Population Control: Guppies
David
Thailand.
I have several 150 gal. concrete tanks around (outside) my house for
mosquito control. I am experimenting with several species of
"mosquito fish"; however, plain old mundane guppies seem to work the
best. But, (as I'm sure everone in this NG knows better than I),
guppies leave a rabbit's reputation in the dustbin.
My old acquaintance, NetMax, has suggested that I use bettas. Well,
that is a coincidence. I actually already did try my favorite crown
betta. I wanted to do him a big favor and give him a big pond. He
died. From the very first he appeared scared and huddled up against
the wall in the plants. I kept thinking that this would pass and that
he would become accustomed. But after a week of not eating, (at least
not observably), he was gone. Later, some of the locals told me that
I shouldn't put bettas in a large tank -- they like small volumes of
water. Well, I really don't know if this is true, and I realize that
there could have been many other causes. I'm just relating this
incident in case anyone has any thoughts.
But what I really need to know, and my question to the group is, "what
is the best method of guppy population control?"
I will appreciate any and all opinions.
Best regards,
David
Chip
>
> But what I really need to know, and my question to the group is, "what
> is the best method of guppy population control?"
>
>
Vasectomies? Dump in some birth control pills? Feel free to ignore all
the above.
BTW, isn't more guppies eating more mosquitoes better?
Chip
Dan
Indeed an outside tank/pond, etc. stocked with fish will help to
control mosquitoes. Mosquito fish get their name from this quality,
but as you've found, guppies are also excellent at controlling
mosquitoes, as are many & most other fish. Frankly, mosquito larvae
are a delicacy to fish. Basically, whatever fish will live in your
ponds will eat mosquito larvae voraciously.
Personally, I used to keep several small outdoor ponds. When I say
small, that's just what I mean; one is roughly 100g US, more or less,
& the others were simply 1/2 whiskey barrels, about 25g US if filled
to the brim. In the spring, here in the mid-Atlantic U.S. states
temperate climate, I would wait until I saw mosquito larvae in the
water before adding a few common goldfish to the ponds. That was
always a good first feeding for the goldfish & got them used to
searching for their own food among the plants in the pond.
It may sound like I'm going off on a tangent, but what I'm saying is
that any fish that you put in your pond will love eating mosquito
larvae, Bettas included. As far as controlling the guppy population
goes, the rule of 'big fish eats little fish' always works. Simply,
any tropical fish that will live in the waters of Thailand and is big
enough for a guppy or guppy fry to fit in its mouth to be eaten, will
fit the bill to control the guppy population, but naturally your don't
want to get fish that will get big & totally wipe out the guppies.
Sorry to hear about the loss of your betta. Being that Bettas are
native to your part of the world, I would guess that there might be a
problem with the water in your concrete ponds. Concrete can have big
effects on the water chemistry. I'm just guessing, but perhaps your
Betta went through dramatic water chemistry changes, going from your
indoor tank to the outdoor concrete pool. Checking the water
parameters of the pool might help uncover the reason for the bettas
death. Slowly introducing any new fish to your ponds might help them
to adapt to the new environment better. Put the new fish in a bag
with the top rolled down, or container that will float on the
surface. Wait about 10 or 15 minutes & add a cup of water from the
pond to the bag. Do this 2 or 3 more times over the same time span to
help gradually introduce the new fish to the different water
chemistry.
At the same time I wonder about your bettas death because in general
they are pretty tough fish & good survivors. It could be that the
water in your ponds is extremely alkaline due to the concrete. Some
simple water tests of you ponds will shed some light on that.
javadan
PS: one Betta in a 150g US pond with guppies & guppy fry to pick at,
as well as a supply of mosquito larvae sounds like a idyllic situation
for a betta. :)
Dan
hopefully I made my point.
javadan
>
> - Show quoted text -
Daniel Morrow
Leaving it to themselves? My bedroom aquarium populated with fancy
guppies and kuhli loaches for example is left to themselves, I haven't
removed any of them for years now and they are still doing great. It's a
15 gallon aquarium that has a guestimate of maybe 70 fancy guppies. The
adults probably eat the fry nowadays because there are so many, which is
one form of self population control promoting just leaving them alone.
There is 2 or 3 amazon sword plants in there and some hornwort and MAYBE
some java moss (I think it died off unfortunately). I use one bio-wheel
pro 60 on it and a small hagen fluval msf 1 external canister filter. I
have sponge prefilters on both of those filter's intakes and they seem
to need to be changed (the sponge prefilters) every 3 or less days
probably lending question to the population to some extent I guess.
Anyways - as they say - just my 2 cents worth. Good luck and later!
> I will appreciate any and all opinions.
>
> Best regards,
> David
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> Version: 8.5.406 / Virus Database: 270.13.48/2291 - Release Date: 08/08/09 18:17:00
>
>
NetMax
lot by individual. Going from a small container to a pond will be
tramautic for some of them. Some adapt, some don't and some kisk out
to explore right away. Female Bettas might bring you more luck.
