Since very young, I have been interested in water and its creatures.  I had aquaria of various sizes from about age eight.  Currently, I've a 7ft(Long) x 2ft(wide)x 2ft(tall) tank in my living room.  I've had different "style" tanks over the years (large schools of small fish at some times and just a few vicious fish at others).  Right now I'm in an intermediate mode.  The fish I liked best was a 26" fire eel (black with red "racing stripes" and red fringe around caudal fin)--unfortunately, (s?)he jumped out of the tank when I wasn't around and died in the summer of 1999.  Have bought two more fire eels and they are growing rapidly.  Recently put a fancy filter system in the big tank (small sand pressure swimming pool type filter that makes cleaning the tank a snap--just backflush into the front yard and refill).
    The aquarium currently has (in addition to the two young fire eels) a large plecostomus, three clown loaches, three congo tetras, four large barbs of some sort, two hybrid severum/red devil mixes (very cute, bright red), a big old gold severum, two bala sharks, three fish whose name escapes me (blue in front, yellow in back), three young koi that I'm keeping inside till next Spring, two big silver dollar-like fish, two geophagus, and possibly some others that escape me at the moment.  They are, to the extent that one can judge such things, happy as they can be in what by "normal" aquarium standards are some very fine "digs!"
    The pond part of the title refers to the pond in my backyard.  It is 8ft by 15ft in area and varies from 2 to 4+ ft deep.  It is well-filtered with two large sand pressure swimming pool filters (the kind you backflush to clean), filled with bioballs.  I've had a good many koi (Japanese colored carp) in it, my favorite being "Bandit" (actually, Bandita, since she bred in both 1997 and 1998).  It has been a tough year for "losing" favorite fish: Bandita failed to breed this past Spring and died of "egg impaction."   She was as big as a football, but with long flowing fins (a "Butterfly" koi) and is much-missed.  The water sounds, and looking at the fish, I find quite tranquil, especially when sipping a nice glass of wine on a Summer afternoon.  With a 500watt underwater swimming pool light, this experience can drag on well into the night!