Natives!

[Discus-n00b]

Can't steal Al's thunder, but he got me thinking what kind of fish live around me? So I went out to the family farm today and tekked around through the woods to various spots at our creek and pond. I didn't find anything as cool as Al did, but I did bring some Gambusia Holbrooki home....Eastern Mosquitofish. Nothing fancy but its a nice change of scenery from just discus. I fully expect them to breed like rabbits. I collected from two separate sources on the property to get a good mix.

Here are some quick pictures, still a bit cloudy...I just washed that flourite today. I collected some small males and many gravid females.

Male
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/clemmatt/holbrooki7.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/clemmatt/holbrooki2.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/clemmatt/holbrooki5.jpg

The rest
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/clemmatt/holbrooki3.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/clemmatt/holbrooki4.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/clemmatt/holbrooki1.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/clemmatt/holbrooki6.jpg

Habitat I found some in. Isolated pools in a creek bed.
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/clemmatt/Habitat1.jpg

And to think, Liveaquaria sells the Western version for $1.29 each....Hmmmm, considering they could potentially have up to 300 babies per female, I could sell them for $.50 or $.75 each and make about $225 for minimal effort? ;) haha

[DiscusKev]

They look like female guppies (the dull coloured one), are they live-bearers, seems like it?

Amazing to see these kind of fish being caught, there's non here (where I live). Would be fun to hunt some haha.

Thanks for sharing.

[Discus-n00b]

Yes they are Livebearers.

[Discus-n00b]

Here are some new pics from today. Tank is a bit overstocked, but i'll be either moving them soon or weeding out the ones I don't want to keep. They are found in dense groups in the wild though so I think they are fine.

(Sponge filter is there to seed the tank)

Tank
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/clemmatt/holbrooki14.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/clemmatt/holbrooki13.jpg

Fish
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/clemmatt/holbrooki12.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/clemmatt/holbrooki11.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/clemmatt/holbrooki10.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/clemmatt/holbrooki8.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/clemmatt/holbrooki9.jpg

[danny2013]

very cool! What will they eat?

[Discus-n00b]

They are already eating freeze dried blackworms and pellets. :D But they'll take just about anything.

[Disgirl]

Good pics Matt! Reminds me of my mosquitofish adventure about 9 yrs. ago when I built my koi pond. I was afraid of mosquitos laying eggs in my pond and the few small koi i had wouldn't be able to keep up eating them. I got 10 of the mos. fish and within only 1 yr. I had hundreds, maybe thousands! They survived the winter here too! Better get lots of tanks :D
Barb

[Discus-n00b]

I won't let it get that far! haha I've had my experience like that with convicts! Thanks.

[DiscusKev]

Impressive tank shot, pretty basic but it look interesting!

[Ed13]

Pretty cool Matt! Any plants and/or wood found in that creek you could add to their tank? Full biotope FTW!!!:p

[Discus-n00b]

Rocks and wood mainly. Fallen logs and sticks. As well as wild grapes that had fallen from the vines and dead leaves.

I would like to add some plants, just because this will eventually be a shrimp tank. Thanks.

[Rex82]

In australia they are a pest.

[Discus-n00b]

A lot of people here see them as such as well. Heavy reproduction and the ability to live virtually anywhere around here makes the populations explode and almost take over.

[Rex82]

they are an introduced species here. illegal to keep in possesion. like tilapia

[Embersmom]

Too cool!!!! I just love that tank set up, Matt; looks great.
Shelley

[srusso]

Can't steal Al's thunder, but he got me thinking....

What thunder would you be stealing? Did he find local fish?

[Discus-n00b]

He did.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=81305

[Darrell Ward]

Cool! How much for a styrofoam fish box full? These would make tasty feeders for cichla!:D

[Ryan]

Mosquitofish are really easy to find here in Florida. They live in basically any body of water. They are exported all over the country (and the rest of the world, I think) for mosquito control. They eat like half their body weight a day in mosquito larvae.

Have you ever seen the black and white morph? It tends to only show on the male fish, but they look like dalmation mollies.

http://pondcandy.com/images/uploads/holbrooki.jpg

I used to have tankfuls of these things. They do make great feeders. Never put them in with other peaceful community fish, though! I learned my lesson there. I mixed mine with platies and some tetras and the Gambusia shredded their fins and attacked them constantly. They are highly aggressive for such tiny fish.

[Discus-n00b]

I've never seen the black and white ones, pretty cool.

[GoingDiscus]

Cool! How much for a styrofoam fish box full? These would make tasty feeders for cichla!:D

They are excellent for feeders, and they can handle very diverse water conditions, when my pond dried up they lived in the remaing mud holes till birds ate them and the water was almost the consitincy of syrup. and it was hot.

[GoingDiscus]

Hey Matt if your getting into natives I can get you a mudfish this spring pretty easy. I see them on my artifact hunting excursions. also have you seen them little punkin seed bream? super colors and somewhat easy to find....
By the way them Discus are doing great

[GoingDiscus]

Hey Matt if your getting into natives I can get you a mudfish this spring pretty easy. I see them on my artifact hunting excursions. also have you seen them little punkin seed bream? super colors and somewhat easy to find....
By the way them Discus are doing great