Have you ever heard about putting fish in a horse's water to keep it clean?

I've heard this MYTH for most of my life and it needs a stake driven through it's "heart".

Okay, Let's look at "feeder fish". (1) Feeder fish are spawned by the thousands to feed other fish. They're caught and sold "as is". Meaning they are not treated for parasites or diseases, putting the tank owners fish at serious risk.

(2) Have you ever drunk your aquarium water?

Yes, horses do drink from ponds, lakes, stream that have fish.

The difference, those are "open" active dynamic systems with established levels of oxygen, beneficial bacteria etc.

Putting fish into the water tank a closed system, unbalanced dirty water. You might as well give your horse the water from your aquarium.

Algae eaters (and all fish) have specific requirements for survival. Correct ph, adequate oxygen levels and so forth. These are not present in a water tank.What oxygen available in a freshly filled tank declines as the water warms in the sun. No oxygen, fish suffocate. The ph, unless tested is a guess. Extreme ph swings kill fish. Dead or dying fish decomposing (rotting) in the water is a health threat to horses.

"Oh, but I'll be there to give fresh water every day". If you're going to be giving fresh water every day, go ahead and clean the tank. Got a couple of horses and a 400 gallon tank? Use a smaller tank.

Putting fish in a horses water to keep it clean is an excuse for "I'm too lazy/don't want to clean it". It's a stupid idea

Algae blooms because of direct sunlight. Eliminate exposure to sunlight, eliminate algae.

Hmm, I've never heard of that. I'd say it's a neat idea, but then I'm thinking of a fish tank and what it takes for those fish to survive. I had algae eating sucker fish and my tank still had a lot of algae that needed to be cleaned. In addition, you need to get air into that tank for the fish to survive, though I'm not sure how this would translate if the water is outdoors. And I wouldn't want my horses to eat the fish either, and they try to eat anything they can, including a jacket of mine and the cushion of a tractor seat :/ Some horses also love to play with the water and that could be quite hazardous to those fish.

I've found that using a cloth cleans up the algae pretty well, and a lot of water pressure. I usually have to clean the water once a week to keep the algae down. One thing to try is putting the water in a shady area, it's proven to reduce algae for me by quite a bit.

Yea, I have heard of it before... don't know much about it though.

Haha, I think I would try it but as you know, I live in Minnesota... so figuring out what to do with them over the winter would be interesting. And secondly, I have automatic-waterers now, so putting a fish in there would be pretty interesting as well LOL. I'm not so sure my horses would appreciate sharing their 9" by 9" water dish with a fish. haha....

Add: I just found something on another forum, here's what it said, "Steer clear of goldfish in troughs because: 1) they don't eat algae anyway, so (2) you'd have to feed them or they'd die if no mosquitos laid eggs in your trough (3) if you feed them, remember the trough will be full of fish waste and excreta unless you install pumps, filters and aerators (4) troughs can get boiling hot/dried out/frozen solid and fish are living creatures too. The solution to clean water in troughs is elbow grease."

So all that to say.... maybe it's not such a good idea after all :/ lol.

I've never heard that one and I won't repeat why a famous actor said he didn't drink water because I'd get modded! :-)

It is quite possible that a horse would refuse to drink water which had fish swimming in it.

Water troughs should be cleaned out regularly anyway. Horses WILL drink out of dirty troughs if they are desperate enough but they won't generally choose to do so.

EDIT: I posted before I read the other replies. I found the other replies about fish very interesting.

I've never heard of that, but actually it's not a half baked Idea.

I'm guessing you would get a medium/large pleco (the algae eaters) and place it in your horse's water. The added ammonia to the water from the fish waste would trigger Nitrospirae to grow on the sides probably. This bacteria takes the nitrogenous wastes of fish (Ammonia, NH3) and converts it into Nitrite (NO2), which through dissimilation gets turned into Nitrogen (Gas N2). So in theory you'd have to supply another water source for a little while for the bacteria to grow, in addition you would have to slightly warm the water to 75-80F and maintain that temp, but you would most likely never have an algae problem, and Nitrogen comprises 78% of air, so you'd be doing everyone a favor as well.

I've seen it done with water troughs used in pastures, usually with Goldfish and Plecos. Plecos will eat the algae and Goldfish will eat larvae. Never heard of a fish getting eaten by a horse, but if you do use fish in your troughs you want to keep the water full and make sure you promptly remove any dead fish.

I've heard of it. I actually did it once, but it didn't really do that great of a job at keeping it clean. And one of the horses ate one of the goldfish... so that was pretty gross and probably not good for the horse....

Edit----

I just went back in read your details (you caught me... I rarely read the details over other than skimming through... so sue me LOL). I think that horse that ate the gold fish was just one of the really playful horses and she was curious about the moving gold thing in the trough, and she was trying to catch it. This is the same horse who would dunk her entire head up to the throatlatch into the water just for the heck of it, and she would also swing her mouth around in it to splash the water out of the trough, just for fun. LOL. So yeah.... dallas might not eat the fish.

Works great. Keeps the algae down, the fish thrived, and the livestock don't mind. No down side that I've seen.

I have heard of it, but I have never done it because I have owned fish before, and man does their water stink.

Plus, my dad's mare is like a primadonna, so there's no way she'd drink something with...with...fish poop in it. *gasp* It's bad enough that she has to suffer through water in a trough that I now refuse to scrub daily, so it only gets cleaned once a week now.

I have been meaning to ask my aunt about bugs and stuff that eat algea, though... She's actually an expert on algea. XD She's a professor up at Michigan State... She teaches something having to do with genetics, and microbiology.

I can tell you a funny story ;-)

On the TB stud we had our cousins staying over for the holidays. We were out catching minos, frogs and carp (yucky fish we have here in Aus).

We had these big concrete water troughs all over the farm and decided to put our little bounty of fish into the troughs.

Mum was furious when she discovered a couple of days later what we had done. The mares were dehydrated and refused to drink from the troughs. The carp were stirring up all the water and scaring the horses.

So we then had to get in the troughs and try to catch them and then scrub them out to clean them. Carp here are a pest and it is illegal to catch them and put them back in the water. So they had to be killed.

We learnt to leave the fish where they were supposed to be!! LOL

I think the idea sounds very good in theory, but I wont be trying it again anytime soon ;-)

Catch ya ;-)