Benign Vanilla wrote:

Rocks on the bottom are a bit of a maintenance issue. The spaces in
between the rocks will collect a lot of detrious (sp?) which over time can

detritus. You're welcome :-)

become toxic to the fish, and just plain smelly. If you want a few large
rocks for show, great, but if you plan to line the pond with small
rock/pebbles, I recommend you don't. You will live to regret it.

Have we finally put this argument to rest? Last time I was around here it
was still as lively a topic as s**ting the pond.

Also, I have a "channel" that runs around the edge of the
pond that is apparently meant for reeds to grow in.. but I have
absolutely no idea how to grow reeds! Do any of you know how? My next

Get ground wet. Watch plants grow :-) Really, there's nothing to it.

The type of critters I am looking to put in the pond aren't the
usual koi and goldfish etc. My whole vision is to populate it with some
of the local aquatic life I find around my southern california home.
This is smallmouth bass, catfish, mosquito fish and crawdads. Now I am
very aware of my limited space i.e. 160 gallons, but I am pretty
confident that if only a very few of these critters are put into the
pond it should not be too crowded.
....
Anyway, do
you think I should transplant these fish while they are young and
small? And what about the crawdads... would they even stand a chance in
there? I have seen them living in some pretty low creeks before,
something like a few inches of water. But I just dont know if a small
pond would allow them to roam enough, can crawdads live in small ponds?

I dunno about crawdads.

Dunno, as in "dunno anything about them", or "dunno if it's a smart idea"?
I would think they stand as good, or better, chance of survival than
smallmouth bass and catfish. Be warned, it is likely _not_ legal to stock
native fish in your pond without appropriate licenses. Particularly
something like a smallmouth bass, which is native to the US but quite
possibly not native to your area. Here in Nova Scotia, they're an invasive
species.
--
derek