will mosquito fish survive the winter?

Lydia,

It depends on what you call Mosquito fish. If you got them at a tropical
fish store/LFS they are probably a species of Gambusia which are pretty
hardy, but will probably not stand temps in the 50's very long. If it is a
local mosquito fish that is native to the region, it will probably do fine.
Fish can surprise you, though, I had two Clown loaches outside in the pond,
about 2 inches in size, and the pond temps had dropped into the very low 60
high 50's before I had the time to drain that portion of the pond to chase
them down. The Pond is 30 plus inches deep and I had to bring the level to
about 2 inches before I could finally catch. They were still the dickens to
catch, but I got them caught and they are doing fine inside now.

So to answer you question, it yes or no depending on the species of mosquito
fish you have.

Tom L.L.
-------------------
"Lydia" wrote in message
...
The pond is 2 feet deep ~ 500gal. I put about 15-20 mosquito fish in it
this fall. It's a new pond so I don't have anything else in it yet.

Usually our low temps. this season in Seattle are around 40-45F degrees,
but
we've been having cold snaps where the pond has had a layer of ice on it
for
a few days at a time during about 3 different weeks since October. One of
those weeks is this week. Overnight temps are mid 20's. Ice on the top
of
the pond again.

The feeling I get from what I read is that the mosquito fish will still be
there in the spring. Really? Honestly? Is that true? It just seems so
amazing to me that I can believe it.

Or are they most likely all dead by now? Should I do something for them
like dump hot water in or break a hole in the ice even though it'll
probably
be gone in no more than a week?

Thanks!
Lydia

"Tom La Bron" wrote in message
...
Lydia,

It depends on what you call Mosquito fish. If you got them at a tropical
fish store
( Snip)

To display my total ignorance, what is a " Mosquito fish " ? Will it survive
extremely Hot weather ? I have a 300 gal. 5' LX 3' WX 2' D. And since we
live just East of Houston Texas the water gets hot enough to cook rice in
( okay maybe not ). I have several types of plants growing in it and more
than a few Mosquito's. If there is a hardy fish I can put in and " Forget "
that would be great.
Thanks
Richard

Do you have a mosquito control board/district? That's where local people
hear get them. They deliver free. ~ jan

On Thu, 1 Jan 2004 09:16:33 -0600, "rem1061" wrote:

To display my total ignorance, what is a " Mosquito fish " ? Will it survive
extremely Hot weather ? I have a 300 gal. 5' LX 3' WX 2' D. And since we
live just East of Houston Texas the water gets hot enough to cook rice in
( okay maybe not ). I have several types of plants growing in it and more
than a few Mosquito's. If there is a hardy fish I can put in and " Forget "
that would be great.
Thanks
Richard

To display my total ignorance, what is a " Mosquito fish " ? Will it survive
extremely Hot weather ? I have a 300 gal. 5' LX 3' WX 2' D. And since we
live just East of Houston Texas the water gets hot enough to cook rice in
( okay maybe not ). I have several types of plants growing in it and more
than a few Mosquito's. If there is a hardy fish I can put in and " Forget "
that would be great.
Thanks
Richard
Mosquito fish are usually Gambusia affinis, they live here in NC in water that
is almost hot to the touch. Just make sure thyere si no way for them to escape
into the natural environment. they can reall cause probelms.

Moon
remove nospam from e-mail to send to me, I grow trees in aquariums like bonsai.
I breed dwarf crayfish, great for planted community tanks. If you can get me a
shovelnose sturgeon fingerling (Scaphirhynchus platorynchus) no wild caught
please, contact me

I think this is one that falls into 'your mileage may vary' and
'every pond is different'...

I received 40 mosquito fish from the local vector control district
near the end of October. They said they were collected from the wild.
I quaranteened them for 2 weeks before introducting them to my
24"-30" deep 2500 gallon pond here in zone 10. The water temp hasn't
been under 48F since then, and, I haven't seen one mosquito fish
dead or alive since a couple weeks after adding them.

Maybe the Koi ate them? I didn't think they were supposed to,
especially as the mosquito fish are/were much faster than the Koi.

Steve J. Noll | Ventura California
| Glass Block Pond http://www.kissingfrogs.tv

Steve, to the best of my knowledge, once fish/fry get beyond the "swimming
eyes" stage, koi don't eat them. I've seen larger fish spit out babies that
got between them and food when they were eating. Your 'skeeter fish are
probably either hiding, or got sucked up by your filtration. Have you
checked your filters?

Lee

"Steve J. Noll" wrote in message
...
I think this is one that falls into 'your mileage may vary' and
'every pond is different'...

I received 40 mosquito fish from the local vector control district
near the end of October. They said they were collected from the wild.
I quaranteened them for 2 weeks before introducting them to my
24"-30" deep 2500 gallon pond here in zone 10. The water temp hasn't
been under 48F since then, and, I haven't seen one mosquito fish
dead or alive since a couple weeks after adding them.

Maybe the Koi ate them? I didn't think they were supposed to,
especially as the mosquito fish are/were much faster than the Koi.

Steve J. Noll | Ventura California
| Glass Block Pond http://www.kissingfrogs.tv

In my experience, I've seen my koi chase down mosquito fish, this was a
rare koi though. I've also seen koi inadvertently eat one that was eating
on a koi stix. Stix & M.fish both sucked down. ~ jan

On 2 Jan 2004 10:08:09 -0600, "Lee B." wrote:

Steve, to the best of my knowledge, once fish/fry get beyond the "swimming
eyes" stage, koi don't eat them. I've seen larger fish spit out babies that
got between them and food when they were eating. Your 'skeeter fish are
probably either hiding, or got sucked up by your filtration. Have you
checked your filters?

Lee

"Steve J. Noll" wrote in message
. ..
I think this is one that falls into 'your mileage may vary' and
'every pond is different'...

I received 40 mosquito fish from the local vector control district
near the end of October. They said they were collected from the wild.
I quaranteened them for 2 weeks before introducting them to my
24"-30" deep 2500 gallon pond here in zone 10. The water temp hasn't
been under 48F since then, and, I haven't seen one mosquito fish
dead or alive since a couple weeks after adding them.

Maybe the Koi ate them? I didn't think they were supposed to,
especially as the mosquito fish are/were much faster than the Koi.

Steve J. Noll | Ventura California
| Glass Block Pond http://www.kissingfrogs.tv

They will still be there Lydia. getting reid of them with be the trick!

Moon
remove nospam from e-mail to send to me, I grow trees in aquariums like bonsai.
I breed dwarf crayfish, great for planted community tanks. If you can get me a
shovelnose sturgeon fingerling (Scaphirhynchus platorynchus) no wild caught
please, contact me

Seattle, I would love to live in Seattle. then I could maybe see Heart nore
than once every twenty years. Ann Wilson is the greatest!

Moon