Gold Fish

[joylee123]

Hi, :bgrin

I was wondering about something I had read that said you could use gold fish in your troughs to keep them clean? Does anyone know anything about this or had experiance with using gold fish?

Perhaps, how many fish for what size tank? I take it you don't have to feed them?

Thanks,

Joy

 

[Dontworrybeappy]

We use them - they eat mosquito larvae and other water/mud buggies - I don't know if they "clean" the water, but with the big troughs, we clean them rarely and haven't had many problems, the fish contribute to making the troughs into a "mini ecosystem" - a healthy balance.

We've noticed that our horses will drink fish water instead of non-fish water if given a choice, so I think the natural cycle is good!

 

[Marty]

People do it all the time but I would never.

I don't want any of my horses drinking fish feces and having that in their mouths to worry about. Gross.

There's enough dumb junk for horse's to catch without asking for more.

EWWWWWWWWWW

 

[Voodoo]

I've seen it done alot, but have never personally done it. It seemed to work well for keeping the troughs clean, but watch out when you ride your horse up to one and he sees a big gold fish coming to attack him :new_shocked: Some of them sell out for the next county :lol:

 

[wildoak]

I've used gold fish for years in my big troughs, they do a good job of keeping the mosquito larvae at bay.

Jan

 

[Pepipony]

We used to, till we had a bad freeze and lost them all :new_shocked: Not really much difference between fish in a trough and them drinking water from a tank with catfish/bass etc. Just dont have the trough in direct sun for too long during the day and see if you can get some type of underwater plant so they will have some shade.

 

[Mercysmom]

We've noticed that our horses will drink fish water instead of non-fish water if given a choice, so I think the natural cycle is good!

OK... not to upset the good advice as I think fish would work in an outdoor tank but I have to share a story about a misinformed boarder at a barn I worked at.

Neophyte horse owner comes into barn, purchased a mare that was a hay dunker. New mom is a nervous Nellie and constantly scolds the barn help for not keeping her horse's buckets clean. Mind you, they were emptied and scrubbed every AM but the horse was a hay dunker.

:

One day, barn help comes in to find GOLDFISH in the horse's barn buckets. Owner tells help all about how goldfish will help keep the water clean.

Dismiss owner as a misinformed owner but keep water in her horse's buckets to keep her happy, and horse continues to dunk hay. Fish thrive but I don't think they liked their home being invaded by hay and a horse muzzle.

Owner rode horse hard one day and horse drank all her water. Poof - no fish! Maddie ate the fish!

:

True story...and I laugh myself silly every time I thought of Maddie and her fish.

:

I guess the advise is, keep the tanks filled. :lol:

Denise

Silversong Farm

 

[Pandora]

Yikes. I used to have several aquariums and wow this goes against everything I know as far as keeping fish healthy and happy, but hey if it works and the fish are still alive...Goldfish are some of the hardiest fish out there though so that's probably why they survive all that.

I'm with Marty though thinking of the horses drinking all those feces.

 

[srpwildrose]

I use goldfish also.

Lots of mosquitoes here in Kansas.

 

[dmhstacy]

I always used to have goldfish quite funny to see the horses drinking as the fish all come around the horses mouths to grab any seeds or grains that may come out when they rinse their mouths before drinking.

But i find they seem to die after i worm the horses must be some wormer residue in there mouths. (i dont let them drink immediately after worming)

 

[Southern_Heart]

We use gold fish in our big arrogation tanks to eat the skeeter larvae, but not in the horse water as I clean and scrub their water throughs every 2 days with bleach and that would be just too much work to catch fish all the time. Water troughs have a habit of getting really slimy here if left too long start to grow green slime. Yeck!!

Joyce

 

[Tony]

We have used them for years and have to chuckle everytime this thread comes up at the "gasps" of some members.

 

[Rauchmini's]

We put two small KOI in our large tank in the summer one lived through the winter the other did not, we loved watching the grow. Our horses seem to do great and no problems from it. Remeber it would have to be a large enough tank as if your water would get too warm it will kill the fish.

