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My ponds are the mosquito breeding ground and I'm getting eaten alive LOL! I am thinking about putting some fish in the ponds. Carp scare me...so I am thinking about getting these little mosquito fish. Anyone have experience with them. OR any recommendations for small freshwater fish that may be suitable for a small pond?
How large are your ponds? We had the same problem. We wanted Koi but the neighborhood cats kept having them for a snack. (Our cat was too nice to do that.)
We finally started using plain old bleach. Since they were fairly small we also hosed them out every once in a while and refilled them.
Not too keen on using bleach. My pond is hippified and I actually lined it with natural clay (sodium bentonite). I dug it myself too. It's pretty small and only holds maybe 20 gallons...30 gallons?
It's a 2-level with one level I designed to be a bog filter. It doesn't work exactly as I had planned, but birds don't seem to be afraid of it anymore. Bleach is kind of out of the question. I have a bunch of plants in the pond and I suspect bleach might kill them. I also have two waterlilies with what I'm pretty sure are frog/toad eggs under them.
I'm excited to finally be a mother! Even though it's just a frog/toad mother. I don't want to kill the little guys.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Frogs should be eating them. My pond is 3'x6' x 2' deep. The first thing that helps is steadily running water with a waterfall to keep the surface
broken, it slows them down from laying eggs. I also have put in "feeder" goldfish that cost about 20 cents each. After a few years they are 6-8" long and I've lost a few to herons and raccoons, but now I have netting over it and haven't had any trouble.
"Mosquito fish" might not make it through a cold winter, my goldfish have survived d 3" thick ice on top.
The easiest way to deal with mosquitos in ponds is to use BT mosquito dunks. You just toss as many donuts as the package recommends into the water and it releases a bacteria (Bacillus thuringiensis) which targets mosquito larvae. They work like a charm. For smaller water gardens like those grown in pots, you can just break off a small chunk and throw it in. I get them at home improvement stores in the garden area. If you can't find them just ask for mosquito dunks.
Goldfish are dirty little critters. Aquarists recommend one goldfish for 20 gallons and then 10 more gallons for each additional goldfish. I'm guessing the same holds true for outdoor ponds. You might have some luck asking the folks in the Fish CD forum too.
Thanks guys. I'm going to try the mosquito dunks and then a diverter to try to get some water flowing in the stagnant side of the pond. I think I may also add a guppy or two.
yes with goldfish youd probably get away with 2 small feeder commets (they will eventually outgrow your pond depdning on its shape, but once they reach 6-8 inches you coudl easily resell them and buy a couple more feeders...
comets (feeder fish are usually commets) alsng with shubunkin and other "torpedo" shaped godlfish need lenght.
where as the "round' goldfish (fantails ect) need more depth...but you do need 20 gals for 1 goldfish and 10 per additional as aminimum, and you still will need a very good filter.
forget about koi, there much too big for your pond.
mosqitoe fish are a great choice IF your climet is good for them, they are an african fish and officially "tropicals" so need 68-74 year round minimum. a pond heater or an indoor holding tank for the winter might be nessicary but they are very good at what they do...
however they will also make a very nice meal for any frogs in the pond too.
instead for you id suggest encoraging more frogs/toads) place frog houses (over turned pots ect) around the pond and plenty of plants, having a bog filter will help too...
make sure youve got a small bubbler at the minimum to help break up suface tension (skeeters dont like moving water) and you can buy special dunks that are fish/amphibian safe that might be worth adding.
the frogs should help too but skeeters are particularly bad this year.
Not too keen on using bleach. I have a bunch of plants in the pond and I suspect bleach might kill them.
Yeah, you cannot use bleach with plants. I should have asked for more info on what kind of pond you had.
We went to bleach and the hose out system because the county came around regularly and sprayed all the ponds/stagnant pools of water in our area with who knows what. I didn't like him coming onto the property and spraying around our kids and animals. For us the bleach was the lesser of two evils for the type of ponds we had.
yes with goldfish youd probably get away with 2 small feeder commets (they will eventually outgrow your pond depdning on its shape, but once they reach 6-8 inches you coudl easily resell them and buy a couple more feeders...
comets (feeder fish are usually commets) alsng with shubunkin and other "torpedo" shaped godlfish need lenght.
where as the "round' goldfish (fantails ect) need more depth...but you do need 20 gals for 1 goldfish and 10 per additional as aminimum, and you still will need a very good filter.
forget about koi, there much too big for your pond.
mosqitoe fish are a great choice IF your climet is good for them, they are an african fish and officially "tropicals" so need 68-74 year round minimum. a pond heater or an indoor holding tank for the winter might be nessicary but they are very good at what they do...
however they will also make a very nice meal for any frogs in the pond too.
instead for you id suggest encoraging more frogs/toads) place frog houses (over turned pots ect) around the pond and plenty of plants, having a bog filter will help too...
make sure youve got a small bubbler at the minimum to help break up suface tension (skeeters dont like moving water) and you can buy special dunks that are fish/amphibian safe that might be worth adding.
the frogs should help too but skeeters are particularly bad this year.
Hi Foxy, you little wench, you! It turns out there are some mosquito fish native to the US...and they overwinter. The only problem is that the pet stores in my area don't seem to carry those fish. I found an online store, but I'd have to make a minimum purchase of fish...but I'm going to do it anyway. I can probably give some of the fish away... I only need maybe 4 of them...but I have to buy like 20.
Thanks for the info about the "bubbler." I know I needed something for that part of the pond, but L if I knew what it was called. I do have a bog filter. I designed the pond like swimming pond/bio pool (you can read about these if you're interested). So there's a bog area with plants and I siphon the water from the main section into that area. My design is not perfect, but I'm learning a lot about what to do with a bigger pond. I have the water lilies in the non-bog part of the pond. I also have hornwort and a couple of other native plants.
You know, I did have a frog/toad house and I had one toad...but once I put in the pond, my frog/toad decided it was time to call friends! There are three of them. I still haven't seen them, but they "court" every night. I went out to clean off the lilypads and there are what I believe are eggs underneath some of them!
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