# Can someone explain this "fish in water trough" thing?



## apachiedragon

I've never done it, but I thought they ate things like mosquito larvae, not so much the algae. I'm subscribing, because it's interesting.

I have another question to add. What about when you refill the trough with fresh water. Won't that kill the fish? I always heard that tap water would kill them if it didn't sit a while first.


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## aerobicv

Ha, Ha! It's funny you asked this because I just got 5 small feeder goldfish and put them in our trough! We recently moved to Central California and it snows here. A friend I met says they have goldfish in their trough and they last even when the water freezes the water over. They don't feed them but as the other poster said they eat larvae and algea. It snowed here last night so I will have to go out and see if they are still alive. I would think that it would be like a pond the horses drink out of with fish in it so I don't think it would hurt them.
I'm interested in other replies you receive.


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## Delfina

We threw three $0.26 Goldfish in the 100gal water tank in the arena. 2 fish promptly croaked but that was because my child just dumped them in instead of putting the plastic bag in to float so they could acclimate (I was chasing my stupid horse who had escaped, yet again.) The biggest fishie survived and was getting HUGE, we did absolutely nothing, no treating of the water, no feeding, no nothing. 

Winter came, added a tank heater as it's the only water source for the horses in turnout, so it HAS to stay unfrozen. A week later fishie committed suicide on the tank heater. Arggh.... went to get a net to remove him when it was discovered and in the 2 minutes I was gone, one of the horses ATE HIM! All 3 horses looked guilty, so I have no clue which one enjoyed the sushi.

No more fishies for us until summer!


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## AlexS

I have a silly question about fish too..... when a horse is taking really great big gulps, can't the horse suck up the fish? Would this do any harm to swallow whole, if this is possible?


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## Delfina

The fish when it was alive, stayed at the bottom of the tank when horses were drinking and as we keep the tank filled, the horses never came close to sucking him in.

I don't know if someone swallowed his dead self whole (he was floating) or chewed him or what. He was in the tank floating, came back and he was gone and zero signs of him. None of the horse were ill after and it's been several months.


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## Hoofprints in the Sand

subscribing just because it's interesting as others have said 
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## equiniphile

Awesome idea, but we have two little 40 gallons outside I dump and clean out daily, so I don't think the fishies would like that :lol:.

Haha Delfina, I almost peed myself laughing....sushi....hehe


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## Hidalgo13

Omg Delfina... haha, you just made my day!



> 2 fish promptly croaked but that was because my child just dumped them in instead of putting the plastic bag in to float so they could acclimate (I was chasing my stupid horse who had escaped, yet again.) The biggest fishie survived and was getting HUGE, we did absolutely nothing, no treating of the water, no feeding, no nothing.
> 
> Winter came, added a tank heater as it's the only water source for the horses in turnout, so it HAS to stay unfrozen. A week later fishie committed suicide on the tank heater. Arggh.... went to get a net to remove him when it was discovered and in the 2 minutes I was gone, one of the horses ATE HIM! All 3 horses looked guilty, so I have no clue which one enjoyed the sushi.


I never thought a horse would EAT a fish... go figure. :wink:
I loved how you said the fishy committed suicide and then all horses looked guilty.


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## Poseidon

Huh. I've never heard of this.. I kind of wish I had Abby at home (I live in an apartment haha) because it would be much cheaper to just dump my comets in a trough rather than buy a new aquarium for them because they've outgrown a 20 gallon tank.

The only thing I could add to this is part of what Delfina said: Those $.25 comets ("feeder goldfish") get HUGE after a while. The 4 I've had for a year and a half are between 3-6"..without their tails added to that.


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## Poseidon

Sorry to double post, but I forgot to add this: 

Unless you're adding a considerable amount of water daily, I don't think comets would work well for this.. They are terribly filthy animals. Especially the bigger they get. Ricci, I think you saw a picture of my biggest one in the PE thread.. Yeah. He smells. But I suppose you would probably be putting a decent amount of water in. Eh. It might. Either way, goldfish smell.


