I buy several of the cheap feeder goldfish and it helps a lot withe mosquito larvae.
They really do not help much with the algae, or not that I have noticed. Scared to think what it would be like with out them if they are helping.
Interesting.... I wonder if maybe I should throw a sucker fish in there, too, then. Do you feed them fish food as well, or just let them thrive on their own?
I buy several of the cheap feeder goldfish and it helps a lot withe mosquito larvae.
They really do not help much with the algae, or not that I have noticed. Scared to think what it would be like with out them if they are helping.
A water trough is not a suitable environment for fish keeping. Goldfish are the most likely to survive, but as SR pointed out they will contribute to algae growth rather than hinder it. Fish geared towards algae control are going to be tropical in nature and not suited to living in a trough.
Really, fish are not a great addition to the tank. The problems they will bring with them will lead to more upkeep of your tank rather than less - it will be easier just to perform regular routine care of the trough by draining, scrubbing and filling more frequently in the summer months -which may mean using multiple smaller water containers if the larger single unit is going to be too much hassle to do so.
Hmmm. Maybe you guys are right. I would probably be better off getting the guts to tell my pasture mate to chip in a little and wash the troughs more often. lol
I totally agree with the cleaning of the tanks/troughs. We have two 100-gal tanks and I just let the big guys drink them down, dump out the rest, and scrub with a stiff-bristled brush every week or two as needed. As long as the water is clear I am not too concerned if there is dirt at the bottom, but if I see green stuff or the water is cloudy, I like to clean them out.
I did the gold fish last year. I have not added them this year yet. As everyone said, they don't keep the algae away, but they do feed off the the mosquitos. One thing I learned is that you have to add water daily. You can get away with every other day, but they produce alot of amonia and if you don't add fresh water to the troughs they'll die.
Another thing that works well is if you can catch a small catfish.
I could not imagine letting my horses drink dirty fishy water. It almost makes me want to gag. I'd go with the clean/scrub regularly process.
AlwaysBehind, it's probably a good thing you feed your ferals [I do too, and take them to get fixed =P] because otherwise, they might try to eat your fish! Haha.
I put fish in my trough. I have a large koi pond with several hundred (or more) koi fish in it, so I catch a few small ones and put them in my water tank. I think I had 3 in there last year and they seemed to take care of the tank really well (its 100 gallons I believe). I dump the tank and rinse it whenever it gets low, and scrub it out once a month, but it gets WAY worse without the fish.
and the horses dont get sick because of this? just curious...i would think there would be some sort of chemicle they produce that would make the horses sick or something...???
You can put a plecomstomous(sp) in the tanks. they do okay in cold water and will eat algea and grow and grow and grow.... They are ugly suckers but keep algea away.
I keep a hose running in my tank during the spring and summer, as soon as the outside water is turned on(irrigation water lines). I still clean and scrub the tanks about once a week though.
Oh yea, its snowing again and spring has disappeared.
We had the gold fish in our tank last year. I think ours is a 200 gallon trough. The gold fish did keep the mosquitoes down, but didn't do much for the algea. I added fresh water every other day. I still had to dump it & clean it every once in a while. The tank gets a lot of debris (hay, dirt, leaves, & stuff) in it. I didn't do it this year, because I ended up cleaning the trough anyway.
I didn't notice changes in the horses when we added the fish or when we removed them.
I used plecostomus, they did really well and if you have enough they keep the algae down very well. Just put a few rocks in the bottom so they can hide if they want. The horses weren't bothered by them at all. And because there is always a fresh flow of water coming in it keeps anything the fish secreat down.
They started dieing in the late fall when it got cold, but that's in Canada so it really depends on where you are and your temperatures whether they will die or not.
There is a type of fish specifically used for keeping mosquito larvae down. They are called Mosquito fish. (go figure, right.) They look like feeder guppies, but are a bit larger and do better than guppies in colder water. Often they will be put into retention ponds or other areas of water where there are a lot of mosquitoes in order to keep the population down. You can order them online, and they are fairly cheap as they sell them in bulk. Gold fish are nasty, dirty fish as was stated above, I would go with the mosquito fish if I were you.
If you want the algae gone put in a few snails.. They eat it up supper fast and will clean up after the gold fish, we have some in our fish tank and have never had to clean the glass or rocks in a yr, just change out some of the water a few times a yr.
Im wondering how these fish would do in the florida heat though....? today was 93 degrees...and so i imagine that the water isnt the coldest..at least not in two of the 4 troughs we have...the other two are in the shade...and sorry OP..not meaning to interupt the post.
I could never use fish in a trough mainly because I am not so sure about the bacteria that they themselves would produce; when horse drinks from a lake, or stream, you're talking about a body of water that moves, and changes alot, but with a trough, it's just sitting there...no thanks! I just clean the troughs out regulary, to prevent algae and bugs from congregating there in the first place.
a) if you have fish in there, how are you filling the stock tanks? seems to me if memory serves me correctly if you put fish in water out of the tap, they will die due to the high amounts of cholrine...
b) how are these fish (minus the goldfish) staying alive w/o some sort of oxygen pump feeding them? you can't take a fish home from the pet store and just put it in water...they will soon use all the air, and die...
a) if you have fish in there, how are you filling the stock tanks? seems to me if memory serves me correctly if you put fish in water out of the tap, they will die due to the high amounts of cholrine...
Feeder fish are just carp. Carp are pretty hardy and though I am sure the chlorine and drastic temperature changes are not good for them they seem to tolerate it well.
b) how are these fish (minus the goldfish) staying alive w/o some sort of oxygen pump feeding them? you can't take a fish home from the pet store and just put it in water...they will soon use all the air, and die...
Read above and, when you add more water you are adding more oxygen. When we add water I use the sprayer attachment on the hose and it really agitates the water.
We scrub out our trough every other week all summer. So the people that think we just let the trough get totally yucky we do not. Just trying to cut down on the bugs. It seems to help quite a bit. The smaller trough we have, that we do not put fish in (because the horse in that paddock likes to flip her trough) always has a very active mosquito population. I end up having to dump it just to get rid of that, before the trough needs scrubbing (every couple of days).
And for those who think 'the water must be yucky with the fish poo in it'. My horses have a choice of a cleaned every day water bucket inside their stalls (walk in and out stalls) or the trough(s) outside. Outside trough is what they prefer. The mare who does not have fish goes right to the trough with fish when she is allowed into that area.
Admittedly, I am looking at this topic through the eyes of an avid fish keeper, but I still do not see any advantage of keeping fish in the tank that are not outweighed by the disadvantages or that can not be easily replicated with minimal work on the part of the horse owner.
Cleaning tanks is not that time consuming, and it isn't hard. Clean once a week with a good brush and you'll not have mosquito larvae to even worry about
I clean the one trough far more often than once per week and there are always mosquito larvae in it. So, maybe where you are that is the case. But not where I am. :wink:
I'm in the hot, humid South where the mosquito is the national bird lol... I have no problems with larvae as long as I keep the tanks clean.
Sometimes in the middle of summer I'll clean them twice weekly, but it's very little effort to keep them clean and in good shape. No need for fish. I board now and clean the tank lol
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