RCS-safe fish that eats mosquito larva for an outside container pond?

[garfieldnfish]

Most fish will not do well in a hot container without a current. The temps in this tank can reach the upper 90s during the summer in FL, mine did and I live in GA. White cloud mountain minnows will die for sure. I don't know about guppies, never had them, but I doubt they would do well either, especially since the temps will vary greatly throughout the day. I can picture a beta making it, but I would do the mosquito netting.

[xenxes]

I'll do the netting to keep out bugs, I have a north facing balcony, very breezy here (35th floor, and yeah, mosquitos and small insects still make it up somehow--probably b/c my balcony is so heavily planted). No direct sun, but if the temperature gets too high I can always bring the bucket inside.

Just looking to speed up the population of my RCS so I can populate a few other tanks, I'll probably shut down the fauna before it gets really hot.

If insects get in I'll throw in a betta for a day or two, thanks for the advice

[TedP]

I'm not in Miami or on the 35th floor but I have a 30ish gallon plastic tote on my patio. I keep it with the locking cover that came with it. I cut one small hole in the side to put a heater in it for the rare night that I need a little something to keep the water above 50.

I have Miracle Grow Organic soil capped with playsand substrate and it's filled with milfoil and guppy grass. It also has the inevitable duckweed on top.

I have breeding groups of sailfin mollies, mosquito fish, dwarf livebearers and soon golden cheek killies. They are all wild fish, collected locally. I feed some flake food once or twice a week. It's on the north side, against the house. It never gets direct sun and never gets too hot. It's been going since July with no issues. No water changes and no nitrate either.

I'm upgrading to a 150g Rubbermade stock tank soon. That will also be against the house but I plan on having some water movement and maybe some waterlillies. It will be on a paver base with pavers walls around it. I plan on putting some foam insulation around it between the tank and the pavers.

I'm sure you could throw some guppy grass in a small tub on the balcony and get away with growing some nice shrimp. You can even trap them with the old plastic bottle trap trick pretty easily.

I still recommend dwarf livebearers because they are nice and small and can be obtained locally for free.

[xenxes]

Hm, one with a cover would be good. Is yours clear/see-through? Do you mind posting a pic/link of that tote? I'm worried the container I have may not be able to hold water. Any other kind of support, wood etc?

LOL 150g Rubbermaid, I'd like to see a pic of that.

I do have an absurd amount of platies that breed like crazy, and they're mellow enough to not chase shrimp, maybe the culls will do the trick!

I've seen a lot of people use guppy grass for outside, is it better to use guppy grass or can I use java moss?

[TedP]

I'm sure java moss would be fine. I like guppy grass because it grows very quickly.

Here's my tub.



As for the upgrade, it's pretty inexpensive here.

[FishFarmer]

I second (or third) the guppy suggestion. They are mosquito larvae eating machines.

[xenxes]

Hate to dig this up, but thought crossed my mind again. Will endlers eat mosquito larvae or are they too small? What about rasboras sp. like CPDs? They prob don't goto top water though.. where do mosquito larvae hangout? On the substrate first?

[shrimpNewbie]

I say white clouds pretty and safe

[shrimpNewbie]

Larvae hang out near the edges of the container at the surface of the water and in my experience they bolt to the bottom when the surface is agitated