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## lildonkey8

Delfina said:


> We threw three $0.26 Goldfish in the 100gal water tank in the arena. 2 fish promptly croaked but that was because my child just dumped them in instead of putting the plastic bag in to float so they could acclimate (I was chasing my stupid horse who had escaped, yet again.) The biggest fishie survived and was getting HUGE, we did absolutely nothing, no treating of the water, no feeding, no nothing.
> 
> Winter came, added a tank heater as it's the only water source for the horses in turnout, so it HAS to stay unfrozen. A week later fishie committed suicide on the tank heater. Arggh.... went to get a net to remove him when it was discovered and in the 2 minutes I was gone, one of the horses ATE HIM! All 3 horses looked guilty, so I have no clue which one enjoyed the sushi.
> 
> No more fishies for us until summer!


but i thought horses were herbivorous:think:


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA sushiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Poseidon

lildonkey8 said:


> but i thought horses were herbivorous:think:
> 
> 
> HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA sushiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Oh pssssht. That herbivore thing is just a cover. A friend of mine fed his horse a hot ham and cheese one time. Brego loved it. Another friend was doing something with a different horse, who turned his head and pulled off her velcro watch and ate it. Bahahha.


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## riccil0ve

I would only want one fish, unless they would really get terribly lonely. Do fish get lonely? It's a big trough, I think 50 gallons? I'll have to check tonight, silly me forgot to this morning.

Delfina, that is too funny. How does a fish commit suicide on a tank heater? Do you have any idea how that happened?

What with Ricci's colic this year, I really want a heater for next winter, but I usually break the ice up and add warm water to melt the top ice layer. I can't imagine the fishy would like to go from the Arctic to the tropics like that, huh?

I really hope someone has an answer for me. If for no other reason, I want to see Gracie's reaction to a fish in her water, haha!

As Poseidon said, I always knew goldfish were filthy creatures. That's why I'm leery of letting my horses drink the water.


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## Poseidon

Goldfish are coldwater fish and according to Petsmart.com, the ideal temperature is 68-72F, but can be warmer or cooler. 

Most people don't keep goldfish with a heater because room temperature usually falls within that category. If it's outside, a heater would probably be good.


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## Kano32

this doesn't really help but they say the bigger the tank you have a goldfish in the bigger it will get. We had goldfish in our troughs at the barn and none of our horses seemed to mind but then someone decided they wanted a pet fishy and took it out! We've had fish commit suicide before, we have air tubes and one fish swam into the tube and couldn't get out, luckily somone found him before he died and saved him but he did it again!!! and one just plain jumped out of the tank


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## apachiedragon

My parents kept goldfish in an outdoor manmade pond over the winter one year and they did fine. But the water never froze all the way down, so they had swimming room. It was actually rather neat to see them swimming around under the ice. The only problem we had was when it snowed and the surface wasn't frozen, so it was turning the whole pond to slush. For that we put them in buckets in our garage, which wasn't heated but still didn't get below freezing. Once the snow went away, back in the pond they went.


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## Wallaby

Personally, I wouldn't do it. 
I don't think it would be nice for the fish since fish, goldfish especially, are very sensitive to changes in water chemistry and unless you had a filter in the trough too, their waste would build up very quickly causing the water chemistry to fluctuate quite a bit when you add water to the tank. And, on top of that, goldfish are such poop machines that I just couldn't imagine letting an animal drink that poop water. Double on top of that: poop water horse slobber, anyone? GROSS!! Lol!

Also, in my experience (I have 2 goldfish in a 30 gallon tank) a single goldfish isn't going to do much to decrease algae in the tank. I mean, I still have algae issues with 2 in a 30 gallon which is maximum stocking capacity for fancy goldfish, even with weekly water changes. For comets, you'd want at least 40 gallons for 2.


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## riccil0ve

Found some links.

HorseAdvice.com Equine & Horse Advice: Algae control in water tanks

Putting goldfish in horse water tank...safe or not? - Yahoo! Answers

Fish in Horse Water Tanks


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## Poseidon

Kano32 said:


> this doesn't really help but they say the bigger the tank you have a goldfish in the bigger it will get. )


This is a common misconception. I have 4 comets and a calico fantail in a 20 gallon tank and they outgrew it months ago, but they weren't being terribly affected by it until recently. Now I have 3 left in that 20 gallon tank and 2 in a 10 gallon storage bin until I can get a new tank. They'll keep growing regardless of tank size.



