5 Pond Creatures Every Writer Should Know About

🌀 5 Pond Creatures Every Fiction Writer Should Know World-Building with Fish, Frogs, Crayfish, Birds & Dragonflies

Ready to dive beneath the lily pads and stir up your story’s ecosystem? In this episode, we spotlight five pond-dwelling characters that do way more than swim and squawk—they hold the power to elevate your world-building, deepen your symbolism, and even inspire plot twists no one saw coming.

Whether you're crafting rural landscapes, survival scenarios, or magical wetlands, these creatures offer storytelling gold:

🐟 Fish — edible, symbolic, and surprisingly handy in fertilizing garden soil. Who says your protagonist can't cultivate hope with a tilapia?

🐸 Frogs — tasty (depending on your setting), and excellent allies in water-based crop systems thanks to their appetite for pests.

🐦 Birds — poetic scavengers that can double as foragers and the unintentional nemesis of your water garden... if you’ve ever met a duck, you know.

🦞 Crayfish — crusty bonding agents. Whether caught together or cooked over a fire, these feisty bottom-feeders offer delicious opportunities for character interaction.

🪰 Dragonflies — graceful insect assassins. They keep mosquito drama in check, which might just save your swamp-dwelling hero’s sanity.

Perfect for writers who crave realism with a touch of whimsy and symbolic depth. Get ready to take notes, laugh, and leave with pond power you never knew you needed.

Transcript

Welcome to the pond, where birds swoop down for fish, frogs sing at dusk, and fish slip away like shadowy figures. And crayfish? Think armored medieval knights… with pinchers! Each creature brings not only ecological importance but also worldbuilding gold. So let’s dive into the animals that not only feed your characters—but fuel your fiction.

Welcome to Writing Rural with Alley, the fiction writer’s inspiration station for rural life and lifestyles, from historical to post-apocalyptic, helping you bring your rural stories to life! I’m Alley, and this is episode #111, 5 Pond Creatures Every Writer Should Know About. Stick around to the end to find out all the ways things could possibly go wrong in your story. Now, let’s get into this.

1) Frogs

Frogs are common in almost every body of fresh water, and ponds are no different. Now, different places in the world will have different types of frogs, so research in the area you are writing will be vital to making your story realistic. I live in the US, so I’m going to cover what are found here, all of which can be found in my own pond. 

There are three main types of frogs, although each type has subspecies. These are bullfrogs, leopard frogs, and tree frogs. Each type has its own unique sound and are often associated with the sounds of summer. Another thing they all have in common is that their skin is sensitive to chemicals in the water. This will be important if you are writing a post-apocalyptic story, as frogs living in a body of water could potentially signal that the water is clean water, or at least the cleanest water in the area. 

Frogs all lay eggs in water, and the second stage of life is a tadpole. Tadpoles are important to a pond because they feed on algae and decaying matter. This helps to keep the pond clean. Why is this important? Simply put, most types of algae are toxic to humans, pets and livestock. It also depletes the amount of oxygen in a pond, and this can kill any fish living in the pond. Never good in real life, but character death by algae might be interesting. 

Let’s cover some of these frogs. First up is the American bullfrog. They grow between 3.5 and 8 inches, and can be 2 to 3 lbs each. They are predators eating anything smaller than they are. This includes other frogs, fish, birds, rodents, snakes, spiders, lizards, and anything else that is in reach. Which is great pest control, since they also eat the venomous spiders and snakes. Foxes, raccoons, turtles, and some birds will eat these frogs. That’s the circle of life for you. 

Male bullfrogs make deep croaks to attract a mate. Humans have mimicked these sounds to lure in female frogs when hunting them and have been used as signal calls by both Native Americans and bootleggers. This can be two communities with others near them that people were coming to, to draw attention away from an area they didn’t want people at, and has been used to scare off city slickers who thought terrifying creatures were after them. Kind of makes me wonder if some backwoodsman played a prank or two, and that is how some of these “I heard Bigfoot in the forest” stories got started. 

