Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Mosquitofish?

Quick question i was wondering if anyone's used mosquitofish before. I'd think they'd be good BG forage and no-one likes mosquitos. I bring it up because i saw them in the hachery's catalog. Any knowledge?

PD,

Here's a few old threads on the subject that you might find interesting.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=25072

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=412817

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=195395


Bill D.

I added some to my small pond a few months back...haven't noticed any since then, but I really haven't looked much either.

Based on my reading they'd be filling a specific niche in the food chain. They don't get very large (like GSH or similar) so the food value stays smaller. And they inhabit fairly shallow water based on my reading so the predators that would be able to feed on them would be somewhat limited to shallow water feeders.

But I like to experiment so I added them. My reading indicated that they aren't really much better than many other options from a mosquito control standpoint...but I guess every little bit helps there.

I might add some but the FHM and GSH do the same thing and the mosquitofish aren't cheap.

I have and have had them and it doesn't take many to get them started. The bass work them over in the shallows

Here they are in every little seasonal stream every year. The streams can dry completely up, but when the water comes back (maybe in a fairly large rain event??) they are there. They are lousy thick in the small stream that runs between my main pond and old pond.

Now I see them in my pre-sediment and sediment pond. They got there somehow. Don't know how.

If you have an extra large puddle that will hold water for a couple months, throw a few in and soon you will have thousands.

We added them to our pond in early spring ,, raked them upout of ditches and relocated them to the pond less than a 100 and now we have millions but we only have cnb and cc to eat them

I have added Mosquito fish (Gambusia's) in addition to my original stocking of FHM. Pat W. had a great place to catch some, so I bucket stocked them. The big females are very prolific and always gravid. They had really exploded population-wise in the pond before the predators arrived. I'm seeing only adults and fry now. The medium sized ones are being consumed by the LMB. I'm sure as the predators grow, the adults will disappear as well. What amazes me, is the Gambusia's ability to live in 98 degree shallow water during these hot summer months.

were nothing can get to them to eat them.

I wish I did not have them in my pond, they offer little food source and are very agressive egg and fry eaters.

if it was my pond I would not add them...thats just my opinion though

one thing I dont know will they survive a WI winter under the ice. I do not think they are native to WI are they?

Thanks for the advise but i can't imagine them eating fry i thought they only were 2 inches long?

yep 2 inches long seems about right.

fry are the perfect sise to fit right in there mouth, they are very agressive at it too.

any fish you have that do not protect the eggs as lots of other forage base fish such as GSH tend to will have lots of eggs eaten, at least thats my experience with them.

This is only my opinion, but I would rather have the GSH hatch and grow into a sizable meal for something than have the GAM that ate the egg.