FISHES, in Heraldry, are the emblems of silence and watchfulness, and are borne upright, imbowed, extended, endorsed respecting each other, surmounting one another, fretted, and so on.
In blazoning fishes, those borne feeding should be deemed devouring; all fishes borne upright and having fins, should be blazoned hauriant; and those borne transverse the escutcheon, should be termed naiant.
Fish Ponds, excavations filled with water, and intended for the breeding or feeding of fish. In making a pond, its head should be at the lowest part of the ground, that the trench of the flood-gate or sluice, having a good fall, may not be too long in emptying. The best way of making the head secure is to drive in two or three rows of stakes about six feet long, at the distance of about four feet from each other, the whole length of the pond head, the first row of which should be rammed at least about four feet deep. If the bottom is false, the foundation may be laid with quicklime; which, when slaked, will render it as hard as a stone. Some place a layer of lime, and another of earth dug out of the pond, among the piles and stakes; and when these are well covered, drive in others as they see occasion, ramming the earth as before, till the pond head be of the height which is required.
The dam should be made sloping on each side, leaving a waste to carry off the superabundant water in times of floods or rains; and as to the depth of the pond, the deepest part need not exceed six feet, rising gradually in shoals towards the sides, for the fish to sun themselves, and lay their spawn. Gravely and sandy bottoms, especially the latter, are best for breeding; and a fat soil with a white fat water, as the washings of hills, commons, streets, sinks, and the like, is best fitted for fattening all sorts of fish. For storing a pond, carp is to be preferred for its goodness, quick growth, and great increase, as breeding five or six times a year. A pond of an acre, if it be a feeding and not a breeding one, will every year feed two hundred carps of three years old, three hundred of two years old, and four hundred of a year old. Carps delight in ponds which have marl or clay bottoms, with plenty of weeds and grass, on which they feed in the hot months.
Ponds should be drained every three or four years, and the fish sorted. In breeding ones, the smaller fishes are to be taken out, to store other ponds withal; leaving a good stock of females, at least eight or nine years old, as they never breed before that age. In feeding-ponds, it is best to keep them pretty near of a size.