> Also, in my experience (I have 2 goldfish in a 30 gallon tank) a single goldfish isn't going to do much to decrease algae in the tank. I mean, I still have algae issues with 2 in a 30 gallon which is maximum stocking capacity for fancy goldfish, even with weekly water changes. For comets, you'd want at least 40 gallons for 2.


You can get away with more comets in a tank if you stay on top of making sure they don't have any diseases or anything and the water isn't toxic. If I can convince myself that it's for the best, I'm getting a 45 gallon tank (It's all I can afford because anything bigger is a few hundred dollars used). The fish expert at the pet store said as long as you are monitoring their health, it's not that bad.


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## Delfina

riccil0ve said:


> Delfina, that is too funny. How does a fish commit suicide on a tank heater? Do you have any idea how that happened?


The tank heater has the metal cagey thing on it over the portion that heats up. He wiggled in-between the heater and the cagey thing, got stuck and I guess cooked. I was hoping he was just stuck, dislodged him with a stick and he floated to the top. So I guess he wasn't really sushi, more like fried! :lol:


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## riccil0ve

Another link. It all seems pretty divided.

ETA: Helps if I put the link in. Ha!

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=As0Fvfh1QY_vvUeCZ2ooglv7_Nw4;_ylv=3?qid=20100322085534AAKJ2YZ

Delfina, mental note made about heaters. I haven't the means or desire to house the fish for the winter. If I can give it back to a petstore though, it's certainly something I could handle.


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## Cat

I tried this last summer. I put 5 feeder gold fish in a 100 gallon rubbermaid tank. Before I got the fish I cleaned and filled the tank the night before so it could set for close to 24 hours before the fish were added so majority of the country water chlorine would be out of it. Then after that just topped it off twice a day as the horses drank - even tried once of those automatic waters that the hose connects to and that worked fine as well. 

I did notice that the water did not get as dirty as quickly. I had been cleaning the trough every 4 or so days, but with the gold fish I could go almost 2 weeks. Once I wanted to clean I would remove the fish and keep them in a pail. I would clean the trough and keep the fish pail in a place where our duck could not get to them and then add them back to the tank the next day.

This worked great for a couple months. Then august heat hit and I came home to find white cooked fish floating on top of the tank. ewww....


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## Wallaby

Poseidon said:


> The fish expert at the pet store said as long as you are monitoring their health, it's not that bad.


Petstore people are paid to tell you what you want to hear. Most of the time they have no outside knowledge of what they are selling (even if they are the "expert"), besides information they got from the store when they were trained (to become the "expert"). It's not the worker's fault, it's the petstore's. And the petstore itself is generally in it for the money, not helping you keep your pet alive. I don't want to debate, I'm just trying to encourage you to not just believe someone because they claim to be an expert. 

In any case, on the goldfish care front, if anyone is interested, a great GF knowledge-base is Kokos Goldfish Forum , they know a whole lot and they're really nice! 

Sorry Leigha for going so OT! I didn't mean to! I will hand your thread back to you now. :lol:


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## smrobs

We used to keep goldfish in our tanks (years ago) and we never did anything special to care for them. We just got the el cheapo goldfish that you can get for just a few pennies each. Sure, some of them will die within a few days and you will usually find another dead one every few months after that but they do keep the mosquito larvae out of your tanks. We had 3 that lived for years and years, even surviving being frozen in the winter. They got really big, I think the biggest was like 8 inches long and probably weighed a pound. Occasionally we would go out there and there would be little fishies swimming around too so I know we had mixed genders in there. 2 of the big ones eventually died off, I suspect it was old age but I don't know, they were several years old. The last one finally died when one of the horses was being a butt and pawed a hole in the bottom of the tank during the night. All the water drained out and the fish was a crispy critter come morning.

