TEMPERATE Outdoor choices
A summer in the sun
Many small fish in the coldwater sections of our stores can not only survive, but actively thrive when given an outdoor summer. Paul Tapley explains.
PAUL TAPLEY
After more than three decades in the trade, aquatics welfare officer Paul remains an old school fishkeeper.
A pond in the sun can house several aquarium favourites.
ALAMY
IT ALL tends to begin with goldfish. There are only so many times you can suggest better options for unheated tanks before you start to ask yourself the question: how many species are actually native to cooler habitats? As we enter a period of our hobby where we take our lessons from the wild, surely it’s time to recognise that maintaining fishes in conditions that vary seasonally is about more than trying to save on the price of a heater?
Like many fishkeepers of a certain age, I like to collect antiquarian aquarium books. These tell many tales of exploration and contain familiar species, albeit with unfamiliar and now obsolete binomial names. Looking at the techniques and equipment of the time is an adventure in itself and it becomes clear that early aquarium keepers were an inventive and hardy breed.
With state-of-the-art heating comprising a candle beneath a slate aquarium base, or a partially immersed light bulb (turned on once in the aquarium to prevent shattering, of course!) the fish fell into two types — hardy or dead. It soon becomes clear that ‘tropical’ aquarium fish were successfully kept and bred decades before reliable aquarium heaters were made available and stable, thermally constant aquarium conditions are, arguably, quite a recent development.
Too hot to handle
In the perpetual summer of a modern tropical aquarium, a few species will burn out and live shortened lives. They may sport breeding colours and spawning behaviour, leading their keeper to the conclusion that they are thriving, right up until the point when they develop issues linked to their unsustainable metabolic rate.
Adult size can also drop, as energy is diverted away from growth and into reproduction. Some of the adult sizes stated in the old aquarium literature are very different to those seen today, as species change their normal biological strategies and become more like annual killifish — live fast, breed quickly, die young.
A barrel is larger than many aquaria.
SHUTTERSTOCK
“The water gardening hobby is full of options for seasonal housing, with many raised tubs and features available to suit a range of budgets”