Questions On My New Fishies

[ally86ozzy]

I just got mosquito fish today (one boy one girl) and i think my girl one is pregnant. can someone show me some pics of pregnant mosquito fish? also, can the mosquito fish live with my male guppy? plz answer! i need to put them in a tank soon!

P.S. How big a tank do they need? 2 gallons? 5 gallons? 10 gallons?

 

[Colin_T]

Female Gambusia are just about always pregnant. They are usually fatter than the males and this is from the young developing inside them.
They should not be kept with guppies because they are fin nippers and might kill the guppy. You can keep them in tiny tanks (2-3gallon) but if you want the young to survive they need a bit of room and lots of plants. They are highly predatory and will take any fry they see.

 

[Butch]

The female are much bigger than male as the females are known to reached up to 3 inch long when mature. Don't put them with the guppies as they will eat their fins off. And watch the male mosquitofish, make sure give him some plants to hide into from the female which might pick on or kill him. They are very much hardy than the guppies. 5gal tank or better 10gal will give the mosquitofish behaving naturally.

 

[ally86ozzy]

i put them in my biggest tank (10 gallon) and one i call Bottom Feeder (boy) cuz he eats algae of plastic plants and the other is Bubbles (gurl) cuz she likes to hide behind the thing that air bubbles come out of (wut is that called?) . Is that stuff normal? Also, my tank has a light but its lighted best on th right side and thats the side the fish tend to stay on. Is THAT normal? also, i only hav two real plants (elodea) and like 3 plastic plants, but i hav many hiding places (fake log, shells, slate set up against side of tank, a rock cave thing my bro made). WOuld fry be able to stay away from their parents by hiding in these? also r fry smart enuf to stay away from the filter, cuz im not sure if it could suck them up (my mosquito fish r small and they havnt been sucked up but still fry r smaller). And how many fry can be in a 2 gallon tank? plz help!


P.S. Guppies and mollies can cross breed, right? cuz i want a gurl molly for my lonly guy guppy. I hear they r cute!


TY in advance!

 

[kribensis12]

Please dont speak in chat speak! It really gets on my nerves, unless it was like a AIM convo. Eating algea and messing with bubbles are normal behaviours. Being on one side of the tank either means one side is warmer, or they just prefer one side. The fry might make it. You could probably put 10 fry in a 2 gallon tnak temporarly, but you would need something like atleast a 10 to grow out. Yes mollies and guppies can interbreed. But, it isnt common at all. I have ( had) a golly ( guppy/molly cross), and when i posted pics on here, only half of the forum belived me, the other half said it wasnt a golly. I have only ever heard of one other person on this forum that has succsefully crossbred them, but then they died. So, most likely your molly is pregnant from your store, and the guppy probably wont impregnate her, and if he does, she most likely wont become pregnant.

 

[Butch]

Im on the side who's don't believe that Krib's "golly" is really golly, it was just a runt silver lyretail molly with poor genetics. The sciencists in the labs have been more successful when they crossed guppy to the mollies, than the average fish keepers.

As for breeding the mosquitofish, you need lots of java moss or any plants if you want some fry. The parents are cannibals, will gladly eat their own offspring if left in the tank with adults. I have much successes with outdoor tubs when I put the mosquitofish outside during summer. Or have to use breeding trap for the female that is about to giving birth.

 

[kribensis12]

Like i said beofre, belive what you want to belive, i know its a golly, but anywho. Am i right in thinking that Mosquitofish are like Pike guppies and have a chemical that there brain lets off, making them un able to eat until there done giving birth?

 

[freddythefish]

Well basically what they said is right (ignoring the stuff about the molly) and so follow their advice mate!

 

[Butch]

No the mosquitofish don't turn their brain off during giving birth like pike livebearers, they always thinking about more food. I've been raising mosquitofish for more than three years and they are wicked. I have six different strains of mosquitofish. (Albino gambusia, Innes gambusia, Western gambusia, Eastern gambusia, Gold form heterandria formosa and normal heterandria formosa).

There are many fish called mosquitofish. Gambusia and heterandria formosa are commonly called mosquitofish. Your mosquitofish are Western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) or Eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki).

 

[ally86ozzy]

First of all i can speak however i want its a free country! second of all i saw that pic of the golly and i think its real ! and i am gona try to breed my guppy and a molly so ! lol. thanks for the advice tho, tho. also, do you know wut other types of plants mosquitofish will eat (besides elodea)? and will guppies eat any types of plants?


Thanks! -ally86ozzy


P.S. I think Bubbles is pregnant! her gravid spot is darker than yesterday and her tummy is a little bigger. ill try to get pics!

 

[ally86ozzy]

The female are much bigger than male as the females are known to reached up to 3 inch long when mature. Don't put them with the guppies as they will eat their fins off. And watch the male mosquitofish, make sure give him some plants to hide into from the female which might pick on or kill him. They are very much hardy than the guppies. 5gal tank or better 10gal will give the mosquitofish behaving naturally.

This is kinda weird cuz my male mosquito fish usually picks on my female. weird. is THAT normal?!?!

 

[Butch]

Yeah its normal, the male livebearers are always horny but the female mosquitofish often chase the male away so I think you should get another female if the male still want to live.

I don't think Krib's golly is real because it was born in poor management enviroment. But make sure you get a young virgin female molly and a young male guppy. Otherwise it would be long project to get some gollies if you just chucked molly and guppies in the same tank as the female mollies are known to stored the sperm pockets for 6 months to fertilized a batch per a month. By 6 month the molly is out of sperm but it is very tricky if she is really out of sperm.

As for plants, the mosquitofish are not plant eaters, they are more meat eaters (therefore its name), through mosquitofish are not picky eaters. Guppy will eat algae but not plants. Mosquitofish love freeze dried bloodworms or frozen bloodworms so much.

 

[ally86ozzy]

my mosquitofish eat elodea. thats a plant. oh and 2 make gollies does my guppy hav to be young? if so, they i cant make them, cuz my guppy is many months old. also do mosquitofish fry eat anything special? if i get another female mosquitofish, wont it get pregnante? and wont it bug the male one too? Ugh..... Plz answer. Thanks.

 

[dunchp]

Can I just check, are you talking about a Heterandria formosa mosquitofish? or a Gambusia mosquitofish?

 

[Butch]

Dunchp, her mosquitofish is Gambusia species, not heterandria species.

Gambusia aint picky eaters, they will eat elodea but these fish are specialized for eating insects and young fry not plants, what you feed to your mosquitofish.

As for golly, yeah you need to get a really young female molly (say around 6 weeks old) that's raised separated from its siblings. And put a young male guppy with the young molly. But then sometimes the male guppy won't mate with the female molly or the female molly don't accept the guppy for its mate. Again the golly are much rare hybrids. Many people give up because it is longest project, poor management, poor knowledge about the livebearers and poor records. Thats why their experiment failed.

Yeah you need another female, she is mostly likely already pregnant so don't worry about it. The mosquitofish always chasing each other all time, no matter what the gender is.

Mosquitofish fry don't need any special food, just crushed flakes or newly hatched brine shrimp but then they are not picky eaters.