Now we can’t move on without talking about frog legs. Bullfrogs have been and still are hunted for their legs. Many states have regulations on what is allowed there. I have not looked up state laws, and this is just what I have learned from people who hunt them, so I do not guarantee it is legal in the area you are writing. 

Frogs are normally hunted at night. The reason why is that their eyes reflect light very well, and it makes it easier to spot them than trying to see the green form in the green weeds of a pond. In modern times, this is done with a flashlight or headlamp. Some people use nets to catch them. I remember my grandfather telling stories about hunting them with his grandfather by torchlight. One person would get into the dugout canoe and hold the torch close to the shore, and the other would go along with either a stick to smack them in the head with, or a frog gig. That is basically a trident looking tool that can be used. They are normally attached to a stick and used like a spear would be. 

Nowadays these can still be found along with guns to launch them from that are similar to a harpoon gun. Crossbows can be used, and some people use .22 rifles. I have also known a few (very few) who used a blow dart gun. I stay away from those after I shot someone in the backside with one, and didn’t mean to. Oops! 

Next is the leopard frog. These frogs are smaller, at about 2 to 4.5 inches. Their legs are just as yummy, but smaller. One thing that is good about having this kind around is that they eat insects, slugs, spiders, and things like this. These are perfect helpers to keep any water-based crops safe. Examples are wild rice and cattails. I even have a full episode about cattails if you would like to learn more. 

Last of these three are tree frogs. They are the smaller at between 1 and 2.5 inches. Yes, they are edible, although tiny legs. (That was weird to write.) Your character should appreciate them as they eat mosquitoes, flies, beetles and other insect pests. Mosquitoes can carry disease, so the fewer of them your character has biting them, the better! 

Now before we move on, there are two things you’ll want to know about frog legs. First, yes, they really do taste like chicken legs. The difference is that they taste as if a good amount of black pepper was added. These are very common to eat in many places in America, even today. 

Now, the best part — what happens if you just take the leg off and put it in a pan to fry? Any idea? Well, let me tell you! The leg will cook for roughly a minute or two and then jump out of the pan. I kid you not! The cooking process causes the muscles to contract quickly, and it looks like it jumped right out of the pan.  This is a very common prank. The way to stop that is by cutting the tendon before placing it in the pan. People who have done this will know; others will not. Which one will your character be? 

A last note: whatever parts of the frog that are not eaten can be used as fish bait or feed for other animals. Cats love them, dogs too, and even chickens are happy to eat them. Yes, chickens are omnivores. 

2) Fish

Now this one is a sometimes animal. Some ponds have fish, and some don’t. There are a few ways this happens. A pond could have once been attached to a stream, and this is what is left of the fish that were trapped there when the stream dried up or was moved. This is common with floods and sometimes flash floods. The water can cut a new route that bypasses this area altogether. As in our case, a flood can come up from the river, and over the pond. When the water went down, the fish got stuck. 

In history (and even today), people sometimes caught fish in another location and then released them into the pond. This can be done to add fish to a pond, but the story of our second pond (I am told. This was before my parents were even born) a family member brought fish from the nearby river hoping to have dinner with the family. They were not home, so he let the fish go into the pond because they could catch them later and he didn’t want to waste the food. No one fishes there, but there are still catfish in it to this day. 

Lastly, in modern times, but it has happened in history too, people stock the pond. This means they intentionally get fish from somewhere else and place them in the pond. Now, here you can only buy native species, and no invasive species are allowed. In my area, the most common ones brought in are bass, catfish, bluegill, crappie (That’s not an option, but the actual name), minnows, carp, golden shiners, trout, perch, and sometimes even mosquito fish. (again, real name). 

There are many reasons for this, but the most common is for food. Fish meat is yummy, high in protein and can be smoked, dried, canned, or even fermented for long-term preservation. Although I don’t know if I am brave enough to eat fermented fish. All of which makes great items to barter and trade with, or simply give as gifts. 

An upside of fishing is that it can be a passive way to hunt. This means they set fishing lines or fish traps and wait for the fish. This conserves energy, which is important in survival situations, for anyone with a chronic illness, a physical disability that limits energy and would be great for travellers, such as hobos, who need energy for other things. 

