Mosquito Fish

The Mosquitofish or if you want to be technical then Gambusia Affinis is only a small fish. Gambusia originally comes from Gambusino which apparently means useless, poor fish.The Mosquitofish is a small stout fish of grey colour and with a rounded tail fin, there mouth points in an upward direction which sees them feeding on the surface of the water, they are similar in look to the guppy fish. They are live bearing fish rather than egg layers and can pop out up to a hundred young in one go, doing this 3 to 4 times a year.

The Mosquitofish although small (and apparently useless) are very hardy fish and can survive in conditions other fish may not, although they do prefer ponds with plenty of sunlight they are not keen on ponds with a lot of shade. The males grow up to about 1.5 inches in length and the females up to about 3 inches in length. They feed on Mosquito larvae but also on other aquatic larvae and fish fry. So although they do eat Mosquito larvae they are not a Mosquito control machine. But because they eat all this unless the pond is fairly new these fish don’t really need feeding as they find plenty to eat all by themselves.

These fish which are sometimes referred to as pests due to their reproduction and supposed aggressive behavior as they can out compete many other species for the forage . They can harass each other and other fish and they can reproduce at a rapid rate but many fry will die or be eaten by the adults. I have had these fish in the past and have had no problems with aggression, but I guess every situation can be different.

The choice is a personal one as to whether you include them in your pond.

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