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Believe it or not the following is from someone trying to control Gambusia.

Gambusia Control Homepage

Welcome to the gambusia control homepage, dedicated to ongoing investigation of the effect of gambusia on native aquatic fauna, and exploration of potential means of control. This page will be of interest to scientists, aquarists, and environmentalists. While many of the examples here come from specific geographic regions like Australia, New Zealand, and North America most of the issues are common across the worldwide distribution of gambusia.

Die Deutsche Version dieser Webseite finden Sie als Sonderdruck (pdf) der DGLZ-Rundschau (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Lebendgebärende Zahnkarpfen) hier.

For a pdf German version of this page that was published in DGLZ-Rundschau (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Lebendgebärende Zahnkarpfen) please click here.

Gambusia holbrooki, the "fish destroyer." The upper fish is the female, note the gonopodium (a modified anal fin) on the male. Scalebar represents 1 cm.

Gambusias have traditionally been referred to as mosquitofish based on the assumption they are ideal for mosquito larvae control. While we prefer to retain gambusia in the title to this page (since this allows for world wide understanding), we would like to suggest adoption of a more suitable name for these species outside their natural range, damnbusia. This is not an effort to damn this poor innocent fish, but to inform the masses that this species can be a major pest and in many cases more suitable alternatives exist for mosquito larvae control. Hence we feel the name is far more educational and valuable than the misnomer of mosquitofish.

Many people ask what should we use for mosquito control if we can't use mosquitofish? Pretty much any fish will eat mosquito larvae. Try finding a mosquito larvae in any body of water inhabited by fish. The best thing to use is a native fish found in your local area that is somewhat hardy and will reproduce in the environment that requires mosquito control. Which species this is will totally depend upon where in the world you live, but most parts of the world have suitable species that probably already exist in your vicinity. And please stick to using fish from your local river basin, rather than the same or similar species brought in from outside your local river basin as significant differences often exist between populations from different river basins.

Please e-mail your comments , any additional pertinent information we could add to the page, and/or indicate if you would like to be included in the gambusia control network (at the end of the text). Ultimately we would like this to become a valuable reference site for people to use in any way they can in their efforts to improve the realms of their favourite native aquatic critters.

This concept, and the bulk of the content of this page were the original brainchild of Aarn The page and the server it is on are maintained by Peter Unmack. We both add additional content as needs and time allows. Last major update was on 2nd November 1998, but additional references and links get added regularly.

Gambusia and mosquito control
Gambusia holbrooki and G. affinis (Cyprinodontiformes: Poeciliidae) are native to southern and eastern USA, but now (following translocation) have an extensive global distribution. Where mosquito-borne diseases pose a threat to human health, and native fish are not suitable control agents (such as urban areas in Thailand and Venezuela) stocking water bodies with poeciliids (such as gambusia and guppies Lebistes reticulatus) may be one of the few means of mosquito control. These poeciliids are well-suited to stagnant waters, where they tend to remain stationary just below the water surface, using the relatively oxygen-rich interface layer. However, the effectiveness of gambusia as a mosquito control agent is unclear. Gambusia may prefer to consume macro-invertebrates other than mosquito larvae (particularly large instars). Some of these macro-invertebrates consumed may include species which also prey on mosquito larvae. Gambusia, not having the aestivation/embryonic diapause capability of some Cyprinodontiformes, die out in seasonal ponds, requiring a restocking program. In any event, the larvae of many mosquito species develop in rain-filled tree hollows and peridomestic containers, such as coconut shells and discarded packaging, concealed from vertebrate predators.

