I have heard that Gambusia won't last thru the winter this far north, is there any truth to the fact these fish will make it when others fail???
Does anyone have gams that survived a winter around the Great Lakes?
http://www.fattigfish.com/special.htm
I don't think Gams have a cold tolerance problem, it's just that their normal predator escape mode - jumping out of the water - doesn't work so good under ice. Given sufficient O2 in the water, I think they won't die just from it being Winter.
That would be a lot like taking the wings off of a plane I reckon, you are sure to perish in flight, in the gams case, lack of flight...
Gambusia affinis
Mosquitofish
subtropical; 12 – 29°C
53.6 F
Weight loss at 10C or 50F
Ewest does that mean the advertisement is grade A BS or is there a cold tolerant strain??
Theo, don't worry, you will likely get used to it in time if it happens to you as often as it does me, being wrong I mean, heh heh.
It depends. Don't assume Theo is wrong. Where did those gams in his pond come from ? If from his area then they somehow survived to be where they are. In addition fish do adapt and change to different conditions. While gams are a subtropical fish in general some may adapt to new colder climes and survive.
About the add - everything I have read indicates that gams are no better at mosquito control than many other fish. I might add them (we have them in one pond) as forage but not on the premise that they will get rid of the mosquitoes. I would want to know the history of those fish before I assumed they are cold tolerant.
I will check on the other questions.
Volume 105, Issue 6 (November 1976)
Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
Article: pp. 686–694 | Abstract | PDF (175K)
Responses of Mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) to Ash Effluent and Thermal Stress
Mosquitofish may be more vulnerable in
nature to low water temperatures rather than
to high ones. At stations B-E, when field
temperatures declined to 9 C, mosquitofish
were found only under aquatic roots in a
highly lethargic state.
Although high and low water temperatures
(44.5-9.0 C) reduced fish activity in sites F
and E, respectively, during extreme summer
and winter conditions, turbidity appeared to
have little or no effect upon mosquitofish.
I am with you Theo, I have seen them in South East Nebraska. They were alive and kickin in June. Maybe they flew in on the Kingfisher Express sometime in the spring!
Or they came from the people with the advertisement above.
We have them in upstate (Albany) NY and they live year round. I only see them in detention basins and manmade wetlands where they add them for mosquito control (even though BG and other fish would be just as good). These water bodies are only around 4-6 feet deep. I agree with Theo that they probably survive in these ponds because their jumping (escape) mechanism doesn;t matter because there are no predators to get them - so they can winter over at the bottom. I have never seens gams in any lakes around here with predators.
That is encouraging to hear, I have a forage pond I would be very interested in overwintering them here in PA, we get as cold as you folks in Albany and sometimes as much snow fall here off the Lake too.