I have always wondered if it would be safe to put a small bass or catfish in a tank as opposed to goldfish.


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## Poseidon

I agree with the petstore thing. I am not meaning to argue or take it this any farther off topic either. That's the first time I've ever gone to petstore about my fish and I asked that because I was trying to find a bigger tank that was affordable. 

I agree with Wallaby: Koko's is a fantastic site. I usually creep around that if I have an issues with mah fishies. This tank size thing is the only one I've had with this group. My last group died of Ich and hemorrhagic septicemia because I threw a new fish in a rush to get to work and wouldn't be back for hours..so I thought.

ANYWAY. I am curious about this "fish in the water trough" thing. My personal fish are not very interesting.


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## Delfina

Wallaby said:


> ... goldfish are such poop machines that I just couldn't imagine letting an animal drink that poop water. Double on top of that: poop water horse slobber, anyone? GROSS!! Lol!


No different than horses drinking from a pond, river or stream.... all those have fishies in them! All the turnouts have clean, scrubbed water tanks and yet, it's perfectly normal to find everyone drinking out of the pond!

Every single time I clean stalls, the horses have to stick their noses in the wheelbarrow of poo. Horses aren't exactly clean! :wink:


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## ibedoc

Fish are fine in a tank that has a constant supply of water flowing in. Gold fish grow according to their environment. Small bowl, they will stay small, put them in a pond and they will grow to a good size. They eat a little algae but mostly thrive on insects and larvae. You should never have to clean the tank. the algae won't bother either the horses or the fish. Remember, if you don't have water constantly flowing the fish won't survive. You don't have to feed the fish either.

Doc


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## Poseidon

Would snails work? Or a combination of snails and goldfish? From reading these responses, goldfish eat larvae, but not algae..snails eat algae. Hmm.. 

Has anyone used a couple of snails?


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## PintoTess

Delfina said:


> The tank heater has the metal cagey thing on it over the portion that heats up. He wiggled in-between the heater and the cagey thing, got stuck and I guess cooked. I was hoping he was just stuck, dislodged him with a stick and he floated to the top. So I guess he wasn't really sushi, more like fried! :lol:


 
oh poor thing!!! My mare eats grubs and bugs lol. I wouldn't put a fish in her trough as she WOULD eat it :lol: I think she is not a horse but a dinosaur!!


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## Ride Baby Ride

I have heard of putting fish in the water trough but never knew anyone who did this. I will have to tell my barn owners about it although I am sure my horse would be like yours Delfina and eat one. He likes to stick his head in the water after things so I could see it being a game for him. I love this post and look forward to more stories of fish in the water trough.


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## riccil0ve

Some of the sites said pecola or whatever would eat algae, and goldfish would eat the bugs. I'm cool having one or two of each, but I'd rather not have a snail, lol.

I wouldn't have constantly flowing water, but I can add water twice a day when I feed. Would that be sufficient?

I made an account and posted on that other forum. Link; Putting Fish In Horse Water Trough. - Kokos Goldfish Forum


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## AlexS

Thanks for explaining about the drinking the fish thing Delfina.


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## riccil0ve

I wonder if Gracie will try to mess with it... It is a deep tank, comes up to the middle of my thigh [I'm 5'7] so if they stay at the bottom, she would have to submerge half her neck to get to it. Not sure if she will be that determined, or that stupid. 

I didn't think this thread would blow up so fast, lol. I kind of want to try it just for experiments sake. I think my not wanting to kill a fish trumps that urge though, lol.


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## AlexS

Step away from the fish feelings Ricci!


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## riccil0ve

Hmm. I'll have to see how I feel in a month, lol.


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## smrobs

There are a lot (and I do mean a_ lot_) of farmers/ranchers who put snails in their tanks that are under windmills in their pastures. I have always noticed that that tank water is always nice and clear too (where I am okay with _me _drinking out of the tank). I wonder how snails would handle winter weather :think:.


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## maura

Fish other than goldfish and plecos don't work in water troughs because most other fish require higher oxygenaton levels and warmer temps. 

