any suggestions for a pond?

[pbeemer]

i hope to have a pond up and running in 2 months. i live near los angeles, so it isn't going to be horribly cold in winter.

i'm not a fan of goldfish or koi.

i'm looking for something to fill 3 niches: big (8-10 inch?) schooling fish, medium (4-6 inch) like swords or mollies, or possibly schoolers like minnows; and small (guppies/endlers, maybe small killies).


i had originally planned on setting up an all-native pond, but i can't think of anything for the big class. a "school" of sunfish is definitely not going to work, and i don't want to have just one big fish

any suggestions for any of these niches?

 

[pbeemer]

i could seriously use some help here. every time i find a likely candidate for the big, colorful fish, i find that they're on the "illegal to possess" list in california

 

[SubRosa]

i could seriously use some help here. every time i find a likely candidate for the big, colorful fish, i find that they're on the "illegal to possess" list in california

That "illegal to possess" list is your biggest hurdle to keeping natives. Either the state protects it because it's native, or bans it because it's invasive. My best advice would be to move! Barring that, if you can maintain water temps of 72F or higher year round, African Cichlids make excellent pond fish.

 

[pbeemer]

as annoying as the idiots in sacramento are -- and **** but this was a really nice state 50 years ago, before they moved in -- us moving isn't a likely option for the next 30 years. my spousal unit has a tap root bigger than texas; the grandkids would have to move out of state before we would