NetMax
David
Dan: Glad to hear that you have personally had success with mosquito
fish. They have certainly worked for me. This place was heavily
infested when I moved in, but after a few weeks the mozzies have been
depleted by probably 80-90%. Regarding the effect of concrete on
water chemistry, I fully agree with you. In this particular case
though, these tanks have been weathering and rain-soaking for years
now, usually half full of decaying leaves, (thus acidic), so I think
that this was probably not the problem with my betta. Instead, I
think it was most likely, as NetMax suggested, that maybe he just
couldn't adjust to his new bigwater environment. (He was perfectly
happy for over a year in his two-liter jug!)
Daniel: I am impressed by your success with that level of fish load.
You are certainly doing something right with your filtration. Around
here, virtually every house has an outdoor tank, or several, and I've
*never* seen a filter! Things seem to perk along with lots of plants
and an occasional water renewal. And there must be some level of self-
population control going on, like you have indicated. But basically,
people just don't get too concerned. But *I* do get concerned, so
that is the reason that I want to keep the population down, before it
bio-overloads and self-destructs. At least until I learn more.
NetMax: I bought some female bettas today -- this will be an
interesting experiment!
Thanks again, guys.
If anyone else has any relevant observations, I'd be happy to hear
them.
David
Justis Chamberlain
Justin
I'd recommend starting off on all new fish. Get some Koi.Which is realated to the goldfish(of course koi don't breed a lot).
Daniel Morrow
David wrote:
> Thank you for your replies, folks -- your perspectives are helpful.
>
> Dan: Glad to hear that you have personally had success with mosquito
> fish. They have certainly worked for me. This place was heavily
> infested when I moved in, but after a few weeks the mozzies have been
> depleted by probably 80-90%. Regarding the effect of concrete on
> water chemistry, I fully agree with you. In this particular case
> though, these tanks have been weathering and rain-soaking for years
> now, usually half full of decaying leaves, (thus acidic), so I think
> that this was probably not the problem with my betta. Instead, I
> think it was most likely, as NetMax suggested, that maybe he just
> couldn't adjust to his new bigwater environment. (He was perfectly
> happy for over a year in his two-liter jug!)
>
> Daniel: I am impressed by your success with that level of fish load.
> You are certainly doing something right with your filtration
Undoubtedly my success I attribute to my excellent bio-logical
filtration (the bio-wheel pro 60). For one thing my only other
filtration (I guess it's primarily mechanical with these canister
filters, especially since I regularly hose them out with the coldest
water that comes out of my backyard tap faucet water (garden hose)) is
the canister filters, and they don't get cleaned regularly enough to
prevent some drop in water movement rate most of the time. My hypothesis
is that with excellent enough bio-logical filtration the aquarium never
bio-overloads / self-destructs. Good luck all and later!
Altum
trick. Smaller ones like jewel cichlids or kribensis will generally
no eat the adults. Of course, in an outdoor habitat you do run the
risk of a cichlid population explosion.
I've kept bettas in large tanks and they've done fine. I bet the
females you bought work out fine.
--Altum
LM
enough food, they won't proliferate (or at least the fry would be
eaten up by the adults??)
I would think plain goldfish would work too... and they don't
proliferate as fast...
complete off-topic here..
My grandma used to have several of these deep, huge, huge concrete..
er.. holding tank/concrete structure/whatever that was about the size
of a good-sized swimming pool. (they had a factory on site, so at one
point it was used to store huge amount of raw material, I think..).
Every summer, it would get infested with mosquito larvae since it was
stagnant water. I mean, the surface would be edge-to-edge filled with
mosquito larvae (gross!) that the surface is not smooth, but looks
like sandpaper. we used to scoop them out using one of those pool
cleaning nets (the large square one with a semi-taut fine net across
it) and then dump it into one of the tanks that had lots and lots of
koi. Koi went nuts like hungry pirhanas and was fun to watch.
delicacy for them. none of the large tanks that had koi had
noticeable population of larvae in them... koi were huge.. some
probably were good 30yr old! they just lived in that muck pretty much
with zero maintenance. sort of had its own ecosystem when it's that
size... THey didn't even add water, just rain was enough to keep the
"tank" full of water. I remember asking about them, and she said
someone dumped few fish in there long ago, and it's proliferated :-P
murky water so we could barely see much, but i remember them being
very large.
linda
Tynk
On Aug 11, 11:09 am, Altum <Pt.al...@gmail.com> wrote:
> A lot of fish eat baby guppies. Just about any cichlid will do the
> trick. Smaller ones like jewel cichlids or kribensis will generally
> no eat the adults. Of course, in an outdoor habitat you do run the
> risk of a cichlid population explosion.
>
> I've kept bettas in large tanks and they've done fine. I bet the
> females you bought work out fine.
>
> --Altum
>
When I have any type of live bearer in my tanks, I will usually have
either a male, or several female bettas in it so that a population
problem doesn't occur.
The Angel tank would never see a population problem either, lol.