This may sound like a silly question, but do ducks eat goldfish?

I had two (a matins pail, I think) ducks visit our yard this afternoon.
They dined for a while on the droppings from my bird feeders. then they
spotted my pond and decided to take a swim. They dived down but I didn't
see them come up with any fish. The pond has about 20 gold fish and its a
regular preform about 18 inches deep.

I enjoyed watching the ducks but don't want them eating my fish. Should I
encourage them to stop by or scare them away? They didn't seem to scared on
my 100 lb dog who found them to be a curiosity. They didn't fly away until
he got about 15 feet away.

Any comments?

Thanks.

Tom in Howell, NJ

Tom, Most ducks in this area that will come to a small pond will not
eat your fish. But their droppings can really mess up your water
quality. They were probably eating algae from the sides of the
preform. You should try to discourage their visits if you want to
control your water quality. Hank

--
some photos of my little puddle
http://community.webshots.com/user/hankpage1

"Tom Puskar" wrote in message
...
This may sound like a silly question, but do ducks eat goldfish?

I had two (a matins pail, I think) ducks visit our yard this
afternoon. They dined for a while on the droppings from my bird
feeders. then they spotted my pond and decided to take a swim.
They dived down but I didn't see them come up with any fish. The
pond has about 20 gold fish and its a regular preform about 18
inches deep.

I enjoyed watching the ducks but don't want them eating my fish.
Should I encourage them to stop by or scare them away? They didn't
seem to scared on my 100 lb dog who found them to be a curiosity.
They didn't fly away until he got about 15 feet away.

Any comments?

Thanks.

Tom in Howell, NJ

There are just a few ducks who eat fish,
but not that many.
Hank is right, they will really mess with the quality
of your water, they seem to make massive amounts
of duck doo.

kathy :-)
www.blogfromthebog.com

MOst of the more commn ducks are not fish eaters.....mallards, pekins,
wood and call ducks etc do not bother fish. They just make a mess.
All ducks like to dive under the water for fun and also as an aide to
cleaning, so what you saw was not ducks going after a fish, but ducks
having some fun or getting a bath.........They can add a heap to your
nitrate levels and also ammonia and phosphorus levels in a pond in a
short time.

On Fri, 29 Apr 2005 20:04:14 -0400, "Tom Puskar"
wrote:

===This may sound like a silly question, but do ducks eat goldfish?
===
===I had two (a matins pail, I think) ducks visit our yard this afternoon.
===They dined for a while on the droppings from my bird feeders. then they
===spotted my pond and decided to take a swim. They dived down but I didn't
===see them come up with any fish. The pond has about 20 gold fish and its a
===regular preform about 18 inches deep.
===
===I enjoyed watching the ducks but don't want them eating my fish. Should I
===encourage them to stop by or scare them away? They didn't seem to scared on
===my 100 lb dog who found them to be a curiosity. They didn't fly away until
===he got about 15 feet away.
===
===Any comments?
===
===Thanks.
===
===Tom in Howell, NJ
===


==============================================
Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!

That's supposed to be "mating pair" not "matins pail"! I wasn't trying to
create a new breed of duck!


"Tom Puskar" wrote in message
...
This may sound like a silly question, but do ducks eat goldfish?

I had two (a matins pail, I think) ducks visit our yard this afternoon.
They dined for a while on the droppings from my bird feeders. then they
spotted my pond and decided to take a swim. They dived down but I didn't
see them come up with any fish. The pond has about 20 gold fish and its a
regular preform about 18 inches deep.

I enjoyed watching the ducks but don't want them eating my fish. Should I
encourage them to stop by or scare them away? They didn't seem to scared
on my 100 lb dog who found them to be a curiosity. They didn't fly away
until he got about 15 feet away.

Any comments?

Thanks.

Tom in Howell, NJ

I've had ducks for years.
I have filled up a pond with clean water and it will be brown by the
afternoon.
It's not duck droppings as much as it is mud.
The ducks will get a mouth full of mud and sift out the food in the
water. Looking inside the ducks mouth you will notice the small channels
on the bill that is used as a food filter.

They will set in the water, lean out and dig holes in the dirt and plants
by the side of the pond. They don't hurt plants but will weed out the
grass, bugs and grubs.
-----
A side note on ducks since there is no ducks news area.
Ducks are fun to have and take care of but can be messy and troublesome.

Up Side: Eats weeds, grubs, and bugs. Very rich manure and dissolves in
seconds with a little water. Free eggs that are really large and taste
great. Fun to watch fly and play with. (they will even cuddle).

Down side: Makes little holes where ever they look for food, Will not
listen to reason when asked to stay off the patio or mess some where else
in the yard.


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

kathy" wrote in news:1114822269.384033.44720
@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

There are just a few ducks who eat fish,
but not that many.
Hank is right, they will really mess with the quality
of your water, they seem to make massive amounts
of duck doo.

kathy :-)
www.blogfromthebog.com

On Sat, 30 Apr 2005 20:08:00 GMT, StOrEcRaFt wrote:

I've had ducks for years.
-----
A side note on ducks since there is no ducks news area.
Ducks are fun to have and take care of but can be messy and troublesome.

Up Side: Eats weeds, grubs, and bugs. Very rich manure and dissolves in
seconds with a little water. Free eggs that are really large and taste
great. Fun to watch fly and play with. (they will even cuddle).

