water and mosquitos

My goats poop in their water tank thing :/

Matthew3590 said:

My goats poop in their water tank thing :/

Click to expand...

I think the most effective way to avoid this is to raise the tank and give them a "step" so that they have to elevate the front half of their body to get a drink. I only have to do this with the inside tank / buckets...the water containers throughout the field never get pooped in for some reason. :/

elevan said:

Matthew3590 said:

My goats poop in their water tank thing :/

Click to expand...

I think the most effective way to avoid this is to raise the tank and give them a "step" so that they have to elevate the front half of their body to get a drink. I only have to do this with the inside tank / buckets...the water containers throughout the field never get pooped in for some reason. :/

Click to expand...

The one near the trough where we feed is the one they poop in. If its scattered throughout the pasture they don't. I think they like to "play" in it.

One of the easiest ways(obviously not the cheapest) to keep mosquito larvae out of the water is to put a pump in the trough/bucket... even a small fish tank one should work fine... it will also help keep the water from freezing(moving water is warmer water) ;-) I might put a few of my guppies in our water bucket.... hmm....

So my fish are working wonderfully. We do change the water about every 4 days and get the fish in a pitcher when the tank is almost empty, then finish emptying. When clean, just put the fish back in the clean tank. They seem to do just fine with the water changes. They were from our pond not a fish store so perhaps are used to water change issues more than the ones from the store. Also, we use well water so not problem with chemicals. The goats dont poop in the water because it is elevated about a foot above ground level so they have to step up to drink. They do seem to drink less right before water changes so it is obvious that about every 4 days during the hot weather we have to change. weekly or biweekly during winter was enough, and then, we mostly just topped off the tank. I think I will move the fish back to the pond in the winter so the fish poop doesnt cause yucky water then.