Other upsides are that if there are water crops, fish not only eat algae but insects and insect larvae. This kills mosquitoes and other insects that could eat the plants. Not only that, but fish poop will fertilize the plants, helping them to grow. 

Not only does fish poop help these plants, but any part of a fish your character doesn’t eat can be used to fertilize their garden. Fish add nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. There is even research saying these add amino acids to the compost, helping feed the soil microbes. These microbes are vital in the process of breaking down organic waste. A fancy way of saying turning it into compost. 

Two points of caution. First, too many fish in a compost pile leads to nitrogen overload. That is not helpful. The second is to bury the fish well, or your character will be smelling the fish rot. I promise you it is nasty and gag-worthy. I have known some people who vomited at the smell. 

A last farming note: minnows and mosquito fish are both sometimes used in livestock watering tanks. They are placed there to eat any mosquito larvae in the water to help protect the livestock. 

3) Birds 

Birds are next on the list. These included the most commonly found at the pond and are not necessarily the birds that swim. Here in my area this includes ducks, herring, turkey, geese, and numerous songbirds. We even see the occasional stork, but they are not common in my area. Why do they all like the water? Because they all get thirsty. 

Now, many farmers and homesteaders, and potentially people after the apocalypse, let their birds drink from or swim in their pond. The swimming ones are ducks, geese, and swans. The non-swimming ones are chickens, domestic turkeys, and guinea fowl. I know from sad experience that chickens can drown if they can’t very easily get out of the water. 

Normally, the non - swimming birds peck around the edges, occasionally falling in if there is a steep area, but not often. They will eat the bugs and small fish they find. This is good for water crops because they eat bugs that can eat the plant stalks, and because they poop, fertilizing the plants. If you haven’t heard me say it before, chickens are little pooping monsters. 

Now, on top of the fact that birds are edible, your character can also get eggs from them. And I don’t just mean the domesticated ones. Keep in mind, many wild birds fight back if they catch someone trying to steal their eggs. Geese have cartilage that are like spiky teeth, and it hurts to be bitten by them. I know the hard way. Me and birds are not friends as they like to bite me. 

Now after your character eats the bird, the leftover guts are often used for fishing, or just to feed the fish. I’ve also seen them left out in a forest to attract predators that people were hunting. In my case (back when I was little), it was because the predator kept attacking the chickens and rabbits of this farmer. That was his livelihood, and he was going to protect it. 

4) Crayfish 

Crayfish, here in the US, are also called crawfish, crawdeads, or crawdads. Depending on the dialect. To oversimplify what they look like, they look like tiny lobsters, at three to six inches. They can be red, brown, blue, white, black or green. Personally, I have never seen a red or green one, but have seen white and translucent ones living inside caves. They have exoskeletons, which they shed as they grow, similar to the way a snake sheds its skin, and you can randomly find these. 

Crayfish are used for food and are a traditional dish in the South, with crawfish boils at family get-togethers and even restaurants. This is a great way for your characters to have interactions, especially bonding and romantic ones. 

Crayfish can also be used as fish bait. It’s very common when fishing for both bass and catfish. Some people even bait fish traps with crayfish. Personally, I don’t find this the best for a trap, but it might work well in other areas. 

Some people use nets to catch them. I’ve heard of them being dug up in the winter months while they are hibernating, but your character would have to know where they hibernated at. Most people catch them by hand. This is done with a very quick catch, catching them on the back, right behind the two pinchers. The reason is that they can’t reach you with their pincher there. 

I know a ton of people who do this, my own kids included. Me, however, I was a whirlwind as a kid, and if you gave me a stick and told me to take on a wild hog, I might have, but tiny, swimming creatures with pinchers, nope! A side note: if you write a story about mutated pincher creatures, my advice is to give it to someone that is not me. 

5) Dragonfly 

Bet you didn’t see this one coming. Yes, those cute flying critters can be a great asset to every pond, and to your characters. Dragonflies live near clean water and are one of the best mosquito eaters there are. Dragonfly larvae live in the water, and so do mosquito larvae. The dragonfly larva, called nymphs, will hunt mosquito larvae and eat them. And adult dragonflies will hunt adult mosquitoes, eating hundreds of them per day. We all know how deadly illnesses transmitted by mosquitoes can be. This means they definitely want dragonflies to keep down the mosquito population. 

