Mosquito fish are my tadpoles !

10 years ago

We have a small (4' L X 2' W X 18" D) in-ground pond. it is located in full sun and has a pump and filter. In the past, we have had goldfish that were beautiful and wintered over well, but kept the water filthy in spite of the filter. Decided that when the last one died a couple of years ago that would be it for goldfish.

When the water turned murky and green this past spring, I added plants and moved the table umbrella over to shade it 1/2 the day and slipped 5 mosquito fish in. Within 2 weeks, the water was crystal clear and has remained so all summer. Don't know if it was one or the combo of things, but whatever it was, it worked to produce a beautiful, maintenance free pond.

Now at summer's end, I was researching more about the mosquito fish and discover that not only do they eat the larvae, but gobble up frog/toad eggs and tadpoles, as well ! Oh no ! Our pond was full of eggs and tads one day and all gone the next. I had blamed it on some nocturnal visitor or possibly the birds, but now I know the truth. And to think that I was the cause makes me sad. sigh.

Next spring I will sans the mosquito fish and am thinking guppies as they are omnivores primarily, but will eat mosquito larvae. I also read they are good breeders, eat algae and are pretty durable little fish.

Q: How and when would you introduce guppies to a small in-ground pond in zone 6b? Are they very temperature- sensitive ? Should they be fed or is 'pond living' enough for them?

Thanks ! annie

Featured Answer

lincann
Original Author

10 years ago

Makes sense. Working on a garden filled with frogs, toads, salamanders, turtles, birds and bats. Would make my day to look out and see all that. We feed all the creatures and sans the chemicals for organics. Seems like it's always a work in progress. Thanks for your reply.

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Comments (7)

cyprinella
10 years ago
Guppies are closely related to mosquito fish. It would be the same situation. The best ponds for amphibians are those that are fish free. So I would say, pick fish or frogs, but it may be difficult to have both.
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cyprinella
10 years ago
Sounds like a nice place! I'm a biologist and a gardener so I love chemical free and full of critters!
tropicbreezent
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
It's difficult finding the balance. But what I've done to reduce mosquitos where I have containers with water but no fish is to introduce carnivorous plants, namely Utricularia gibba. Frogs will often lay eggs in these containers so they end up with a lot of tadpoles in them. The plants eat the mosquito larvae while they're still very small. However, tadpoles are too big even when newly hatched.

I do also have a species of 'Mosquito Fish' but not the Gambusia. Mine are Delicate Blue-eye, Pseudomugil tenellus. They eat mosquito larvae but not tadpoles. I have tadpoles grow to full maturity in ponds with the Blue-eyes. It's good having the 2 options available. Utricularia gibba is very widespread and fairly commonly available. Sometimes people get it inadvertantly along with pond plants they buy.
marilyn_c
10 years ago
Or if you can't find the above mentioned fish, you can add one goldfish. I keep one goldfish in all of my tub gardens and they eat the mosquitoes.
chas045
10 years ago
To the extent that this is a post about frogs vs fish, I can say that I have both plus toads. I suppose that it is possible that my stream (where there are no fish) could be the reason for both, but I believe that I had found large egg sacs and egg strings in the fish ponds.
purslanegarden
10 years ago
You mentioned that you like maintenance-free, so I am not sure if
that means your little pond is not having some kind of filter or moving
water. I assume it isn't because of the mosquitoes. So one option is
to give it something to make the water move. That will deter
mosquitoes, so you won't need fish there, and so the frogs can use it as
is.

At the same time, it doesn't mean you have to give
up the mosquito fish and their habit of eating mosquitoes and larvae.
They can live in small tubs or other containers and still perform some
bit of mosquito control while allowing you to get creative with the
kinds of containers and plants and other setup that you might like to
provide for those fish.