 

[SunQuest]

We kept gold fish in our large horse tanks. They do help to keep the mosquitos down. We NEVER fed them and they grew to be big and fat. It was a pleasure to watch them swim when filling the tanks. We would lay a peice of plywood over 1/3 to 1/2 of the tank to shade it for them. In the winter we use tank heaters (the submerged ones) and the fish hover around the tank heater. Never lost them to the elements. But after about 10 years the fish got old and died. That was the worst part of the whole thing. Yucky to find fish floating in the water at feeding time.

Changing the water was a little harder. But we just used a shallow bucket that held enough water and just scooped them up water and all and dumped them into a temperary bucket. Then we clean the tank and then dump them back into the clean tank. Of course one must make sure that all chemicals are gone.

As for loosing them after deworming, never had an issue. But again, our tanks are the large 100 gallon rubbermaid tanks, so that may be why we didn't loose the fish for so many years. Takes some time for the water to get really hot or frozen too much for the gold fish, or to get overdosed on dewormers I guess.

Hey Marty... If you use the large tanks, the fish poo settles to the bottom. You and I know that if the ecosystem is right, then it is not an issue! And for those others who gasp.... What do you think was swimming in the water that they use in that bottled spring water? Hee Hee.

:

:

: :bgrin

 

[joylee123]

Thank you all so much, awsome advice! :aktion033: I'll give it a shot, it should be entertaining as the houndies drink out of it too :lol:

Thanks All :saludando:

Joy

 

[happyappy]

I think I may try this! Skeeters are bad here in East Texas. We use an old bathtub for a tank, is that big enough? And in the winter we do get a thin layer of ice in the tub, will that kill them or are y'all talking frozen solid?

 

[DebiM]

We have used them for years and have to chuckle everytime this thread comes up at the "gasps" of some members.

Amen, Tony! LOL

 

[SunQuest]

I think I may try this! Skeeters are bad here in East Texas. We use an old bathtub for a tank, is that big enough? And in the winter we do get a thin layer of ice in the tub, will that kill them or are y'all talking frozen solid?

I think a bath tub will be ok if you keep it full. Also make sure to provide shade for them as they do worse with hot water than with cold water. A thin layer of ice is ok, but it does stress them and they would preffer slightly warmer water than freezing temps. I have had the tanks ice over with a considerable layer of ice (1/4 inch or more) plenty of times and the biggest effect was that the goldfish will get very sluggish and won't move much when that happens as it seems that the gold fish go into a sort of hybernation mode and as long as the tanks don't freeze solid, then they seem to handle it without a problem. (Although it is probably not the greatest thing to have happen to them.) Just beware that some of the fancy fan tail gold fish may be a little less hardy than some of the others.

 

[horsefeather]

We have used gold fish for years. I started with about 10 in a large round tank (500 gal?) and now can't count them all! :bgrin They do very well. Our tank is in the direct sun and I leave them in the winter. My horses will cross a lovely flowing stream to come drink out of the yuckky tank...go figure!! I also have a couple of fish in my 1/2 barrel water troughs. They don't seem to multiple in there tho. Just be careful when you clean the tanks. I put my fish in a spare tank for 2 days after filling there regular tank with fresh water (we have city water and it will kill them DEAD :no Usually I just try to keep at least 1/2 water and add fresh to it every few days. These are for my pasture horses, not the barn horses. I scrub their buckets usually every other day.

Pam

 

[Pandora]

I put my fish in a spare tank for 2 days after filling there regular tank with fresh water (we have city water and it will kill them DEAD :no Usually I just try to keep at least 1/2 water and add fresh to it every few days. These are for my pasture horses, not the barn horses. I scrub their buckets usually every other day.

Pam

That's the way to do it is just change half the water at once. Fish acclimate to whatever water they are in and any sudden change will cause stress and death. Changes like water quality, sudden tempature change, etc will affect them.