It usually refers to these
Although some people call least killifish a mosquitofish.
I have gambusia myself, and they're very much like guppies as far as size and breeding, but a little more aggressive.
MF surviving over winter in a water trough??
- Thread starter bettagurl
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It usually refers to these
Although some people call least killifish a mosquitofish.
I have gambusia myself, and they're very much like guppies as far as size and breeding, but a little more aggressive.
Umm....I grew up on a horse farm with the same type of water trough. You know how you avoid breeding mosquitos in them? You dump the darn water every other day! Sheesh! Some people....
Lol, no kidding! I wouldn't want my horses to drink from poo-poo fish water. :crazy:
HEHE daft as it sounds, my sister knows someone who kept gold fish in a trough, and yes the horses drank the fish water, summat about them keeping the movement in the water, stopping the water from going stagnant. They got rescued tho after one of the horses figured out he could catch and eat them if he waited long enuf....
as for the water freezing over... frozen water can be broken up by adding a football to the water.. (the really cheep rubber kind) ... thats how we always kept the troughs from freezing over.. The constant motion of the ball breaks up the ice as it forms and its big enuf that horses cant accidentally eat it.. of course it needs to be added b4 the freeze lol
Dangerdoll
Global Moderator
I would also be concerned about the ammonia in the water because of the fish... can wreak havoc on a horse, no? I am with the thought that maybe the water should be either changed or ran off in the summer to keep it from getting mosquitos... the footballs sounds like a nice trick too.
Mosquitofish will not build up a huge biomass in that situation; they will put no more ammonia in the water than would the mosquito larvae and decaying terrestrial insects that would otherwise be in the trough. Still, emptying out the trough makes a lot of sense to me.
Kind of a funny thread in my opinion.
Mosquito fish would be a fine addition to the horses watering trough to eat the mosquito larvae. On average an 1100 lbs horse needs 10-12 gallons of water a day. If she has 4 - 150 gallon troughs I imagine she has 8-10 head or more. She's talking of only having 24 little fish in 500 gallons of water with a ~100 gallons a day water change. I think this is a pretty good situation for the horses and the fish.
I raised tadpoles, crayfish, rosy reds, and other minnows I caught in the creek, in our water troughs when I was growing up on my grandfathers ranch in Montana.
Mosquito fish would be a fine addition to the horses watering trough to eat the mosquito larvae. On average an 1100 lbs horse needs 10-12 gallons of water a day. If she has 4 - 150 gallon troughs I imagine she has 8-10 head or more. She's talking of only having 24 little fish in 500 gallons of water with a ~100 gallons a day water change. I think this is a pretty good situation for the horses and the fish.
I raised tadpoles, crayfish, rosy reds, and other minnows I caught in the creek, in our water troughs when I was growing up on my grandfathers ranch in Montana.
That is what I thought, the fish get WCs every day, they have natural food, and are small enough they should cause no problems for the horses(no ammonia build up that I can see from 8 small fish in 150gs).
At least she won't be using goldfish again.
The only issue I can see with keeping them in the water trough is the chlorine. If she's using water from a city supply to fill up the troughs, she's probably not using dechlor. That might kill off some fish in a hurry. Other than that they should be fine.