Down side: Makes little holes where ever they look for food, Will not
listen to reason when asked to stay off the patio or mess some where else
in the yard.

Hi Storecraft,

Then you'll love this often retold rec.pond duck tale below: ;-) ~ jan

Ian from New Zealand's answer to a ponder's question about ducks in
the pond. Reposted from time to time. We wonder if Ian knows that he is a
rec.pond legend..... Here it is ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have a Peking, it's a beautiful white innocent thing that poops in
unbelievable quantities. Never mind about a bio-filter, you are going to
need a sewerage system suitable for a small town to deal with what this
duck is going to do to your pond.

would they stay or would they leave?

No need to fret on this account - ducks never take the hint. Chuck it in
the air and it'll come right back. Sure it will occasionally wander out
onto the highway, but motorists would rather run off the road and kill all
their passengers than hit a duck that's sitting looking
right at them.

Look closely at the general design of your average duck, notice that the
cranium is small. It is my belief that if you could take all the duck
brains in the world and combine them in a sort of super organic computer
you would basically have a machine with a loose bowel and a vocabulary
limited to: "quack". A duck is a natural born lobotomy.

wondering if the cats if the neighborhood would bother them.

Hell no, the neighborhood cats will not bother your duck, unless it is a
duckling which you have just presented to your young daughter. Actually you
will find the neighborhood cats will avoid close encounters with
anything that looks like a duck. This is partly because cats dislike
stepping in duck doo to get to their prey and partly because the duck
thinks any passing cat must be its mother/sister/brother/mate. Even the
staunchest Tom cat finds it unnerving to have to deal with this sort of
thing and will generally go to extremes to avoid an embarrassing encounter.

Would we need to
put a fence around it?

Sure, fence your duck, but it wont do you any good. You will still hear
screeching tires on the road and the neighbors will still phone you up to
say your duck is harassing their cat again.

If you do get a duck be sure to turn on the lights at night before your
walk across the lawn. One of the most unforgettable experiences you can
have is tripping over a sleeping duck in the dark.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

That is really good story.
It sounds like something Mark Twain would write.

Ian's duck answer is an all time rec.ponds
classic. I've posted it elsewhere. We have
no other ID on him other than Ian from New
Zealand. I did try and write the email address
that came with the post but no answer.

kathy :-)
www.blogfromthebog.com
this week ~ turtles!

Tom Puskar wrote:

That's supposed to be "mating pair" not "matins pail"! I wasn't trying to
create a new breed of duck!

Thanks for clearing that up! That's some strange spell checker you've
got :-)
--
derek

On Sat, 30 Apr 2005 20:08:00 GMT, StOrEcRaFt wrote:

I've had ducks for years.
-----
A side note on ducks since there is no ducks news area.
Ducks are fun to have and take care of but can be messy and troublesome.

Up Side: Eats weeds, grubs, and bugs. Very rich manure and dissolves in
seconds with a little water. Free eggs that are really large and taste
great. Fun to watch fly and play with. (they will even cuddle).

Down side: Makes little holes where ever they look for food, Will not
listen to reason when asked to stay off the patio or mess some where else
in the yard.

Hi Storecraft,

Then you'll love this often retold rec.pond duck tale below: ;-) ~ jan

Ian from New Zealand's answer to a ponder's question about ducks in
the pond. Reposted from time to time. We wonder if Ian knows that he is a
rec.pond legend..... Here it is ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have a Peking, it's a beautiful white innocent thing that poops in
unbelievable quantities. Never mind about a bio-filter, you are going to
need a sewerage system suitable for a small town to deal with what this
duck is going to do to your pond.

would they stay or would they leave?

No need to fret on this account - ducks never take the hint. Chuck it in
the air and it'll come right back. Sure it will occasionally wander out
onto the highway, but motorists would rather run off the road and kill all
their passengers than hit a duck that's sitting looking
right at them.

Look closely at the general design of your average duck, notice that the
cranium is small. It is my belief that if you could take all the duck
brains in the world and combine them in a sort of super organic computer
you would basically have a machine with a loose bowel and a vocabulary
limited to: "quack". A duck is a natural born lobotomy.

wondering if the cats if the neighborhood would bother them.

Hell no, the neighborhood cats will not bother your duck, unless it is a
duckling which you have just presented to your young daughter. Actually you
will find the neighborhood cats will avoid close encounters with
anything that looks like a duck. This is partly because cats dislike
stepping in duck doo to get to their prey and partly because the duck
thinks any passing cat must be its mother/sister/brother/mate. Even the
staunchest Tom cat finds it unnerving to have to deal with this sort of
thing and will generally go to extremes to avoid an embarrassing encounter.

Would we need to
put a fence around it?

Sure, fence your duck, but it wont do you any good. You will still hear
screeching tires on the road and the neighbors will still phone you up to
say your duck is harassing their cat again.

If you do get a duck be sure to turn on the lights at night before your
walk across the lawn. One of the most unforgettable experiences you can
have is tripping over a sleeping duck in the dark.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

~ jan JJsPond.us wrote:

Down side: Makes little holes where ever they look for food, Will not
listen to reason when asked to stay off the patio or mess some where else
in the yard.

A minor complaint; this sort of thing ought to have coffee and cats
warnings in the header!
My monitor was easy to clean (again) though...


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G