Mosquito fish in koi pond?

[Shannonpwns]

I have mosquito pods that popped up today, would mosquito fish be okay with small koi?

My county environmental health dept will give free mosquito fish to anyone with Mosquitos breeding on their property. But would they be okay with my koi? I looked it up, and from what I've read, they should be okay. They just breed fast, but I don't mind that to be honest. I just basically wanted more affirmation from someone who would know, rather than what I've read online. Thanks!

 

[VanDiesil]

Should be fine as long as the koi are not bigger than around 14" in length (carp species can eat small fish at times of the year, usually around spawning time).

 

[Waterbug]

Koi, large or small, don't attack Mosquitfish. At best a Koi might suck in a Mosquitfish when sucking in other food. Most Mosquitfish just get out of the vacuum cleaner's way.

 

[Shannonpwns]

Thanks so much! Then ill be glad to add them to my pond!

 

[VanDiesil]

Koi, large or small, don't attack Mosquitfish. At best a Koi might suck in a Mosquitfish when sucking in other food. Most Mosquitfish just get out of the vacuum cleaner's way.

From what I can gather, mosquito fish don't get very big at all. We don't have them over here (they look like guppies to me!) for pond use due to the climate. I have witnessed carp (Cyprinus carpio - which is the same as Koi carp just not the ornamental colouration) eating fish up to 3" in length, and literally hoovering up 1-2" long Roach (Rutilus rutilus) and carp fry. As Mosquito fish don't get much larger (from what I have seen) than that, there is always the risk of larger Koi eating them (same as they do tadpoles and other bugs in the water which can reach similar sizes). Cyprinus carpio will usually turn semi-carnivorous after spawning where their bodies require the nutrients that they are lacking in through the spawning process. We struggle to catch the Carp after spawning due to them becoming preoccupied on eating the 1-2" fry.

I have caught Carp by accident whilst using half a Gudgeon (Gobio gobio) as bait for Eels (Anguilla anguilla). I have even seen a friend catch a Carp fairly in the mouth whilst using a 4" Rapala lure whilst fishing for Pike!

 

[Waterbug]

As I said, Koi wouldn't mind eating a Mosquitofish if one happen to end up in their mouth. But actively pursuing, attacking and eating Mosquitofish? Nope.

But this is the internet after all, and if a single case of Koi, or anything close to Koi, can be suspected of eating fish at anytime, any place, even once, in the world then ipso facto Koi would be proven to eat all the Mosquitofish in a pond. That there are millions of ponds with Mosquitofish and Koi isn't a factor with internet logic.

The Mosquitofish are free, so why not add them? And in a week, a month or a year you'll know what thousands of other Koi keepers already know...Mosquitofish and Koi live together just fine. Many Koi keepers wished Koi ate Mosquitofish.

 

[Shannonpwns]

The Mosquitofish are free, so why not add them? And in a week, a month or a year you'll know what thousands of other Koi keepers already know...Mosquitofish and Koi live together just fine. Many Koi keepers wished Koi ate Mosquitofish.

My thoughts exactly...they're free, so might as well try. And they specifically give you males and females because they WANT the fish to breed.

I looked in the pond today and there's not very many at all anymore. So I hope the mosquito fish don't starve if they run out of Mosquitos, ill have to look into other diets for them. Hopefully theyll be simple and just eat the koi food haha.

My pond is NOT stagnant water btw, which is why I was so confused on why I even got the larvae. There's a waterfall, and a 4 air stone aerator that's rated for 2000 gallons, evenly dispersed around the dead spots in the pond. And my pond is only about 1200 gallons. There are a few spots like between rocks against the liner, that has standing water though. I'm still considering moving ALL of the rocks from the inside top shelf of the pond, I just can't move them myself and would have to bug my bf to get in the stinky pond to take them out.

 

[crsublette]

Actually, Water and VanDiesil are both correct.

Keep in mind that Waterbug and VanDiesil are talking about two different fish, eventhough they are both the same species.

VanDiesil is talking about the more wild carp while Waterbug is talking about the more domesticated carp.

Yes, there is a difference.


I have especially learned this from my Sunfish experience in controling goldfish population.

If you were to catch Sunfish as adults from the wild, then the Sunfish is going to act incredibly more aggressive toward your goldfish.

If you were to catch Sunfish while they're still "small pups", then the Sunfish do not act anywhere near as aggressive.

It is not much different than training particular carnivore fish, such as trout, to primarily feed on pellet food.

 

[Shannonpwns]

Thanks for that info!

So it turns out, what I thought was going to be mosquito larvae, wasn't LOL. It was brown algae sticking off the liner with little bubbles on the tips that looked exactly like them. It has now turned into green algae and some green hair algae at the waters edge, which I think looks quite nice...but ill have to do some research on it.

I called the city mosquito control place and told them it wasn't even mosquito larvae, but they wanted me to add the mosquito fish still anyways just in case, so I did. I'm not even sure how many they put in there because he was adding them by the net-full. So I can't be sure if they are being eaten by the koi or not. I still seem to have at least 20 in there. But they are so hard to see and they hide in the shadows. They are quite a nice little addition to my pond, and I like watching them! At one point I did find almost all of them in the filter box...alive...so I put them back in the pond and they haven't ventured in there again.

 

[Waterbug]

They can starve, or at least I think that's what happens. At any rate their population can definitely plunge. I've always assumed lack of food because of the conditions in those ponds. They will eat fish food, even big pellets. They rip at the pellets tearing off bits. If you actually want to feed them crushed flake food is good. I also sometimes grew mosquito larvae for them in buckets. I had some in a 30 gal pond, no Goldfish. It was cool to see them attack the larvae. The little ones would be hardly longer than the larvae. And when one got some food others would chase them trying to pull it out of their mouth and the one being chased did this thing where they jumped out of the water, but did some move to flick themselves just above the surface to maybe 6-12" away. Just an amazing show.

When San Jose gave me Mosquitofish the Biologist gave me 6 fish...for a 30,000 gal pond! I asked why only six and she said because then you're sure to have at least one female and one male. They did reproduce as advertised.

You can leave them in your skimmer, that's what they do for a living. They're so good at mosquito control because they go where the larvae go.