Gambusia as a competitor with native species

Interspecific competition for resources may extend to predation, by gambusia, of eggs and larvae of endemic fishes and amphibians. Milton & Arthington (1982) and Courtenay & Meffe (1989) listed reports that implicated gambusia in the decline of various native fishes. In Australia, gambusia was suggested to be an imminent threat to red finned blue eye (Scaturiginichthys vermeilipinnis, Pseudomugilidae) and Edgbaston goby (Chlamydogobius squamigenus, Gobiidae) (Unmack & Brumley, 1991; Unmack, 1992; Wager, 1994, 1995; Wager & Unmack, in prep). They also negatively effect southern blue eye (Pseudomugil signifer) populations (Howe et al., 1997) and tadpoles (Morgan & Buttemer, 1997; Webb & Joss, 1997). Glover (1989) reported gambusia caused a decrease in desert goby (Chlamydogobius eremius) and spangled perch (Leiopotherapon unicolor, Terapontidae) populations inhabiting Clayton Bore in South Australia. Speculation that gambusia preyed on the eggs and larvae of rainbowfish (Melanotaeniidae) in the wild (Arthington & Lloyd, 1989; Arthington, 1991) was confirmed over summer 1997/98 in a field study in the upper Orara River, near Karangi, New South Wales (Ivantsoff & Aarn, 1999). In New Zealand, Barrier & Hicks (1994) showed that although gambusia was harassed by the larger black mudfish (Neochanna diversus, Galaxiidae), gambusia ate their larvae.

Many examples from North America demonstrate the negative effects of gambusia. Due in large part to predation, gambusia have eliminated Gila topminnow (Poecilliopsis o. occidentalis) from almost it's entire range. Populations only persist where gambusia are absent or in a few springs where other as yet unknown ecological characters allow them to coexist (Minckley et al. 1991). The other subspecies, the Yaqui topminnow (P. o. sonoriensis) is also in great danger as gambusia are only just starting to invade and spread throughout the Yaqui River system. Gambusia have a major impact on some pupfish (Cyprinodon spp.) populations. While no extinctions due to this have been recorded, coexisting populutions tend to be quite depressed in abundance. Evidence collected in part by Unmack (unpub. data) from Ash Meadows, Nevada suggests that when gambusia are decreased in abundance by physical removal, significantly higher numbers of pupfish occur within a year. Gambusia have also been demonstrated to cause extinction of California newt (Taricha torosa populations (Gamradt & Kats, 1996). Much to Diamond's amazement gambusia are freely given out to anyone who wants them in southern California. To directly quote Diamond (1996);

"I phoned the Los Angeles County [West Vector Control] ... District at 310-915-7370. In answer to my questions, a staff member told me: "Yes, they would give me mosquitofish; no, there would be no cost to me; no, I would not have to identify myself, fill out an application or explain what I intended to do with the fish; no, the fish are harmless and present no dangers of which I should be aware; yes, I could have 100 of them"."

In summary, there is ample evidence that gambusia poses a threat to endemic species in parts of Australia, New Zealand, and North America. Hence the need to develop a gambusia control strategy. Complete eradication is unlikely to be attainable, and may not be desirable. Some options concerning biological agents are considered below. Other options, including alteration of water flow rate, netting, and application of piscicides have been trialed but are presently outside the scope of this discussion.
The potential for biological control of gambusia in Australia and New Zealand

Proposed biological control strategies for vertebrate pests require thorough preliminary evaluation of the risks posed to endemic and/or domesticated species. Cyprinodontiformes is thought to have originated in the Cretaceous Period (Parenti, 1981) and is native to the New and Old Worlds, west of Wallace's line. Therefore, in designing a strategy for biological control of gambusia in Australia and New Zealand, disease agents specific to Cyprinodontiformes could be considered.

Biological control agents vary in pathogenicity towards, and/or specificity for, target hosts. Pathogenicity can be altered (enhanced or attenuated) by selective passage in host or model systems, while specificity is usually not amenable to manipulation.

Perlmutter & Potter (1987) reported a retrovirus, associated with melanoma formation, in a poeciliid. However, there is evidence suggesting that some viruses have jumped species barriers (including the canine parvovirus pandemic in 1977/78, which may have evolved from the feline enteritis virus in laboratory-maintained cats; the possible transfer of HIV-AIDS from primates to humans in the 1960s; and the avian influenza concern of 1997/98). Considerable expertise, and investment, is usually required to ensure quarantine facilities function effectively. Viral control of gambusia is not presently practical.

Many bacterial and fungal disease agents are limited spectrum opportunist pathogens, such as Bacillus thuringiensis (toxic to insects) and the fungus Aspergillus spp. (pathogenic to birds). However, Saprolegnia spp. fungi commonly isolated from wounded fish, and Vibrio spp. frequently cultured from dead fish, appear to be non-host specific, and of enhanced pathogenicity to immune-compromised animals.