I've seen it work in a few limited instances, (fish eat the algae and bug larvae and the trough stays cleaner) but honestly, it's not a great situation for the fish and I'm not sure it's the best standard of horse care either. 

Even a few goldfish in a trough are going to spike the ammonia level, and horses need cool, fresh water - not water that's been sitting out, uncirculated, for weeks. 

I'd rather dump the tubs and scrub them out regularly than use the goldfish method.

ETA: this is an interesting rephrasing of a common misconception:



> this doesn't really help but they say the bigger the tank you have a goldfish in the bigger it will get.


The original misconception was that they "will grow to the size of your tank." What this really meant was that putting them in a small tank would stunt their growth. Stunting is actually pretty horrible; the animals internal organs continue to grow to their genetically preprogramed size while their skeleton and muscles do not. So if you don't keep them in too small tanks and stunt them, yes, they'll get bigger. Comet goldfish kept in optimal conditions get to be 12 - 18" and are better kept in ponds than tanks or troughs.


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## riccil0ve

Sorry if I forgot to clarify, Maura, but I do not plan to clean my tank any less often. Doing this would just be to keep it cleaner between cleanings.

I also don't want several fish, just one, maybe two if I go with a pleco and a goldfish.


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## mom2pride

I just clean the tank weekly, and have never had an issue with algae buildup...I have found that metal, or bathtubs work really well to keep the algae levels down.


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## riccil0ve

mom2pride said:


> I just clean the tank weekly, and have never had an issue with algae buildup...I have found that metal, or bathtubs work really well to keep the algae levels down.


With all due respect, I'd really like to avoid an excessive amount of posts like this. This is not a "keeping the algae down" thread, or a "I'm too lazy to clean my water trough, how can I cheat?" thread. It's a, "what is the deal with putting fish in troughs" thread. Thanks. =]

Maura, that actually makes me sick to my stomach for my poor goldfish when I was like, 8. I had two in an average-sized little fish bowl. 

How on earth to petstores get away with keeping like, 30 in a 10 gallon tank? =\


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## Poseidon

riccil0ve said:


> How on earth to petstores get away with keeping like, 30 in a 10 gallon tank? =\


Have you looked in the corners of those tanks? Piles of dead fish. Half of the fish in those tanks are visibly stressed out or diseased and dying. I hate going to buy fish food at Walmart and looking at the fish..it's really depressing.

Except I can't talk much right now with the current state of mine, which I feel really bad about.


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## maura

Sorry, Ricci, I didn't read thoroughly. 

Honestly, I think a single pleco or single goldfish is going to add more waste to the tank than they take out. I don't think the tank will be any cleaner; I just think it will be a different kind of dirt.


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## riccil0ve

Oh really? Interesting point. So hypothetically speaking, how many fish would have to be in there to balance it out?

ETA: Poseidon, I may just not be observant, but I don't think I've ever seen a dead fish in one of their tanks. And I doubt the rate they sell makes any significant dent. Hmm.


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## Amba1027

They probably scoop the dead ones out pretty freaquently. Not really good business to have dead fish floating around in the tank if you are trying to sell them.

The fact that you still have to clean fish tanks fairly often leads me to agree with maura. If it was really all that effective at keeping the tank clean, you wouldn't have to clean fish tanks. Although it might be good to keep the mosquetoes from reproducing in the summer months. I would definitely consider that a plus.


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## riccil0ve

It's just not adding up for me, lol. Whenever I have gone into a pet store, I am hard pressed to find any workers anywhere. I imagine to scoop out the dead fish would require a near-constant look-over. I'll have to pay more attention next time. Maybe I'll challenge the "fish expert" in knowledge, haha.

A decrease in mosquito population would be a huge plus. The water trough is the only standing water on the property. Sorry fish-lovers, but I think I'd be willing to risk a few dead fish and the loss of a dollar to have one surviving fish eat the mosquito larvae.


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## Amba1027

Isn't the life expectance on those fish pretty low anyway? I remember my friend having one when we were little and everyone was shocked it lived 3 years because most don't survive a week. Of course, that could be due to the care they were getting. People here seem to have ones that have lasted a while. But I was always under the impression that they died pretty easily. I would definitely go for it for the mosquitos.

