Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Gambusia Minnow (mosquito fish)

I was just wondering about this critter, general knowledge, pros and cons? Does anyone have these in their LMB ponds, and if so what kind of affect did they have?

Oh lordy.

This brings back such bad memories...

Do not read this thread.

Ok, the real answer is that many of us have Gams in our pond. I added them primarily for mosquito control. There seems to be pros and cons related to them.

Pros:

They do seem to control mosquitos (at least they seemed to have a significant impact at my place).

Their breeding habits puts rabbits to shame. DIED added I think 11 to his pond and he now has schools in the thousands.

Cons:

They may eat the eggs of other fish or at least I recall a discussion of that (I'll try to find the link).



What is the purpose for adding the Gams? Mosquito Control, forage base, both?


Fun quote from a wise and all knowing Heybud:

Both I just stubled across someone who had some and said something about good forage, so I looked into it and saw they also control mosquitos.

Here's a couple of links to get you started...

Gambusia, an invasive species

Gambusia vs. Fathead

Perhaps one of the experts can discuss the pros and cons of Gams, anyone?

thanks jhap

fishwrangler, I have Gams in both my SMB/YP/RES pond and in my LMB/BG/RES pond. They went in the former as initial forage and were added to the latter after the pond was already full of fish. There are a lot of them in the LMB pond, but not nearly as many as in the SMB/YP/RES pond where they went in ahead of the other fish.

They have proven (in combo with FHM) to be very good startup forage for SMB. Large BG and RES also like eating them, and hit on small lures readily in their presence (which is something they rarely if ever did before).

You will see reports that Gams have horrible negative affects on fish spawning. They have not noticeably affected spawning in the BG/RES/LMB pond, where their numbers are relatively low. In the other pond, where there are (millions) of Gams, the RES have had no trouble spawning. The YP & SMB may be big enough to spawn in 2010; as of yet I have no data on how dense numbers of Gams will affect their spawning.

I would not stock them in a multi-species pond just for mosquito control, as almost every species of fish will eat mosquitos. My interest in them is in providing meals for large sunfish; they seem to do very well at this.

If mosquitofish are native to your area of Texas, stocking them is up to you... Personally, I think there are better forage options out there. If they aren't native to your part of Texas, I wouldn't stock them as they are very invasive and can affect native fish populations.

One of the ongoing debates around here is how certain fish get into ponds that weren't stocked. A lot of people believe that birds bring them on their feet/feathers. I don't believe that. I believe they are either stocked, sometimes inadvertently, with other fish or get washed in.

And then there is the gam. Although rarely stocked, it just seems to happen in areas of East Texas.

I've had gams from day 1, and there are no negatives that I have seen. I use them for bait, and have caught just about every species in Louisiana with them.

They're not a problem for spawning in my pond. No way they could get to any fish eggs. They occupy and feed in very shallow water along the banks. They know if they go into water greater than 6" deep, their life expectancy is 10 seconds. I don't think any of my fish spawn in water that shallow. (LMB, BG, RES, BC)

The BG, BC, and LMB wait patiently by shallow areas waiting for the gams to venture out. When they do, they get hammered. (sorry Jeff).

Gams have been used so much in California for mosquito control that I think you'd be hard pressed to find a BOW that doesn't have them in it.

No worries Bobad, I fear that I shall have to wear a scarlet "G" for the rest of my Pond Boss days.

I don't know if this is still applicable in today's money crunch, but when I lived in So. Cal. the state or county vector control had Gams. All you had to do is go to them and they'd give you some for free.

Zep Essup, they still did up until a year or two ago. I'm not sure if they still do now. DIED got his Gams from the County of El Dorado. Out here UC Davis is pushing toward using Sacramento Perch as a mosquito deterrent for Northern California. They are native to Northern California and supposedly eat far more mosquito larvae that do Gams.