Would pond water which has live fish in it be considered a type of fish emulsion? The fish poop in it, and a pump aerates the water and pumps it to filters, etc. If yes, would it be fair to say that watering my plants with pond water is in effect fertilizing them? Thanks
Yaya

Don't know why no one has responded to your post-but I do remember reading a 'thread' some time ago about using fish H2O from aquariums to water house plants so I would think your idea is just fine.
Patty

No problem with that water at all.

Don't confuse fish water from ponds or aquariums with fish emulsion! They are two totally different products.

Fish water is an excellent nitrogen fertilizer because of the fish poop in the water. There are some good microbes living in it too for your plant foliage and your garden soil.

Fish emulsion is made from the leftover cooked remains of the menhaden fish (kin to the herring and sardine). It's an oil fish that is used mainly in the production of cat foods and cosmetics in the world (this is the best part of the fish by the way). The waste leftovers are cooked down and sold as fish fertilizers. Fish meal some times has extra proteins and bones in it, thus a richer product than say mere fish emulsion.

However, no commercial fish emulsion has any beneficial aerobic microbes breeding in it. If it did, it would explode on the shelves in the garden centers! (LOL) Fish emulsions are excellent nitrogen fertilizers, and act as a soil biostimulants AFTER they are applied to the soil and the existing native soil microbes eat it and breed later in your garden system.

Aerated compost teas, fresh pond water or aquarium water, etc. all have living breeding aerobic microbes in it BEFORE it is applied to plant foliages and garden soils. Mostly aerobic bacteria, but there may be a little good fungi, actinomycetes, etc. in too.

Any organic matter you add to your soil is great, but some products work faster and better than others. And some of the best ones are cheap, like various creative aerated compost tea recipes.

I use the water from our aquarium for watering potted plants. What else would I do with it?

Pond or aquarium water has so many good microbes and nitrogen in it, that is good both for watering plants (acts as a dilute foliar spray), or as a mild biostimulating activator for your compost pile.

Cap'n, if only I had a large enough aquarium, I could water my compost pile too. It has happened, but not very often.

Fish pond water makes a good bioinoculant for compost tea. So does fish aquarium water.

Just to finish the thought on fish products, Neptune's Harvest makes fish hydrolesate. This product is made by digesting the fish remains in enzymes. This is what Dr Ingham recommends as a fungal food for her compost teas.