A note on the snails, if anyone was thinking about getting some: My ex had fish and put some snails in with them (don't know what kind). The snails ate the fish. I don't know if that is usual or not. I thought it was creepy. I think they started eating eachother after the fish were gone...


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## riccil0ve

I think it's the quality of life they were getting at the pet store. The little birds they sell are the same way.

Creepy about the snails.


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## Amba1027

Very true. My two little parakeets died  But the one I got from a specialty bird shop is still going strong. But yeah, I wouldn't be too concerned with throwing a dollar goldfish in a horse trough. It's as good a quality of life as they would get spending the rest of they're lives in the store.


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## Poseidon

Amba1027 said:


> Isn't the life expectance on those fish pretty low anyway? I remember my friend having one when we were little and everyone was shocked it lived 3 years because most don't survive a week. Of course, that could be due to the care they were getting. People here seem to have ones that have lasted a while. But I was always under the impression that they died pretty easily. I would definitely go for it for the mosquitos.


The life expectancy for comet and common goldfish is actually really long. I think Koko's said 20 years? I may be wrong. The ones I have now are over a year and a half (I got them when they were wee babies in the feeder tank). And they're a fairly hardy fish. I never followed the proper tank water changing (as in changing 50% weekly and the like) and they've only recently developed any sort of symptoms from it..but that's because the tank is wayy to small for them. 

They are also commonly used in ponds because of their hardiness..and they're cheaper than koi. haha.


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## Delfina

We bought them for mosquitoes. Even emptying and cleaning the tank 2x per week wasn't making a dent in the mosquito population. 

I don't know if our goldfish helped or not, still had mosquitoes everywhere. Is there something better we could have used?


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## Amba1027

Are the common goldfish the ones they have in the fair games? You know, the one where you throw a ball and if it lands in the bowl with the fish, you get to keep the fish? I guess maybe getting a ball thrown into your bowl might have something to do with the dying fairly quickly... Although they did start to do it where the fish wasn't actually in the bowl. They just colored the water in some of them and if you got it in the colored water one, you got the fish. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Anyway, it was always "oh those cheap goldfish that die half the time" that everyone had when I was young. I can't figure out why that is if they are a hardy fish. Maybe it's a different type? I'm all sorts of confused now...

ETA: Delfina, there is this thing my mom bought for the bird bath that vibrates the water that supposedly keeps mosquitos from landing on it and lying their eggs or whatever it is that they do. I don't know if it works or not (never actually saw her use it) but it might be worth looking in to.


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## Poseidon

Yeah, those are common or comet goldfish. Comets have long tails, common have short, but their bodies look exactly the same. They're the ones sold as feeder fish at pet stores. They're really cheap and when they're little like that ,they're very young. They were probably stressed out or diseased, which is why they died so soon. Being in those little cups is suffocating.

This is my biggest. It's somewhere between 1.5-2 years old.


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## Amba1027

Wow, I had no idea. I thought they were full grown. And for some reason I thought all goldfish were that little. Except those fancy ones with the giant eyes. I always wanted to win one of those fishies. Thanks for clearing that up for me. I will stop hijacking the thread now.


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## grayshell38

Poseidon said:


> I never followed the proper tank water changing (as in changing 50% weekly and the like)


That's because 50% at ANY time is way too much. 10-20(at the high end)% every week to every other week is average. 
Not picking on you, just supplying knowledge. :wink: Until I moved to my own apartment I had the entire basement of my mother's house full of tanks. My mother was an experienced fish keeper, and I like to think some of it has rubbed off on me from her guidance. So if you have any questions about fish keeping from an unbiased source, hit me up.

On an interesting side note, you can drown goldfish. A little morbid, but true. 

My suggestion, if you are hell bent on putting fish in your tank, then go with guppies instead. If at all possible, get some from a private source. I'm not going to rant about the conditions that fish are bred/raised/transported/ and kept in at stores, but if you are looking for fish that are more likely to survive longer and be healthier, then a private source or shop that breeds their own is best.