Let’s go over the basics. Dragonflies live near fresh water on every continent except Antarctica, with over 2,500 species. All dragonflies have four wings. They come in many colors, including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, black, and brown. Many of them have a metallic look to their coloring. The average size is between 1 and 3.5 inches long, with a wingspan of 1 to 4 inches depending on the species. These little flying bugs live from one week to one month in the adult stage. 

Now, I hear you, “But Alley, we are writers! We want to hear about the abnormal and extremes.” Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered! 

A web search says the smallest dragonfly is 0.59 inches (15mm) long. While there seems to be conflicting information about whether the Giant Petaltail or the Giant Darner is the largest. Both are roughly 5 inches long. However, if you are writing Clan of the Cave Bears era stories, you’ll be interested to know there are fossilized dragonflies who had two - foot wingspans! Okay, technically that’s prehistoric, but you could get away with writing them into the caveman era. There are also some dragonflies that live for up to 6 months in the adult stage. 

Before we get too far off topic, dragonflies can be eaten in survival situations, and a web search says some cultures do, but I can’t find a single named culture that does. 

Nowadays, dragonflies are a popular feature on women’s necklaces and wind chimes. They have become an insect loved by many women and children. Some people today (here in the US) believe they can bring good luck. They are also sometimes associated with beauty. But did you know they weren’t always well-loved? Oh yes, the folklore about this one was interesting. Now, I grew up hearing that if dragonflies swarmed, it meant rain was on the way. Side note, that’s not true, and an old wives’ tale. 

Some Native American tribes believed that dragonflies were dragons that had been tricked into shapeshifting into dragonfly form and becoming stuck in that form. There are tales out of Kansas (not sure if it was from a tribe or the settlers) that they would sew up the mouths of lying children or scolding women. In Germany, they are linked to an evil princess. In Romania, they are linked to the devil. Most of Europe also links them to the devil along with black magic. In Sweden, they were seen as an omen of a tragedy about to happen. 

Now, if you live in these places and are thinking I am nuts, that’s okay. My understanding is that many of these things were believed hundreds to thousands of years ago. 

The reason I point these out is they could be used against your characters. If in Europe and someone had a dragonfly land on their door, another character could take that as they were evil. In Kansas, that would keep kids from lying! Just imagine a mother talking to her child. “No lying; they might hear you. You don’t want the dragonflies to come for you.” That’s going to leave a phobia! 

Now we have three very important notes you need to know. 

First, fish and crayfish are both major allergens. This means they are one of the most common allergies, and more likely to cause life threating reactions. While all the others can be something a person is allergic to, it is rare that a person is allergic to frogs, birds, or dragonflies. 

Secondly, we have to cover the religious aspect of some of these. In both Judisum, and Islam (from my research), they do not eat frogs, most insects or birds of prey because these are considered unclean. Judisum allows non - predatory birds like chickens and ducks, forbids shellfish, and only allows fish with scales. Off the top of my head, catfish fall into the banned category because they have skin, not scales. Islam also forbids shellfish, and birds must be slaughtered properly to be eaten. 

Now I see that there are some weird things about what Christians can and can’t eat. I’m a Christian, so this would be the only one I can personally talk to. While there are some sects that follow the same traditions as Judisum, and a few that just seemed to make stuff up as they went, the vast majority don’t. I could do a whole episode on why, but I will keep this simple. 

We follow the New Testament teachings about food. In Acts 15, it plainly states that the Gentiles coming to follow Jesus (A Gentile in oversimplification is anyone not Jewish.) they should not drink blood, eat strangled animals, or eat foods that had been offered to idols. 

Now in Romans it talks about if a person believes something is unclean, they should not eat it. I have seen this interpreted in a few ways. One being that God himself would let you know if something was unclean. The second personal choice, a vow, or in some cases it is referred to as fasting from a specific thing for a period of time. These are called different things, but are essentially the same thing. Basically, a person decides they will not eat or sometimes drink a specific thing for a period of time. This can be the rest of their life, a day, week, year or years, or until a certain thing happens. 

