will mosquito fish survive the winter?

"~ jan JJsPond.us" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 06:43:35 GMT, "Lydia" wrote:
Thank you both! It's snowing right now in Seattle!!!

So how much do you have on the ground? We got 3" a couple of days ago and
early this AM another 1.5-2". A winter of holiday of old for us, I think
it
has been quite some time since we've had this much snow and not had a
Chinook wind come the very next day and melt it off. ~ jan
~ jan


Just south of Seattle, in Kent, there was about 2 inches this morning when I
got up. When I got to work in Seattle there was a little less. But as it's
continued to warmed up *Sigh* it's all gone now. It's supposed to snow
again over the weekend!

Over here in the east side of the state
we have lots and lots and lots of snow.
I've been totally paranoid. I never was
before but before Christmas a lost shopper
from another town ran a stop sign and totaled
our volvo with my two baby boys inside.
Youngest has a slight neck injury and is getting
therapy. But now I am certain ALL the other drivers out there are on the verge
of control and coming at us!


ka30p
http://www.geocities.com/watergarden...dors/home.html

You've got a point there! I was projecting my frustration with Mosquito
fish on the original poster. To the original poster I apologize. To BV,
please send me your mailing address so that I can ship a trillion Mosquito
fish to you for belated Xmas present :-) lol

I still can't imagine though that one will want mosquito fish for pond pet!

--
_______________________________________
"The difference between 'involvement' and 'commitment' is
like an eggs-and-ham breakfast:
The chicken was 'involved' - the pig was 'committed'."

http://community.webshots.com/user/godwino

"~ jan JJsPond.us" wrote in message
...
Yea, I think normally Nedra (if I may speak for her) & I would agree, but
this ponder was concerned. So good advice was given.

Who are we to say what feelings are allowed for which species of fish?
Some
of us think it is silly to worry about feeder goldfish, but we don't poo
poo them, do we? Of course not, we're a hook-you-on-this-hobby-
with-any-aquatic-critter sort of newsgroup. very Big grin ~ jan


On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 08:07:24 GMT, "Just Me \"Koi\""
wrote:

Wait a second Nedra and Jan! I bet to differ if I may.

Mosquito fish are dime a dozen, they are not pets, and they breed by the
trillion per second! My dear wife calls them the cockroaches of the
pond!

My point? Why go through the hassle and waste of utility to try and over
winter mosquito fish! I am almost certain that the darn things will
survive
a nuclear attack anyway, so I doubt if freeze will kill them, but if it
does
go to your vector control center and get a bucket load for free!

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

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

"Just Me "Koi"" wrote in message
...
You've got a point there! I was projecting my frustration with Mosquito
fish on the original poster. To the original poster I apologize. To BV,
please send me your mailing address so that I can ship a trillion Mosquito
fish to you for belated Xmas present :-) lol

I still can't imagine though that one will want mosquito fish for pond
pet!



Oh no apology needed. I didn't take anything personally - knew what you
meant. I got the little buggers because we have wetlands behind our
house which means a really big mosquito population so I knew there'd be food
for them. Doubt it will cut down on the mosquitos, though, as I'm sure
there are jillions of larvae layed in the swampy lake thing in the wetlands.
And because of the wetlands area and our proximity to ocean and river we
have lots of wildlife that I think would eat pet-type fish like koi.
Herons, eagles, hawks, racoons, weasels - neighbor cat if some of the native
wildlife doesn't eat him first like they did his housemate. So I thought
this would be a critter I could keep in there that would have a natural food
source and wouldn't get eaten by the local wildlife.


Lydia

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