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 for ornamental purposes.
Design for a Fish-Pond in Plan and Section (Italy, 18th century)
Fishing in a fish pond system at Daye Lake near Daye, China
The fishpond of la Cambre Abbey in Brussels.
Ornamental Fish Pond at the Chinese Garden of Friendship in Sydney
A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression, either naturally or artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing the two, although defining a pond to be less than 5 hectares in area, less than 5 metres (16 ft) in depth and with less than 30% with emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing the ecology of ponds from those of lakes and wetlands. Ponds can be created by a wide variety of natural processes, or they can simply be isolated depressions filled by runoff, groundwater, or precipitation, or all three of these. They can be further divided into four zones: vegetation zone, open water, bottom mud and surface film. The size and depth of ponds often varies greatly with the time of year; many ponds are produced by spring flooding from rivers. Ponds are usually freshwater but may be brackish in nature. Saltwater pools, with a direct connection to the sea to maintain full salinity, may sometimes be called 'ponds' but these are normally regarded as part of the marine environment. They do not support fresh or brackish water-based organisms, and are rather tidal pools or lagoons.
Pond at Cornjum, Netherlands
A man made pond at sunset in Montgomery County, Ohio.
Stereoscopic image of a pond in Central City Park, Macon, GA, c. 1877.
Vegetated pond within the sand dunes of the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Brazil