.
Before you actually start to add fish, though, there are some important considerations. First is water quality - if your water is very muddy, smells bad, or has a lot of algae, adding fish will not help -- in fact, it’s simply likely to kill them. I heard once that fish are like children, and in this case, it’s true: if the water is too dirty for your kids to play in, it’s too dirty for fish as well. In fact, if you’re adding more than a couple of small goldfish to your existing pond, you’ll probably need to add some additional support to maintain a healthy ecosystem. Water circulation and oxygen are primary considerations, especially so when the weather is warm. You may want to supplement your fish’s diet so they don’t consume all those lovely plants, but it’s wise to let them subsist primarily on available food. One feeding a week should be sufficient, which also will limit their growth rate. Nothing’s worse than producing a school of sumo-fish that will push your whole ecosystem out of balance
