I was in middelburg the other weekend. went fishing with my brother. It was damn cold there next to the water. We caught some colourless critters that look like they could be guppies that in my opinion have reverted back to no fancy colours. no fancy big tails either. Do any of you know if guppies in the wild had any colour. have been loking a bit on the net bt could not find anything. In anycase I had frosted there two or three mornings in a row. The water was cold. i didnt have my thermometer but it wasnt pleasant to walk in. If these are guppies - then they have addapted quite well to a highveld river!.
I know the pic is not clear and it is from the top.. I dont seem to be able to get the cellphone to take the pics i could with my old pentax. I have some of them fihies here at home to try and take some more pics.. They are quite happy in the tank. Come to think of it - for some of them a tank would be like 5Star living. PLenty food. Stable temperature. no freezing at night and warm baked pools in daytime.
They could be guppies or maybe mosquito fish, both have been introduced to our water ways and survive cold water quite easily. Just a heads up. The plant that you are keeping them with is Elodea densa which is a declared weed in most of the world
yip i know of the plant. i kept it cause it was in their area. Just kept the things as it was in the river (except for the temperature and my feeding) the first pic was taken in the cooler box next to the river. Did you know that the E. densa makes good compost? As kid we used to collect sheets of it and Salvinia on the shores of Kariba and used it in the veggie garden.
Mosquito Fish or Dwasf Top Minnow Heterandria formosa AGASSIZ, 1853 It is a hardy fish capable of tolerating a temporary drop in water temperature to 15 deg C (the preferred temp being 20-24 deg C) the Mosquito Fish is well suited even to small and shallow aquariums. Plant food should never be omitted from its diet. They love aquariums plentifully supplied with plants and occasionally exposed to sunlight. Harder water with neutral to slightly alkaline reactions is suitable. Addition of aquarium salt to the water improves the well being of the fish. Extracted from Hamlyn colour guides Tropical Aquarium Fishes
Mosquito Fish Gambusia affinis distrobution southeastern United States, Texas and northern Mexico Length male up to 4cm female to 6.5cm tank length 60cm diet worms, crustaceans, insects, plant matter, dried food water temp 18 - 20 deg C to be kept in a species tank belongs to the family POECILIIDAE Extracted from Tropical Aquarium Fishes by Dick Mills & Dr. Gwynne Vevers
the common name (in this case "mosquito fish" )is often given to several different plants or animals. thats one verry good reason not to use common names but use scientific names. the scientific names should only refer to one specifc. just to cofuse things more the same plant or animal can have sveral different comon names in different areas. A good example of this is the tree Terminalia sericea. In SA alone it has several common names. the ones i can remember is: Vaalbos, Vaalboom, Sand geelhout, kalahari geelhout, Silver Terminalia, Mangwe.. In malawi it is sometimes called ebony number 3. Scientific names can change ... there are a set of rules on how names must be given. so as to try and limit confusion. Back to the fihies - i will lookup th edifferent names etc until i get a pic and description that is like the fish i am looking for. just a quick look at the two names you supplied and the distribution - i looks like the one is from the US and the other from Japan or thereabout. So it could be two totally differentr fish with the same common name. "Heterandria formosa" ( Formsa = a mountain in Japan so i assume this was described from a locality in japan) the other ones distribtution is a much lower latitude.. texas etc which is much warmer.
ok a quick reply... those names you gave are two totally diffrent fish. if you lok them up on google you can see the pics differ totally. The ones i have is 100 % like the Gambusia affinis. and not at al like Heterandria formosa. Interestingly i asked my brother to measure the temp in the water - in the one pool were we found them it was 28C in the afternoon and 8C in the morning early. Thanx all for the help and pointers.
Hi Abraham So you found it in the river? Its really amazing that most petshops still sell this plant even though it is a declared weed and a real problem.
"There are two subspecies of Gambusia affinis. The typical one is Gambusia affinis affinis from Texas, and the very similar G. affinis holbrooki comes from the southeastern United States and northern Mexico. Although quite small in size, Mosquito Fish is an aggressive live-bearer that nips the fins of other fishes. Therefore, it is best kep in a species tank. The composition of the water is not at all critical. In an aquarium the fishes breed at all times of the year. G. affinis has been introduced in many areas for the controll of mosquito larvae. It is very hardy and can be kept in winter at temperatures as 10 to 12 deg C." extract from Tropical Aquarium Fishes by Dick Mills & Dr. Gwynne Vevers
I know of some people in Angola - when I was there between '94 to '96 - involved in Tilapia aquaculture that looked at introducing the Mosquito fish into local river systems to combat and control the high numbers of mosquito larvae found which cause that countries number one killer: malaria. Not sure what happened with that idea...
I collected the same fish and plants as a kid in 1969 from the Zoo Lake. Your photos sure bring back memories... At home, my dad, a keen fish breeder, identified the plants as 'monkey tails' and the fish as 'gambusias'. I kept both in an outside aquarium, enjoyed them for months. Until the tank got stolen!!!
wild form guppy males are coloured, they have small spade tails and multi colours forming splash, blotch and spots.