Saw this post on Facebook. All kinds of people are saying that they do the same thing and that it keeps the water cleaner and controls algae. I’m not hating, I just don’t understand? Surely they don’t filter their stock tanks, I’ve never seen that happen atleast.. and aren’t goldfish poop machines?
Posted by LongtermMigraine
8 Comments
troughs get refilled basically everyday since the cattle drink it so i imagine it’s like a daily water change and they eat the algae but i cant say how good this would be on the fish
Automatic top off system and goldfish love algae
Just so you know, whenever you see those emoji bullet points, you can assume you are being fed some bullshyt.
They did this because it will look pretty on social media and things that look pretty get clicks and clicks become money.
Goldfish get used in aquaponics because they create nitrates which feeds the plants. that’s about it.
They are poop machines because of how much they eat
It’s a very common practice for farmers to put goldfish in stock tanks as they usually get infested with mosquitos and algae because yk, it’s a lot of clean water sitting out 24/7
It’s a cycle, algae breaks down poop, fish eat algae. Any leftover poop will just stay on the bottom. A good thing is the farmers are always filling it up with fresh water
People will do anything with goldfish except keep them in a proper tank.
I know people with farms and have helped on them. You can fill a cow’s trought in the AM and by the next day its bone dry and needing to be refilled again AM. And that’s only about 8 highland cows. No way could goldfish sustain in a constantly draining and refilling environment with no bio load in the water. Now, if you build a self fed pond that is fed by a stream or natural source that doesnt empty and the cows could free range drink it, sure, but fish produce alot of waste and why would you want your cows to drink that, whether for meat or milk or just existence when you can give them fresh water daily and not be lazy?
The animals drinking the water and the farmer topping it off is like very frequent small water changes. Goldfish are genuinely good at mosquito control ime, they’ve always kept the number of larvae down really well in ponds I’ve had. They do eat algae, but I agree with the poster’s hedging it with a “sort of” – they aren’t going to thoroughly clean it off the walls or anything. There’ll still be algae. I don’t think the goldfish in any way make the water cleaner either, unless by “cleaner” they mean that the goldfish are cleaning up bugs and edible debris that falls in rather than referring to water quality.
I don’t think it’s great goldfish welfare, but it isn’t as bad as it seems on the surface.
It’s extremely common practice to keep fish in troughs like this. The ranch I worked at when I was younger had mosquitofish in every trough. Obviously you shouldn’t keep sensitive tropical fish in these kinds of troughs because of temperature changes but hardy fish like goldfish, mosquitofish, and guppies will THRIVE and get quite large. The animals drink out of stream and pond water in the wild or in open ranges and that is much dirtier than trough water with fish in it.