Hello! My name is Jackie and my husband is Bill. We had someone else build our pond and we are LOVING it. It is a little irregular, about 450 gallons with a small waterfall. We have a sculpture that looks wonderful over looking the pond and it has a water feature too. We are both retired so are enjoying our new hobby. We bought 13 Shebunkin about a week after the pond was built. That was probably the second week in July of this year. They are all still alive. We live north of Chicago so will have help putting the pond to bed for the winter. Everything is new to us. VERY happy to find this forum as I have questions that I know veteran pond owners will have the answers.