Gambusia was reported to host at least 23 parasite species (L. N. Lloyd, cited in Arthington & Lloyd, 1989). Many metazoan parasites (including nematodes and some cestodes) are monoxenous (specific for one host species), but apparently this is not the case in fish. Diseases of fish are relatively poorly characterised, in comparison with diseases of humans and domesticated animals, and the causative agent(s) less-frequently identified. Hence, the apparent polyxenicity of many fish pathogens (including parasites).

Some protozoan parasites of vertebrates are polyxenous, such as Giardia of mammals, Toxoplasma gondii of felids, Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (Ciliophora) of fish, and many coccidia (Apicomplexa) of fish (Dykova & Lom, 1981; Lom & Dykova, 1995). Others coccidia are virtually monoxenous, such as some eimerian coccidia of domestic poultry, and fish. There does not appear to be any criteria to predict specificity.

Recent reports of protozoa (tabulated below) of gambusia and/or other Cyprinodontiformes are not numerous. Factors limiting natural gambusia populations (Courtenay & Meffe, 1989) may include undescribed endemic parasites.


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Yep I have seen that. It sounds strange but most fisheries folks outside private ponds think Gams are a pest and harm native populations.
















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Until I read that post I forgot that Vector Control in Southern CA. would give you Gams for mosquito control just by asking. I had a 2 small ornamental ponds when I lived in Oceanside, CA, and they shipped a bag for each pond, free and no questions asked.


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Interesting.

Does JHAP work for them? He's a gambusia murderer.


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Personally I think banded killifish are way better at whacking mosquito larvae.

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 Originally Posted By: davatsa
Does JHAP work for them? He's a gambusia murderer.

OH SNAP!

There is a movement afoot (what the heck does that mean anyway? Did someone move their foot - as in you put your left foot in you take your left foot out, you put your left foot in and you shake it all about, is that it? Or did they actually move a distance of one foot?) in Northern California to use Sacramento Perch (which is the only sunfish that is native to California and yes it's a sunfish and not a perch but don't yell at us Californians for naming a fish what it isn't, heck we didn't name LMB or SMB and they aren't bass so get off my back, jeez you people can be so intolerant at times) to control mosquitoes. There are a group of folks researching Sacramento Perch and they have found that the SP consume more mosquito larvae than do Gambusia. So there is a push to replace the Gambusia give aways (a lot of counties in Northern California give away Gambusia freely to control mosquitoes, which is the case in El Dorado County and is where DIED got his Gambusia which led to DIED giving me my Gambusia that led to the unfortunate Gambusia incident that I will never live down, so as you can see the entire Gambusia stocking tragedy was not technically my fault, a case could be argued that it was actually the fault of El Dorado County for not giving DIED proper stocking instructions which of course he would have been obligated to convey to me, unless of course El Dorado county DID in fact give DIED stocking instructions and he failed to convey them to me which would then suggest that the fault for this unfortunate incident could be placed at DIED's doorstep) with Sacramento Perch.




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My head hearts now!

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 Originally Posted By: davatsa
Does JHAP work for them? He's a gambusia murderer.

Surely no one in the history of the world has suffered so wrongly, repented so much, and given his all to atone for a totally nonintentional offense against Gambusia more than our good friend, jeffhasapond. I, for one, acquiesce to cut the man some slack on that unfortunate incident, at least until the next time he throws a big, fat meatball pitch of a straight line on the subject right over the plate that I can knock out of the park.

Rest in Peace, dear Gambusia.


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Thank you Theo!

Finally, someone with some common sense around here.

See folks there is a reason why only the best and brightest can become rocket surgeons.


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Has anybody noticed that if you remove all the text in parenthesis and the disclaimers from JHAP's posts, the pages he posts on contain twice as many responses?

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The caution is not so much about gambusia, but any introduced species. No matter how innocent a fish (or any creature)may seem, when you introduce it into an ecosystem that has evolved no checks and balances, the outcome is almost never good.

In much of the Southern US there isn't much choice, because you will have gams in your pond regardless. Fine with me, becasuse all my fish find them delicious. If there are no gams in your area, it's probably best to leave it that way.


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