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## Lonestar22

We've had goldfish in our tanks for as long as I can remeber. Some of them suckers got up to a foot long. Our main tank in the pasture is one of those big concrete things they put coffins in when they bury them  You cannot dump it. It has alge, but it's not overrun. I think we have 7 fish? Idk. Never really had a problem with them. The small tank in the front pasture doesnt have any fish. and it seems to get more alge than the big one. It has to be dumped and cleaned fairly often. Oh, and both tanks have the automatic refill floaty things. (I couldnt figure out how to use the word "waterers" Is that even a word??) 

I'd rather my ponies drink outta the water troughs than from the pond or creek, but they drink where they want and I haven't had any issues with it.


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## deineria

I just keep thinking. . .Hmmm, I have always needed to clean my fish tanks as much as my water troughs. . . I don't see how putting the fish in the tanks would actually do anything, so I imagine that, aside from possibly eating some larvae, they likely do not do much for cleaning. . .
sounds more like an old "horseman's tale" - lol


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## maura

Lonestar, does the big sunken concrete tank have constant water flow through it? If so, that would make sense. That's the type of setup where I've seen this work, becuase the water flow supplies oxygenation and the water flow prevents toxins from the fish waste from building up. 

Grayshell, I've been keeping fish for a long time, and I moderate at a fsih site, and the standard recommendation is 50% water changes per week. It's what I've practiced with my tanks for years, and I've done more than that when the tanks were heavily stocked. 

Also, guppies are tropical, and gold fish are coldwater. Guppies won't last long in an unheated tank, and guppies, while hardy, have a much lower tolerance for unfiltered or still water. Even more relevant, guppies won't eat algae.l


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## Micki O

There's a guy here who keeps fish in his cattle tanks year round. He nets them out of a local pond so I have no clue what kind they are. He says they swim to the bottom when the cattle drink and he has auto fills so the addition of water doesn't shock them. 
I thought about it but I have a boy that thinks everything is edible and if there is anything in the tank he'll almost drowned himself to fine out :+() 
It took 2 tank heaters before he realized they didn't taste good -I put them in (unplugged) a couple weeks before I need them so everbody gets use to them.


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## Lonestar22

Maura, it has one of those auto water floats that refill the water as nessecary.


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## maura

Thanks for the response, Lone. That was kind of what I thought. 

If you're dumping the tub and scrubbing it periodically anyway, I see the fish being a bigger hassle than they can possibly be worth. If the water sits in hot weather for any period of time, the fish will die from lack of oxygen. Having to net the fish and place them in a bucket while you drain and fill the tub seems to be an extra step that would keep you from dumping and scrubbing the tub as often. 

Without the system that Lone describes, I don't think it's worth it.


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## SallyRC123

Years ago my friend's horse became cripplingly ill, and for months the problem was unknown - it turned out the problem was the goldfish in the horses trough. I can't really remember what caused it, I think it had something to do with the feacies/oils and other excretement from the fish. Anyway once the fish were removed the horse was fine again? But other people seem to have had success with fish so it could be worth a try!


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## candandy49

We have had goldfish in our horse water tanks for years both in the pasture water tank and the stall barn tank. Both tanks are in shady areas so we have nearly no algae blooms. The pasture tank was shaded by trees and the stall barn tank is up under the shed row extension over the stall barn run-in. Now back to the fish, where we bought our goldfish is from a Bait Store and paid,as I recall, $3.00 per dozen. The Bait Store goldfish are a more hardy fish than even food goldfish. Those goldfish are for baiting trot-lines and limb-lines in rivers and lakes. We have several goldfish that have survived for upward of 10 years, no fooling!! Never had a horse get sick from having the fish in their water. My one senior mare at 23 years old who I've had for 15 years never had a sick day in her life. None of the other horses we've had here ever got sick from their water either. 

We never fed the fish and they took care of eliminating the mosquito larve. A very huge plus in favor of having them. The down-sides of having fish in the tanks was/is very minimal. While the positive-sides far outweights the opposite. There is never any need to oxygenate the water, because the horse's actions of drinking and shaking their muzzles in the water before drinking adds oxygen to the water.


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