What to do when you have found mosquito fish/gambusia

[paul_r]

IS there anything that should be done when an every day person like you and me find mosquitofish in a waterway in NZ?

Should DOC be notified, can/will they do anything about it etc

Thanks very much

[I_am_Elmo]

In my completely amatuer opinion, I guess it'd never hurt to let them know in case they don't know about it but it seems just about every waterway in Auckland is infested and is probably a bit of a losing battle. But I could be wrong (and probably am)

[livingart]

i believe DAMNBUSIA (gambusia) can not be taken from a waterway, kept in a tank or sold.

DOC can destroy them in a small enclosed waterway ie pond, by electric fishing or poison, but these are basically impossible to eradicate in a flowing water situation

you can let your local DOC know just in case they don't know they're there

cheers

[paul_r]

i will look up the local DOC office tommorrow and let them know. I went for a wander with my net in a stream and caught some very colourful fish, just googled gambusia and realised these were the damn fish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ira]

Gambusia aren't colorful. :-?

[paul_r]

if you google a pic of "male mosquito fish" you will find a colorful one

[jayci]

problem with common names. There are more than one type of mosquito fish. Gambusia are very plain and small.

You may have wild guppies.

[paul_r]

they look almost exactly like this - with a little bit more colour

[snookie]

they look like Endlers live bearers ,But they wouldnt be surely ?? :-?

[livingart]

probably wild guppies, how warms the water?

[paul_r]

didnt have a thermometer, however was very warm, at a guess around the 30s.

[evilknieval69]

Gambusia are cold water fish arent they? id say they are Wild guppies

[paul_r]

judging by their behaviour - i introduced a female and the males were attacking her eyes and fins etc and were definatly not trying to have sex with her like my male guppies (i then killed the female incase there was a chance she had been inpregnated)

Plus where i got them from the females body shapes look very much like gambusia, had a bit of a look up on them last night.

[I_am_Elmo]

Gambusia can be cold or warm water and I'm pretty sure they can even handle salt. They are very very hardy, that's why they take hold of waterways so savagely

[evilknieval69]

hmmmmm, well could be either i guess. Better to be safe, rather than sorry, so id destroy them ASAP and then maybe you could even ask DOC to identify them (take the Bodys into them or something?) and if they decide they arent Gambusia then go get more

[carla]

So what happened since then?

[A.PROPHECY]

those aint gambusia difintly ugly guppys tho

[purplecatfish]

Yep. They're wild guppies. Definitely not Gambusia, we've got them at work.

No one can make us get rid of the Gambusia even though we would be willing to spend the money to do so but it would cost us thousands of dollars in license fees alone (DOC etc) to release native fish as their replacement for mosquito control. Its ridiculous that government fees are making it too expensive to get rid of an unwanted organism.

[firenzenz]

See if you can get some formalin from a local pharmacy, tell them what it is for, and send a preserved sample(s) to DOC if you are so inclined. That would be the best way they could get an ID. Does sort of look like a wild guppy though.