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Re: mosquito eating fish & cardinals in strong light

There are many types of killie fish such as Aphosemion scheeli which 
tolerate the cooler water of an outdoor tank for mosquito control. If you 
can get a power cord out there, you could add a heater just to keep things 
from getting too cold. It may be easier for you to find suitable fish from 
a local killie fish group than to capture fish from the wild. Bonus, there 
are lots of beautiful killie fish!

Heide Li <boingy at ugcs_caltech.edu> wrote:
<< I'm looking for advice from folks who have kept Cardinal Tetras in 
planted tanks...  When the fluorescent lights go on in the morning the 
tetras immediately sink down into the foliage and the back corners of the 
tank.  While the lights are on, they spend all of their time schooling back 
and forth at the very back of the tank (where a black cloth is draped for 
background color). >>

I keep Cardinals in a strongly lit tank. Mine tend to school with the Neons 
which don't seem to be fussy about the lights. They're probably just 
seeking the shadiest part of the tank as part of their natural hiding 
instinct. I don't think they are stressed out. Floating plants like Frogbit 
might make them more comfortable in the "open" since they give the 
appearance of cover from above which may be where the natural predators 
(i.e. birds) are for Cardinals. The black backdrop probably seems like the 
river bank which is where there is the most cover in a wild environment.

I think it's also a good plan to have a higher proportion of humic acids in 
a Tetra tank so the use of drift wood and peat are good. Drift wood also 
gives fish a feeling of safety since they can duck behind it in case a 
predator should appear. There are many kinds of fish which prefer to hide 
than to swim in the open. It's no coincidence that the ones most suitable 
for tropical aquariums are chosen because they swim in the open and compete 
voraciously for food. Generations of captive breeding also favors that 
trait.

Steve in Vancouver