Fish mosquito fish questions?

Question

Howdy,

I have a bunch of crawdads that I caught a while back in the summer. I got a creek/ditch near my house that I caught them in. (really gross creek by the way) But the creek also has many mosquitofish. millions probably! But I have a 5.5 gallon with a good filter that I would love to fill to the max! I want to fill with mosquitofish. I see that robyn mentioned that she had 10 gallon plastic tubs with like 100. I want to know if I could keep say, 30 in there and have them stay alive. I will little by little feed a few to my crawdads occasionally. I am not into "proper fish care" in a case like this because there are so many that If a few die, I will give them 2 the crawdads. So can they live for a while?

By the way I want no shiot about 1" per gallon cause I have proved that rule wrong.

I had 13 mosquito fish in the 5.5 gallon (no filter no nothing) for a month before I moved them 2 my pond (we no longer own a pond though)

So basicly I want like a minature feeder tank.

Answer 1

well, i would say that 10 would be the limit w/o a filter or bubbler. but with a filter and bubbler, you could go to 30, or 40 if you're lucky.

Answer 2

What Gina said is what i do. I have mosqito fish in it and i occasionally feed them to my bigger fish. I just have a bubbler in there. Something simple!

Answer 3

You'd be better off getting a big rubbermaid tub, like 30 gallons and filling it with 30-50 Mosquito fish. Leave it outside where mosquitoes will drop off their eggs to hatch and then the fish will eat the larvae. You will literally have to do nothing other than change out 30% or so of the water every other week to remove excess ammonia and nitrites.

Remember the fish are live animals too so have a little respect for them, even if they are just food for the crawdads.

Answer 4

What you've proved is that the mosquito fish can live in very harsh conditions that is likely to kill more delicate fish!  A filter will greatly improve the living conditions for the fish.  If you were a mosquito fish would you want to live in that "really gross creek?"

Of course you can do it.  No one will report you to the humane society for cruelty to animals!  I would suggest you put fewer fish in the tank since you have easy access to the source of the fish, the really gross creek!