Hi, with albino animals you have a severe risk of blindness. Check this first. I have done quite a lot of WM with mice. I am not aware of anybody systematically testing these parameters. However, as some studies actually place the cues on curtain very close to the perimeter my guess is there is at least no distance too short.

This paper could give you an idea of the visual acuity of mice. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19117934

In my experience room with walls at 1 to 3 meters away from the bath and two dark doors, and some cues of ~30cm works fine for mice. (see publ for methods: http://www.jneurosci.org/content/31/35/12543.long )

Also, the water temperature and the amount of light can be big factors in the acquisition profile. Good luck!

Thanks - these papers will be helpful. For such critical cues it is interesting how it is not normally provided in the literature. I have found that cues a bit too large and too high on the wall do not work well with mice - mostly as they seem to swim with their heads flat in the water while rats swim with a slight head tilt up. But too close and you lose the hippocampal spatial learning distinction.

I suggest that you contact people at MRC Harwell, Oxford, UK - they are testing C57BL/6J and 6N strains, as well as knockouts and other mutants on those backgrounds, in the WM. Prof. Steve Brown can advise who would be able to help you.