Water Gardening: new ponder needs advice!!, 1 by swtp15

swtp15 wrote:
i have recently built a small pond - its not quite finished yet- we ran out of flagstone for the fountain!! i would love to have water lilies and fish but have heard that these require alot of maintenence--

what do i need to do -- what plants fish snails etc should i have in my pond to stablize everything??? sure would appeciate any advice ya'll could provide as i really dont have a clue what to do--

we have just put some asst plants around the pond in pots to get an idea of what they might look like- i plan on having black and green elephant ears, lobster claws, butterfly ginger, astibles, fern, purple and yellow walking iris as plants around the pond...

i am in florida zone 9 - live on a lake -- and have sandhill cranes come to eat corn-- how do i protect any fish from predators???