concerning mosquitos

[Chris]

Greetings all...

I have a question that has long bothered me about mosquitoes and aquaculture.

 

Mossies carry disease, right?  So shouldn't care be taken, such as installing proper netting, in order to keep them from becoming fish food and ultimately transmitting any diseases or parasites to humans?

 

Here in the sub-tropics we get a lot of mosquitoes, and someone once told me that, with regards to raising fish as food stock, the fish were susceptible to catching disease by eating mosquito larvae.  Obviously I'd like to say that that was a bunch of hooey, but I'd like definitive answers from an expert so I'll know how to plan.

 

Chris

 

 

[The Vicenty's]

WE use  Guppies (Poecilia reticulata) to control the mosquitoes and FROGS we let them live in our tanks they wont affect the production

[Jim Hall]

Watching the news on 41 deaths related to West Nile Virus, Aquapons need to be pretty vigilant on carrying for their water. A lot of people are still traveling that can be exposed and carry it back or to other locations.

[TCLynx]

I'm using Gambusia affinis in my troughs and any tanks that don't have bigger fish.  Often called mosquito fish.  I recommend you use whatever is most local/native mosquito fish to your region to eat mosquito larva that might hatch in any of your still waters.

If you have stagnant waters around that you can't put fish in, then get mosquito dunks to give the larva a belly ach and keep them from hatching out to reproduce.

[Patti Fanizza]

I have four 8'x4' troughs connected to a 300 gallon tank.  I'd like to get some mosquito fish to control the mosquito population.  About how many fish should I put in each trough?  

[TCLynx]

The Gambusia affins breed quickly in warm water.  I've only put about ten fish in each of my troughs and the females almost immediately seem to be dropping babies as soon as they get more space in my currently very warm water.

Of course if you have ample aeration in your troughs, mosquitoes should have difficulty laying their eggs so the mosquito larva population in the troughs shouldn't be big.  Now if you are running some troughs as pond plant beds with minimal aeration, then mosquito fish or some sort of fish should definitely be added to the troughs.  At the old place I had some minnows and a random bluegill in my pond plant trough.