Mosquito Larvae. Fish love em! Free live food!

[Vyache]

I just walked out back to check on a manzanita burl I've got soaking. The bucket that is was in was brown with tanins as expected, but there was an added bonus I hadn't thought of until now. The surface was repleat with mosquito larvae. I got a brine shrimp net and made several scoops. I placed them in a tank with some mollies and they just went bizzerk! 50 mosquito larvae were gone in less than two minutes. I tried giving some to my bettas and they scarfed them down as well. I removed the wood from the bucket and drained the bucket through my net. Now I've got a jar with tons of these things swimming around. I put a paper towl over the mouth of the jar with a rubber band so that they don't metamorphasize and fly off into my house. Since I put tap water in the bucket, I know the larva are safe from disease. (fish disease not necessaraly west nile, heh heh) What a great free source of live food to spice up my fishes diet!!

 

[colesea]

A form of livebearer killie called the mosquito fish is actually used for mosquito control. There are things called mosquito ditches that get filled with water. Then the mosquito fish in the ditches eat the larvel and supposedly that is suppose to reduce the local mosquito population. Nice theory really, but praticallity it's a pain when you're hiking and trip over those ditchs!

But it sounds like a good West Nile control approach to me<G>
~~Colesea

 

[Vyache]

There are mosquito fish in every body of water around here. I believe they are more related to guppies than Killiefish. I think the ditches would be there regardless of the fish. After all they wouldn't need the fish if the ditches weren't there to harbor mosquito larva. Also, I'm not worried about west nile, the mosquitos get it from birds so larva can't be born with it.

 

[Robert Gurley]

I think you might have that mixed up, don't birds get it from mosquitos? ??? But great idea on larvae, might be kind of hard to collect them before they hatch though.

 

[aznpanther98]

like humans birds are infected from mosquitos i live in the wash dc area and it's becomeing a big concern someone died today from it i think good way to make sure none of the larve hatch is check on it everyday and if any start turning daark dump them out where water won't collect like on the driveway theyll just dry up my family's so paranoid about them now we got like lots of off bug spray in our cabinet hehe

 

[happyfishies]

yeah, we did that once too.. it was exciting, the mosquito larve were more lively than brine shrimp..

I was kind of worried about introducing dragonfly larve to the tank, though, but that didn't happen (one of my really old aquarium books has a whole chapter on "enemies" you can introduce with live food.)
anyone know the amout of risk of this?

 

[SeanC.]

On my island dragonflys are quite seasonal. Besides if one was to put the larvae in a jar first and examine them, there would be little danger. I worry more about those white leaches or flukes that come with tubifex worms.

 

[Robert Gurley]

Back on the topic of these mosquito fish, where can I get some for my house?  Would this work, I have a ton of ditches, could I just fill them with water and put themosquito fish in them? I am sick of these mosquitos. (we had a guy in NC get infected with West Nile a couple days ago)

 

[Vyache]

Dry ditches are even better than ditches with water and fish. The fish only eat the larvae, not the full grown fish. Mosquito fish are often available free for anyone who wants them, at least in my area, Northen California. It might be more difficult to get them elsewhere. Check the government pages of your phonebook for Mosquito Abaitment Taskforce or something simular. By the way they should be used in the way they were intended, not as free feeder fish! *laughingcryingsmiley*

 

[aznpanther98]

might be easier to invest into a good bug zapper or u can build a nice pond and  try keeping mosqioto fish but dunno much about them i live in md area and way we deal with pests is bug zapper and bug sprays, my mother loves exotic plants and she has some plants tht eat bugs pretty cool, when i was little i got me a small venus fly trap was pretty cool would catch bugs to give it