So... mosquitoes...

[Martin]

Hey gang!

I live down in the Houston area and we always have a huge mosquito problem every year.  Unfortunately, due to the ever increasingly hot summers, more and more insects are driven into our garages and homes trying to escape the heat.  I'm a bit concerned as all of my tanks are open (no lid) as I usually grow plants out the top riparium-style.  This raises the risk mosquitos trying to lay eggs in my tanks.  Of particular concern are my shrimp tanks as there are no fish that could serve as predators to the mosquitos and/or larva.

Have any of you had to deal with such an issue, and what did you do?

Martin

[Odd Duck]

Also in Texas so I face similar mosquito issues.  I try to keep fish in every tank, even if it’s a single male guppy or endler so they will keep any mosquito larvae eaten.  I’ve also been going to try some more of the micro-rasboras from Boraras genus in some of my smaller tanks.  These are (google will help me spell all these right): chilis (brigittae), strawberries (naevus), exclamation point (urophthalmoides), dwarf (maculatus), phoenix (merah), and finally the three-spotted dwarf (micros).  I already had chilis in a couple tanks (planning to add more to my 100 G nanofish (and bottom feeders) tank and I’ve got a pair of 6 G tanks where I want to do strawberries and exclamation points.  I have a 2 G and a 3 G that are shrimp only but no mosquitos have tried to hit them yet.  The 2G has great circulation and the 3G has a very snug lid in a bathroom with no window and the door mostly kept shut.

I think the Boraras are small enough they shouldn’t hit shrimplets too bad as long as there are plenty of hiding places available for the shrimplets.  Most tend to hang out fairly high in the tank, but they will venture lower, especially in a shallow tank.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Celestial pearl danios are another fairly shrimplet safe fish. Pseudomugil rainbows also have very small mouths and that’s a key when it comes to fish that can kill mosquitoes and not shrimp.

[Martin]

Thanks for the input guys.  Unfortunately, all of my shrimp tanks were just started not long ago, so all of the colonies are not well-established/stable yet.  I'm concerned that the addition of any fish will end up with significant casualties, especially since I float guppy grass in them and they love to play near the surface of the water because of it.  In the interim, I bought a large cut of mosquito netting off Amazon.  Fortunately all 3 of my tanks are side by side, so I plan to just drape the netting over the top of them all until the risk dies down.  The other tanks have fish in them, so I somewhat welcome the live feeding if any mosquitoes dare.

[ange]

On 7/18/2024 at 10:23 PM, Martin said:

Thanks for the input guys.  Unfortunately, all of my shrimp tanks were just started not long ago, so all of the colonies are not well-established/stable yet.  I'm concerned that the addition of any fish will end up with significant casualties, especially since I float guppy grass in them and they love to play near the surface of the water because of it.  In the interim, I bought a large cut of mosquito netting off Amazon.  Fortunately all 3 of my tanks are side by side, so I plan to just drape the netting over the top of them all until the risk dies down.  The other tanks have fish in them, so I somewhat welcome the live feeding if any mosquitoes dare.

I've used mosquito dunks to great success with many fish and even Caridina shrimp. The bacteria subspecies that is the active ingredient in mosquito dunks explicitly targets mosquito larvae and I have yet to see an organism (including plants) harmed by it. In my greenhouse I keep them in the sumps and other places where there aren't fish, since mosquitoes always find a way.

[PluckyD]

On 7/19/2024 at 10:42 AM, ange said:

I've used mosquito dunks to great success

I second mosquito dunks/bits, but also wouldn’t hesitate to add certain nano fish as recommended to a new shrimp colony, assuming you have plant coverage. I would avoid guppies because they do hunt shrimp more it seems, but I have had no issues with Medaka rice fish, emerald rasboras, CPDs, dwarf rainbows, even certain bettas and gouramis (personality specific), and many others of species already mentioned. Good luck.

[beastie]

Let me piggyback on this. I have a water jug outside. Millions of larvae since I needed to put some wood in to soak and couldnt close the lid.

I kept taking them out, feeding them to my fish, i moved a water bug from my pond that has many of them to the jug to help hunt them. But today i checked and so many of these hatched. I quickly closed the water jug and now am contemplating what to do next. I do not want to open it to let them out. Will they starve? How long do i need to keep it closed?

 

[johnnyxxl]

Most insects are kinda short lived with no food.  Per a quick Google search most likely 5 days no food.

[AdamS]

Or shake the container…. But you may have more coming out of the water at later stages.

[beastie]

On 7/25/2024 at 11:27 PM, AdamS said:

Or shake the container…. But you may have more coming out of the water at later stages.

I was too tired yesterday to remember the word barrel. I have a water barrel. 200 liter, the usual garden one 

No shaking that 🙂 I will wait, if week is what it takes for this batch to go away, I simply dont have to open it for a month and should be good, or I can drain it from the bottom and will see

 

Thank you

[Martin]

Thanks for the replies all,

Welp, seems I was too late but I may have gotten off easy.  By the time the mosquito netting arrived, I had already found larvae in 2 of the 3 shrimp tanks.  I quickly grabbed a turkey baster and sucked them out and fed them to the other tanks.  The tanks are all 20g longs with a lot of guppy grass and creeping jennies so I don't know how many I missed.  I only saw about 5-6 in each tank, which I thought was odd.  Regardless the mosquito situation has calmed down in the house, so I'm cautiously watching for pupal stages.  We shall see.

On 7/25/2024 at 2:34 PM, beastie said:

Let me piggyback on this. I have a water jug outside. Millions of larvae since I needed to put some wood in to soak and couldnt close the lid.

I kept taking them out, feeding them to my fish, i moved a water bug from my pond that has many of them to the jug to help hunt them. But today i checked and so many of these hatched. I quickly closed the water jug and now am contemplating what to do next. I do not want to open it to let them out. Will they starve? How long do i need to keep it closed?

 

I had this EXACT issue soaking wood myself!  I threw the lid on and gave it a good shake to stun/drown any adults then quickly poured a cup of bleach in the bucket and closed it off.  Left it in the Texas heat for a few days and everything was dead.

Edited July 27 by Martin