I have found that gambusia stay in shallow water.... have seen LMB slide up on the bank flopping then getting back into the water , fun to watch. Have never had them in a predator free pond so they might go all over the place if nobody is trying to eat them
+1
It has been found that smaller ponds can support greater densities of GAMS. This is because the shallow edges provide the cover they seek and smaller ponds have a greater ratio of perimeter to area. I have noticed that APW greatly extends the habitat allowing sufficient cover to protect a larger population. So some pond weeds are a benefit for them.
Swingle added 1623/acre of Gams (~2 lbs/acre) to treatments of 1625 BG/acre (~52 lbs/acre) in fertilized ponds. The Gams provided sufficient food over the 5 month grow out to increase production of BG by 145 lbs/acre ... a greater than 86 % increase in BG production. So very good forage. One way to wrap your head around their impact is to calculate how much feed would have been required to do the same at a conversion rate of say ... 1.8. So around a value of 261 lbs/acre of formulated feed with no increase in nutrients relative to the control. Pretty amazing when you think about it.