Now, this isn’t stopping sugar to get skinny, but as a religious reason behind that, whatever that may be. I know some people who do this to feel as if they are showing their obedience to God. I know others who have said they will not have this thing they love to eat or drink until their spouse or child healed from an illness. Most people doing this don’t go around telling everyone about it, but it is a quiet promise to God. 

While the religious aspect of this can be an act of worship and obedience to God, if a character who had been doing it, stopped and started eating the thing they believed was a sin, this would be an act of defiance or rebellion against their religion or their God. Now, there is a difference in rebelling against a religious system than against God, but that’s a discussion for not this podcast. 

Third up are that frogs, fish, dragonflies, and some birds will only live in clean water. If the water is too polluted, it will kill them. This can help your characters find clean water. Equally, if the fish started dying off in the water, your character would know the water is not safe to drink. Maybe not even safe to be close to. What happened to the dragonflies or birds would make for an interesting plot point. 

Fun fact: Japan is sometimes referred to as “the island of dragonflies.” 

One quick thing before we get to all the ways things could go wrong in your story. 

I promised an announcement on my last episode, so here we go! I will no longer be able to guarantee weekly podcast. Oh, I will still be here, and putting out new episodes! I love doing this podcast! However, I am struggling to put in the research I want to for the episodes. I want to add more little nuggets of gold for you. With episodes like lightning strikes that hit characters, tracking skills, and how those skills can be used for other things like wondering chickens and children. I don’t have an exact schedule yet, but I do believe I can manage biweekly with an occasional weekly episode. What I do know is I will still be here, and bringing you new and interesting content, along with many personal stories about doing these things. 

Like the time I learned about putting out fires by removing the oxygen when a lid is put on them. I was about eight, and no one told me the lid had to me none flammable. I decided to try it with a mason jar candle in the bathroom. (as one does) No, there was not a lid with the candle when I bought it. Being the bright child I was, I decided to use toilet paper over the top. It was big enough to fit with no place for oxygen to slip through. *Gasp* It went out! For about three seconds, and then… the toilet paper caught on fire. AH! So I yanked the toilet paper away from the candle and threw it toward the window, and the candle into the bathtub. I quickly turned the water on to put the candle out, and that’s when I realized the curtain was on fire. So there I was trying to splash the curtain with both hands and push the candle under the water with one foot at the same time. I don’t know how my mother didn’t kill me when she came home to a flooded bathroom and a burned curtain. But hey, I saved the house!

Now, for everyone’s favorite part, what could possibly go wrong in your story? 

Likely to go wrong: Your character was asked to cook frog legs. The person who gave them the frog legs wanted to pull a prank, and they didn’t cut the ligaments on the legs. As the legs get hot in the skillet, they start to jump out, terrifying your character, who thinks they came back to life. 

Likely to go wrong: Your character was trying to catch a crayfish. They moved too slowly and were pinched with the pincher. Ouch! 

Possible to go wrong: Your character catches a catfish. As they bring it out of the water, the catfish thrashes, and your character takes a barb to the hand. Catfish have many sharp barbs. 

Possible to go wrong: Your character tries fish for the first time and has an allergic reaction. They will need to get help quickly, or this could be deadly. 

Unlikely to go wrong: Your character has found the only clean water pond for hundreds of miles after the Apocalypse. They keep it secret until wild geese find it while migrating. This led others, following the birds, right to their pond. 

Unlikely to go wrong: While duck hunting at the pond, your character comes face to face with a predator also hunting the ducks. 

Improbable but still technically in the realm of possibilities: Your caveman character is using a bullfrog call to communicate with others in their group as they move closer to their enemies. However, the enemy catches on and starts using the calls against them. 

Improbable but still technically in the realm of possibilities: Your character grew up hearing stories about evil dragonflies. As an adult, they have a horrible phobia of dragonflies. 

Thanks for listening! Until next time, happy wordsmithing.