Considering a duck....pond keepers please respond!!!

[Kevin565]

From personal experience I would highly recommend against trying to keep ducks with a pond. I've tried various pump set ups and none have been able to survive the duck poop long term. I've also had them decimate plants in a matter of hours. Keeping the proper PH and ammonia levels for the fish is also next to impossible.

 

[ChikaD]

I have a small tank in my yard, 100 gallons, with a few goldfish in it. The goldfish have been living placidly in this little tank for over a year, and it is filtered by aquaponic grow beds. The filtering is sufficient enough for my toddler to dump an entire large can of fish flakes in there with no impact. It clears up in 24 hours from THAT, but I let three baby ducks hang out and splash in this water one day while I was cleaning out and moving their enclosure. In ONE DAY, three ducklings fouled up the water enough to kill the goldfish. They were gasping for air at the surface on day two so I changed out half the water and added fresh, but even the excellent filtration of the aquaponic beds couldn't save them. Dead in a week.

 

[testcranker]

I had 2 chickens and a duck raised from day olds. The duck thought it was a chicken. The chickens wouldn't go in the water and the duck wouldn't either. Silly thing even tried to jump and flap over the pond after the chickens lept across it. Of course, the duck belly flopped into the center of the pond and panicked itself to get out immediately. It never occurred to it how easy it was for it to float and scamper across the pond. Funny.

The duck eggs were absolute gold compared to chicken eggs. But the duck is hugely messy and takes more work to support.

The duck had personality though, it was a happy and funny animal to keep. I miss it.