I'm after some easy to breed livebearers as a cheap source of live food. I want something that’s easy to look after and doesn’t require a heater. I'm sure DOC has made it illegal to sell those 'mosquito fish' (unsure of scientific name) so I'm not going to be able to find nay in a shop. Does anyone in the Hamilton area have a few I could have/buy? Someone suggested I go try catching some in the lake, but I'd prefer some that have been living in tanks (less likely to carry disease).

Does anyone have any better suggestions??

Yes David R,

Don't mention them on this forum.

I believe you have to have a permit to keep them, and it's illegal to keep,

breed or sell them or shift them from any water way,

or pond, or lake, in NZ.

If you catch them from a lake, you can not [legally] return them alive again to the water.

So,

Why not just get a whole lot of guppy females and breed them.

They aren't vicious like the gambusia, which by the way is their tax. name.

Alan

Thanks. I was thinking of platties or guppies, but thought I'd ask about the mosquitofish as they dont need a heater.

Most fish may try Gambusia(mosquitofish) once but after that they aren't so keen on them - infact they''ll do anything not to eat them. Guppy's as Alan said would be a preferable source, 1 heater also won't add upto much extra power usage.

you wont get a permit to kep them breed them or catch them full stop. Even the F&G guys who keep large fish arent allowed to harvest them as fish food.

$25 heater vs several thousand dollar fine. Which do you choose?

Are mosquito those fish you find at nearly every little stream around??

They are very common. They look like a grey guppy with a back dot in the middle of the fish.

As previously stated, it's illegal to move them from the area they live in. The idea is to stop them spreading further than they already have.

They are a very problematic fish. They get into a waterway and eat and kill everything else in it. Notice there aren't as many frogs about, good old Gambusia eat the tadpoles...

Thanks guys, I might just have to set up a small tank with some platties then...

The easiest live food I've ever produced are mosquito larve (not mosquito fish/fry).

Simply leave a bucket of water outside (somewhere out of the way) and leave. After the water goes stagnant you will have plenty of mosquito larvae swimming in there. Then you net them out, give 'em a wash under the tap and put them in your tank. Fish love them.

Just make sure you extract them before they turn into mosquitos or you'll have an itchy Summer.

platties r not good feeders, plus there colours r to nice to spoil in a mouth of a big fish, platties r alot harder to breed than guppies. i cant belive im saying this but if your gonna buy somthing for feeders use guppies, they are prolific breeders, and tend to give the most fry out of all livebeaers, i find theyr also hardier than platty. but if i were in your spot i would feed my big fish to my cat instead of livebeaers to a big fish