HOW TO CONSTRUCT A FISH POND

Kasalwe Mkandawire
24 Oct, 2024

A Fish pond or fishpond is a controlled pond, small artificial lake or retention basin that is stocked with fish and is used in aquaculture for fish farming, for recreational fishing or commercial fish production.

A Fredrick Mbewe a fish scientist takes us through the stages in Fish pond construction. First and foremost a construction site needs to be identified and prepared. When the construction site has been prepared, the fish pond and its water control structures can be built.

This chapter shows you how to construct the fish pond, while the next chapters of this manual, deal with water control structures.

2. Dikes (wall that functions as a separator between the pond area and the surrounding environment) are the most important part of a fish pond, as they keep the necessary volume of water impounded and form the actual pond; their design and construction is particularly important. You will learn more about pond dikes and earthwork calculations in the next three sections, before learning how to stake out and construct the four main types of pond.

3. You will find it useful to have a notebook in which to make any calculations required and, if available, some squared or graph paper for sketching out and measuring pond and dike shapes.

6.1 Characteristics of pond dikes

1. Any pond dike should have three basic qualities.

(a) It should be able to resist the water pressure resulting from the pond water depth.

(b) It should be impervious, the water seepage through the dike being kept to a minimum.

(c) It should be high enough to keep the pond water from ever running over its top, which would rapidly destroy the dike.

Some points to remember about dikes for good pond dike construction Resisting water pressure

2. Water pressure can be readily resisted by: anchoring your dike strongly to its foundations (the soil on which you build it);

constructing your dike large enough to resist the water pressure by virtue of its weight.

Ensuring impermeability

3. Impermeability of the dike can be ensured by:

(a) using good soil that contains enough clay

(b) building a central clayey core when using pervious soil material;