Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Rosy / Golden GAMS

for those that want to stock Gambusia minnows this might be a neat option. Often they are considered not a great forage minnow due to the ability to avoid predation. If you stocked the golden or albino ones this might even things out a bit and offer some viewing enjoyment as well. they are prolific so if you stocked just a few in a predator free pond you would not need many to get started.

Golden GAMS

I suspect it wouldn't take long for natural selection to kick in and you end up with just the wild colored ones in short time. You see that quickly with rosey red FHM.

If you had natural colored ones already yes, definatly..

I Feel if you are starting fresh with a new stocking and only stocked the color morph they would stay morphed if the natural gene was not introduded into the population.

So in a new predator free pond that will be left predator free for a year but with several predators being added after that year including LMB..... what would be an estimate of Golden GAMS per acre?

I suppose it all depends on how many males/females you are starting out with, and what the water temp is where the pond is at.....

Temperature has been shown to change the length of time it takes them to reach reproductive maturity and body size. This species is also known to give birth to live young instead of laying a clutch of eggs.[11][12] The breeding season for Gambusia holbrooki is between midspring and midautumn, with the peak breeding time being around summer. Females can have up to nine broods per mating season, with the average size ranging from five to 100.[11] The variability of the average brood size is due to many variables, including temperature, age, and available nutrients. Higher temperatures have been shown to increase the fecundity of this species.[12] The gestation period for this species is between 22 and 25 days.

The offspring juvenile stage lasts between 18 days and eight weeks. Once again, changes in temperature affects these numbers; colder temperatures decrease and higher temperatures can increase maturity. This species can have several generations within their breeding period due to the fast rate of growth.

Then you have the variable if any predacious insects are in the pond.


Short answer, there's no way to tell.

I was researching feasibility of gambusia golden or otherwise in my west michigan pond. I have no predators so it would be an interesting experiment, although I do have FHM and GSH in there currently.

I found this interesting article which i will try to copay and paste. In this study they took fish out after frost so I'm not sure gambusia over winter in Michigan? Other studies done in michigan in the 1970s talk above overwintering the gambusia in tanks inside and poor overwintering ability so I'm guessing not a good option.

This study below is interesting though...


--------------
Background:
Fishes have been used to control mosquitoes. The mosquito fish (Gambusia affinis) has been the most widely
used fish for mosquito control. However, mosquito fish are not native to Michigan and they will not reliably survive
Michigan winters. Stocking the mosquito fish in Michigan is costly since local supplies are not available. Other fishes
have also been used to control mosquitoes with varying degrees of success (Coykendall 1980). This study is designed
to compare the effectiveness of two common Michigan fishes and a hybrid used in pond management to the mosquito
fish in controlling mosquitoes.
Protocol:
Michigan State University has nine nearly identical 20' X 20' ponds with cement sides and earthen bottoms.
Depth in these ponds will be initially adjusted to 3 feet. Three randomly chosen replicate ponds will be stocked with
mosquito fishes (Gambusia affinis), fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas), or a mixture of bass (Micropterus
salmoides) and hybrid sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus X machrochirus). Stocking rates will be equivalent to approximately
200 per surface acre for mosquito fish and fathead minnows and ( 100 bass + 250 hybrid sunfish) /surface acre. These
rates are consistent with stocking recommendations for mosquito control in California (Coykendall 1980) or for
recreational farm ponds in Michigan (Schrouder et al. 1989). The ponds are next to a wetland area that will provide a
source of mosquitoes. No spraying for insect control will occur in the pond area or the adjacent wetland. Fish will be
stocked around 1 June.
Two additional, slightly larger ponds are adjacent to the nine replicate ponds. These ponds contain no fish and
will be used as reference ponds for larval mosquito estimates. Additionally, two sites in an adjacent wetland will be
sampled for mosquito larval as a second reference area.
Fish populations will be estimated monthly using standard multiple mark and recapture techniques (Schnabel,
1938). Any moribund fish will be collected, counted and weighed 2 to 3 times per week. Mosquito larvae and adult
populations will be estimated weekly using methods employed by Saginaw County Mosquito Abatement Commission.
Mosquito estimates will be made on randomly selected days from 15 May through the first frost. Ponds will be drained
and fish will be counted and weighed after the first frost. Larval mosquito estimates will be made in each pond and the
two wetland sites. Adult mosquito estimates will be made just after dark. Three sampling periods of 3-5 minutes each
will be made immediately adjacent to the pond area and the wetland area. After the first frost, all ponds will be drained,
the fish will be collected, counted and weighed.
Evaluation of the success of the fishes in controlling mosquitoes will be based on a comparison of mosquito
larvae populations between fish stocking treatments and survival of the fishes through the season. Adult mosquito
estimates will be made to indicate the level and types of mosquitoes in the area. Data will be analyzed using
appropriate parametric or non-parametric statistics.
Conclusion:
In summary, a largemouth bass/bluegill combination was the most efficient against mosquito larvae; flathead
minnows were second with Gambusia affinis ranking third in efficacy.

References:
Coykendall, R.L. 1980. Fishes in California mosquito control. CMVCA Press (Sacramento).
Schnabel, Z.E. 1938. The estimation of the total fish population of a lake. Amer. Math Monthly 45: 348-352.
Schrouder, J.D., C.M. Smith, P.J. Rusz, R.J. White, and D.L. Garling. 1989. Managing Michigan ponds for sports
fishing. MSU Cooperative Extension Service Bulletin E 1554. 69 p.

Gams overwintered here, 30 mi. South of South Bend.

It took 3-4 years but what did them in was dropping water levels so there was no shoreline vegetation (no underwater weeds either) and SMB in the pond. As long as there was cover for them to hide in, enough escaped predation to re-populate year to year with RES and YP in the pond, even tho it iced over in the winter.

Keep this in mind, gams are live bearers. So, unless you know the daddy of each baby growing in the belly of each pregnant female was also golden you're gonna end up with the wild color form in the population. It would be real tough to guarantee that you knew the lineage of each father gam.

I used to breed the spotted black form as a kid. I caught them from the wild and selectively bred them until I had all black males and nearly all black females. It was an interesting hobby. Guppies, who needs guppies!

I am aware of a decent population of gams in a very bass heavy 4 acre pond in central PA. That ponds summers trout and has ice cover thick enough to ice fish on. Gams are far hardier than some think. The pond also has YP and crappie but is thick with SAV.

Any suppliers that will ship to Michigan, fairly reasonably? Looking for diversity in my forage base.