Ducks diving for fish in their pool.

[Tevyes Dad]

One of the best things about having a pool vs a kiddie pool for the ducks is the depth. We bought fish for the ducks once when we were using the kiddie pools and they were gone in a matter of seconds. No fun for us and the ducks would have been just as happy if we had poured peas in the pool. With the pool however, the fish can go down out of the duck's reach. That means the ducks have to dive. More fun for us

, more fun for the ducks

, slightly longer life spans for the fish

.

This particular batch of fish didn't swim very much. This is the first time that this has happened. I am guessing the pet store might have just gotten them in and they hadn't fully recovered from that move then they got moved to the pool so they didn't recover fully fast enough. Usually the fish swim around the outside of the pool in 1 or 2 schools. This time they just kind of congregated on the bottom more concentrated in the center. The result was the ducks did a lot of diving, but not as much chasing. Of course this was the time I set up for a video...

Video #1:

Video #2:

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Video #1 is the ducks' entry into the pool. We remove the chairs from the ramp and they know it is time to swim. In this time Entie makes 10 dives and probably eats 8 fish. She is our grand champion fisher and does not mess around at all.

 

[Amykins]

Aw, where's Kaine? Don't tell me he's still in time-out!

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Aw, where's Kaine? Don't tell me he's still in time-out!

We put him in preemptive luxurious time out for the video (the double gazebos the ducks' food and water are in). It really wasn't fair to him, but if we would have let him be free, the video would have been about Kaine chasing Tevye and how ducks do it.

 

[SamiLexi]

I have a kiddie pool for my ducks right now and I would love to get a pool like this for them. But my only concern is the cleaning of it. How do you clean a pool that big? I know for human use you would use the chlorine system but I also know that isn't safe for the ducks.

 

[pattyhen]

One of the best things about having a pool vs a kiddie pool for the ducks is the depth. We bought fish for the ducks once when we were using the kiddie pools and they were gone in a matter of seconds. No fun for us and the ducks would have been just as happy if we had poured peas in the pool. With the pool however, the fish can go down out of the duck's reach. That means the ducks have to dive. More fun for us

, more fun for the ducks

, slightly longer life spans for the fish

.

This particular batch of fish didn't swim very much. This is the first time that this has happened. I am guessing the pet store might have just gotten them in and they hadn't fully recovered from that move then they got moved to the pool so they didn't recover fully fast enough. Usually the fish swim around the outside of the pool in 1 or 2 schools. This time they just kind of congregated on the bottom more concentrated in the center. The result was the ducks did a lot of diving, but not as much chasing. Of course this was the time I set up for a video...

Video #1:

Love this video. The little inserts with their names is halarious and the music. Then the diving for the fish. Can I bring my ducks over to your house so they can swim in your pool? Just kidding. Thanks for posting this video I really got a kick out of it.

Patty

 

[Tevyes Dad]

I have a kiddie pool for my ducks right now and I would love to get a pool like this for them. But my only concern is the cleaning of it. How do you clean a pool that big? I know for human use you would use the chlorine system but I also know that isn't safe for the ducks.

I have chronicled my pool experience here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/966725/1900-gallons-of-ducky-bliss.

In short, I do a full clean once / week. I completely dump 1900 gallons of water and add 1900 gallons of water. (The solids go with the water).

Algae is controlled by keeping the water below 60 degrees (in Montana this is easier than it might be in some places).

I suppose if someone had no problem with the water replacement, but keeping the temp down was unrealistic they could run the water through a UV unit to kill all the algae and bacteria. And if they couldn't dump/fill that much water every week, @Wifezilla has a good duck-ponics thread that describes a filter system that could be used: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/146829/the-duck-ponics-experiment-raising-minnows

For us with our 12 ducks (which required multiple kiddie pools) we do the same or less work to maintain this one big pool plus most of the work is now only once/week instead of every day.

 

[birds4kids]

On my phone so I didn't watch, but did you temp acclimate the fish? If they were lethargic it could have been temperature shock.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

On my phone so I didn't watch, but did you temp acclimate the fish? If they were lethargic it could have been temperature shock.

Yeah, we usually give them 1/2 hour in the bag, then 1/2 hour free swim. Normally that is good enough. I am guessing that they may have just been transfered to the pet store so were already in a little shock so they were in more shock than normal so they might have needed longer, but it was a hot day and ducks need to swim

 

[Weehopper]

That's really neat. Though I don't have ducks, I am curious. What kind of fish? Feeder goldfish?