Fish for a small pond

[Heathofhares]

I have a new, small wildlife pond. It was designed for insects, plants and potentially some frogs, but the DCs are asking for fish. I’m not sure it’s big enough?

It’s about 1 m long, 60 cm wide and around 60 cm at its deepest. (About half the area is a planting shelf about 16cm deep and the rest deeper. We live in a sheltered area of the south that rarely gets frosts and I will be getting a small floating filter.

I will be introducing plants and leaving it to get established. But before the DCs get excited are there any suitable fish (a friend did suggest native minnows as a possibility?)

I’m a complete novice when it comes to fish so any comments welcome thanks.

If you want wildlife - no fish. It's really one or the other. Fish will eat frogspawn and all those lovely insects, they will also throw plants around as well. Especially the case for smaller ponds.

Unfortunately 60cm deep is too shallow for fish to overwinter properly - for fish ponds they really need a minimum deep point of 90-100 cm as this is where the fish will go in very cold freezing temperatures. If it's too shallow, they'll die :(

I would keep this as a wildlife only pond, give the pond a year to really get established and the kids will get to see all sorts of wildlife find the pond instead.