Photograph courtesy of Mohamed Nuzrath
I’m able to benefit from the hotter climate, however I hate coping with mosquitoes. Don’t you?
It looks as if it doesn’t matter what you do — bug spray, citronella candles, carrying lengthy sleeves — you both find yourself pestered and bitten or uncomfortable.
Should you get pleasure from tropical fishkeeping, nonetheless, you might have an answer proper in your tank! Some tropical fish eat mosquito eggs or larvae, which may scale back the mosquito inhabitants in your yard with out resorting to chemical sprays.
I’m going to inform you which fish eat mosquitoes and how one can hold them outdoors in hotter climate.
Tropical fish that eat mosquitoes
Listed below are the very best fish to select for this job:
Guppies
Guppies are easy-to-care-for fish that aren’t too choosy about water situations, like pH or hardness. They do, nonetheless, require a reasonably steady temperature vary between 68 and 75 levels Fahrenheit. You’ll need to carry them indoors if the temperature will get outdoors that vary. Guppies get alongside peacefully with different fish.
Zebra Danio
Zebra danios additionally don’t thoughts arduous water or imperfect pH ranges, however they do like shallow water that’s uncovered to the solar and has a little bit of vegetation. They’ll additionally want gravel on the backside of their container for spawning. These fish additionally get alongside properly with different fish.
Goldfish
Goldfish are in all probability the best fish to maintain open air. They’re not choosy about their water pH, hardness, or temperature. In actual fact, you’ll be able to hold goldfish open air even when the water will get chilly, so long as it isn’t frozen strong. It’s additionally a comparatively calm species that will get alongside properly with different fish.
A word on tadpoles
Okay, tadpoles should not fish, however they’re additionally a freshwater aquarium species that may eat mosquito larvae for those who increase them outdoors. In actual fact, within the wild, insect larvae is the first meals supply for many tadpoles.
That being stated, for those who plan to boost tadpoles in an out of doors container, normal recommendation is to not combine them with fish. The fish will eat the tadpoles and make your entire setup much less environment friendly. The excellent news is, all three fish on this checklist are small and pleasant to tadpoles!
There are bigger mosquito-eating fish, akin to koi, however if you wish to add tadpoles to your out of doors container or pond, persist with the smaller fish listed right here.
Methods to make a mini pond in a pot
You can also make an out of doors container pond with just some objects, and it’s a good way to get began with retaining fish open air.
Listed below are the objects you’ll want:
- Giant terracotta pot, plastic kiddie pool, or freestanding patio pond
- Gravel or river pebbles
- Lava rocks
- Small ornamental pond vegetation
- Water pump and hose
- Dechlorinated water
- (Non-obligatory) Giant, easy rock(s)
- (Non-obligatory) Rest room sealant
Right here’s what to do:
- In case your container has a drainage gap within the backside, seal it up by overlaying one aspect of the massive rock with toilet sealant, and urgent it in place over the outlet. Use loads of sealant so that you just get a decent seal across the gap. At this stage, you’ll be able to add a number of extra massive rocks to create ledges for any wildlife that will by accident find yourself in your container pond (this helps them to leap out).
- Fill within the backside of the pot with gravel or pebbles.
- Add the vegetation. Should you use a patio pond, it could have ledges the vegetation can go on. You possibly can hold them in their very own separate containers, like a netted plastic pot. You may get a netted pot from our store at this hyperlink. You’ll additionally see hyperlinks on that web page to some different sizes of netted pots.
- Create a water filter with a dangling planter on the sting of your container, full of lava rocks and gravel. You possibly can add vegetation right here, as properly, for those who like.
- Add a water pump to the pond and fix a hose that may redirect water to your filter system. A pump just like the one at this hyperlink works properly. Ensure that the pump velocity matches the scale of your pond.
- Fill the container with dechlorinated water acceptable for tropical fish.
Right here’s a video that gives a fairly good instance of the method and a accomplished container pond:
You possibly can after all add no matter different ornamental touches you prefer to the surface of your container pond. Should you’re in search of fascinating vegetation to your pond, we hold quite a lot of them at The Tye-Dyed Iguana in Fairview Heights.
