# plants in my "pond"



## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

I have setup a 20 gallon tank outside on the patio and put some feeder goldfish in it. The theory that my wife was told is that mosquitos lay their eggs on the water and the fish eat them which should lower the mosquito population in the yard.

I am wondering, if when full summer comes, if it would be good to try some live aquarium plants in there? The temp won't be as high as my inside tanks but by june or so the temp range should be safe.

my conerns are even being able to have the plants due to algae growth and if it just might be too high of light.

I will probably end up tossing in some plants in a few weeks, but just ones I can risk losing, wondering if it might be a good temporary home for some of my more valuable plants to give them a huge boost maybe.


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## pa3k_87 (Apr 6, 2012)

I guess it depends which plants. The ones that I've had success growing outisde either in a fishtank or container water garden are java ferns, jungle vals, asian ambula, greater and smaller duckweed, salvinia, frogbits, hyacinth, and water lettuce. Most are cuttings from my fishtank which i was gonna toss out anyway, except for the hyacinth and water lettuce. Understandably the floaters did better as they just do so well with the sunlight and all. I'll do the same thing again in a couple weeks. I'll probably add in a papyrus or flowering rush to add some height to my container garden.


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## ksimdjembe (Nov 11, 2006)

In my experience, I found that although there is some logic to 'the fish will eat the mosquitoes', it doesn't really work.
- most mosquitoes prefer water that is stagnant (unmoving, unfiltered) to lay eggs in.
- the water in the backyard will likely draw other insects that require water for their larval stages.

Basically I never really found the mosquito population changed at all, and in fact I found I was increasing the midge population. The goldfish can't get all the eggs or larva, especially with plants. The midges don't bite, but it does increase the bugs in the area.

I did find I had more sightings of dragonflies though.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

I have a not so nice chunk of Mopani wood that I ended up covering with little baby java fern many months ago and its starting to look promising. I am not sure I would want to risk this outside though


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## GDidycz (Mar 6, 2012)

the best way to keep mosquitos away is to limit their habitat. That includes preferred trees and bushes they hid in during the day, along with breeding ground which we all know is stagnant water. However it is really nice to have a fish tank on the patio. I have had my best results in all day partial spots with a tank size of 40gal. If you have kids you will love explaining all the bugs that will thrive in your micro environment.


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