Mosquito Fish.... Pics and questions!

Hi all,

Several months ago I got the crazy idea to breed mosquito fish, and also try and cross them to guppies (not easy or likely from what I read!)... I got them from Drs.Foster Smith and was pretty impressed with the process and packing. The fish were in good shape and set them up with what I thought would be a good tank for them. 20 Long, some driftwood, spawning grass( plastic) and Live pothos.. rooted into the water. They did great and I don't think I lost one of the 20 I got... in the mix are 4 males, and 16 females. A decent ratio for breeding. Temp at about 73 F and tap water. I have yet to see any fry though, swollen bellies, but zippo on the fry.. I'm thinking they are just eating the fry. I had wanted to breed these and add some to my patio container waterfall and a 125 gal frog pond I have. I know if I throw them in it they will probably breed on their own but I wanted to have a hand in it.

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Anyone here breed these in a tank before? I figured they'd be like guppies but I find them much more aggressive and challenging..but an interesting fish.

al

Heres the tank itself...
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I used to keep a colony of the melanistic strain in the yard, but decided I'd rather not have to take care of them during the summer months. I think it's impossible to kill the things by means of temperature.

Try cranking the heat up to 80-84F and toss in a pile of garland or yarn. Gambusia males are extremely "active," so you can be almost positive the females are dropping.

Yarn? Now theres an idea I hadn't thought of. Thanks Adam, I will give it a try.

al

Hi Al,
I tried crossing Gambusia with guppies a few years ago. I thought I would get robust fry with a lot of hybrid vigor. Instead, the fry were weak and frail. A few made it to adulthood but I never got any offspring from them. I later read that mosquito fish and guppy hybrids are usually sterile. Moral of the story, it's probably a waste of time trying to cross breed them.

Adam is correct, you need lots of dense cover for the fry to survive being eaten.

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Originally Posted by smsimcik

Hi Al,
I tried crossing Gambusia with guppies a few years ago. I thought I would get robust fry with a lot of hybrid vigor. Instead, the fry were weak and frail. A few made it to adulthood but I never got any offspring from them. I later read that mosquito fish and guppy hybrids are usually sterile. Moral of the story, it's probably a waste of time trying to cross breed them.

Adam is correct, you need lots of dense cover for the fry to survive being eaten.

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Thanks Steve,
Yep I read that too and thought as you did about the robust fry I may get. Its probably a waste to try. I did try with some endlers I got from Adam.They have been prolific so I took a group of 3 extra male endlers and added them to a tank of 6 female Gambusia.The endlers chased them around but then I noticed the females chasing the males.... the males soon disappeared.:(

Im thinking the only way to succeed with enders would be 1 female Gambusia plus 4-5 endler males and then remove the males before the female is too harrassed.

ah well..maybe after I get Gambusia fry.and have virgin females to cross out.

al

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Originally Posted by brewmaster15

The endlers chased them around but then I noticed the females chasing the males.... the males soon disappeared.:(

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Well.... they shouldn't start something they can't finish.

When crossing swords/platys/variatus, you usually use the youngest females of the bigger species. Sounds like you're on the right track.

Flickr links removed ... info here.

Gambusia are in basically every body of water in Florida, from stagnant ditches and puddles to river systems. We technically have G. holbrooki which are the Eastern mosquitofish, but for years they were considered a subspecies of affinis and the fish got exported around the globe for mosquito larvae control before there was a distinction in the two species. Basically, it's impossible to know which species has been exported, and it's likely they'll hybridize. So all the ones here could be either/or.

I've found that they are aggressive for livebearers. I tried keeping them with guppies as a kid and they shredded the guppies every time. Male guppies especially. You may have better luck with male guppies and young female Gambusia. There are also the marbled Gambusia, but to my knowledge only the males will show the coloration and the females are all gray. The males look like dalmation mollies. They're very easy to pick out from the surface of the water and I used to spend hours as a kid trying to catch them in local lakes.

We have another guppy-like livebearer down here called Heterandria formosa, the smallest fish in North America. They're cute little guys if you can get your hands on any. I have trouble catching them in the wild because they're so tiny.