Brandon Green

Tyler Ludens wrote:I'd think a half acre would be about the minimum size for enough habitat for fish and ducks, but that's just a guess.  Both Geoff Lawton and Sepp Holzer seem to have smallish ponds on their farms.  Really tiny ponds can have trouble with temperature swings which can be hard on fish.  

That's what the research I've read has said for stocked fish ponds.  I'm having trouble finding information for adding ducks into the mix.  Since they produce a lot of waste as well I wanted to know how many ducks or how much larger the pond would need to be.

Casie Becker wrote:How much input is little input? In my location it would have to be a very huge pond to survive our summer droughts without regularly adding more water. That's why we haven't planned one for our yard.

I live on the east coast with lots of lakes around.  By inputs I know some smaller duck ponds require constant cleaning and some fish ponds require aerators, filters, nutrients, and other human inputs to be regulated in a controlled way.  I'm looking to replicate something more like nature.

I have a question of what would you think is the minimum size a pond would need to be to sustainably raise fish and ducks together in a natural way with little input.  Also what recommendations for types of fish and vegetation could be grown to sustain this ecosystem and provide for the feed and health of the pond.