Fish in water troughs

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pootler

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I went to Longleat Safari Park with my family a few months ago. In the goat's water trough were some stacked stones and rather lovely goldfish. I spoke to the keeper and she said that they hepled keep the trough clean (the water and trough was sparkly clean).

I have been toying with the idea myself, has anyone on here tried this????
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ugh!
what about when it freezes in winter?you wouldhave to put them in your vest to warm them then give them the kiss of life.ugh
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i have troughs but they are not connected up to the main water.i fill them with a hose, that way i know much mine drink and once a week i tip them up to clean them with a handy washing-up brush that is hanging up nearby and also used for the feed buckets.
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I have fish in my trough and although i dont get the wrigglers (mozzie larvae) it still goes a bit green as it is in the sun.

So I dont think they actually keep it clean but the horses dont mind the fish poo and they are very pretty!!!

Merlin has Guinea Pigs in his stable...... (well just outside) and they dont keep the stable clean either :-(
 

``Merlin has Guinea Pigs in his stable...... (well just outside) and they dont keep the stable clean either :-( ``

??????
 
One of the yards I was at had fish in the troughs - water looked nice and clean and horses didn't have any problems with them or drinking the water.

Suppose no different than drinking from a pond.
 
Rrr Drum used to have pet bunny rabbits outside his stable, we also used to have fish in troughs on an old yard. No proplems, happy horses and fish.
 
Had them at our yard for the last 5 years - gone from tiddlers to quite big fish! they eat the midge/fly larvae. But the water goes greener because the "wrigglies" on the whole help to reduce the algae, and the fish poo fertilises the water nicely too! You can't win. You'd have to clean the trough daily to escape the larvae altogether, and it certainly doesn't seem to bother the horses or the fish.
Have to remember not to tip the whole thing out though!
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The place where I bought my last three girls from have fish in their troughs, and they always look so clean. they are old granite troughs aswell.
 
fish would eat the mossie larvae, but chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals are present in tap water and can over time poison the goldfish, in a normal garden pond i would recommend using a 'tap safe' or dechlorinator which detoxifies the bad stuff in water and makes it safe for fish to live in, putting goldfish in a trough would mean really putting a tap safe in the water prior to to introducing them... but i know i wouldnt want my horses drinking it! sorry to go on a bit but i own a tropical/coldwater fish shop and dont reccommend anyone keeping any sort of aquatic life in tap water with out it first being made safe! then of course you run the risk of giving the fish a diease called whitespot when you top the troughs up with fresh water - whitespot is caused by a sudden change in temperature so lots of coldwater being put in a trough via a hosepipe or such may give them whitespot which would then kill them if no treatment was added to the water.... anyway enough of my rambling as people can do what they want... i think goldfish in troughs is quite an old fashioned suggestion, perhaps when there wasnt so many chemicals in the water as what there are today!
 
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