PLEASE PLEASE tell me how to make those damnbusia traps. i don't want to eat them- tho my dogs might -i just want to get rid of a few thousand of them. Thanks! min

Please tell me you're kidding me about cooking them. What was that Fear Factor?? I did a test run of those mosquito fish in a kiddie pool before I added them to my pond. I saw within 3-4 weeks how they multiplied. I then put them on Craigslist and someone came and took them ALL.

I will never put them in my pond, nor eat them.

Really I have never heard of a poisonous fresh water fish, so we were not afraid to eat them. They're just fish in a small package.

On how to make the traps, there are excellent articles online and a couple videos on youtube. Search for "bottle minnow traps" or something like that.

It requires a 2 liter soda bottle and some duct tape, just follow the instructions online. Works good. I catch about 50 damnbusia each time I leave the trap out for a couple hours.

THANKS barboli!
i have caught a whole bunch of them already and feel like at last there is some hope of ridding my pond of all damnbusia.

bradley was way smarter than i ever thought to be. *sigh*

I would like to know how to catch them too. We have a zillion. I do not want to eat them though.

Last year was the first year of my pond and I had a mosquito larvae problem in the pond (I had the water tested at my local university). So I was given two Gambusia from a friend because the pet stores were out and weren't going to get any more that year. I think the two survived the winter but people told me that this fact surprised them, given our winters.

This spring I added about 40 new fish and yes, they've multiplied but I have no mosquito larvae to speak of. What is even more interesting is that the Gambusia can get into the many many small openings between my rocky layout and that fact alone is very reassuring. No extra mosquito problems.

All of you that are indicating that you hate the little fish I notice live in warm weather climates. Maybe that's the overall problem. Your populations never diminish because of the freeze cycle missing. I'm just wondering if anyone has experience with Gambusia in colder climates... am I going to have to thin the population or will mother nature do it for me?

It may be that warm water climates do make their overpopulation worse. I understand they breed every 6 weeks down here, all year long. It does not stop for the winter at all.

In regard to the reader's comments about wanting to catch them, search for the 2 liter bottle trap instructions on youtube or google. The traps really do work well, but I cannot guarantee you can catch all of them in a largish pond. But I guarantee you can control the population and keep your fish load down.

Here y'all are trying to get rid of them & I'm having a dickens of a time trying to find some. LOL.

Hi
Wonder if this trap would work to catch a specific fish?? I keep red wag swordtails and have a similar problem with over population. Water birds certainly thin them out though. in fact was never able to keep larger fish such as Koi .Birds thinnned them to extinction lol.
Anyway ,have noticed some albino/lutino males that would be fantastic in aquariums if I could catch them .
gary

Missa, if you are in Southern CA, come and get some!

LOL, wish I were but I'm in Okla.

The local pet store finally got some in after a month or so. They're small, how did you eat them. LOL. Maybe the few I got are still babies.

Missa7,
Yes, you probably received young fish. I have some that are bigger than large guppies... they are still the same drab color and generally difficult to see if not in a larger school; or, is that shoaling?? LOL

minnow traps work! i have really thinned out the population of gambusias in my pond.

but it occurred to me that maybe the smarter ones aren't the ones getting caught so i will end up with generations of genius gambusia that will multiply until herons come from miles around my pond for a picnic.

guess i could invite barboli to come for a fish fry instead.

Too bad we are so far away from eachother. We could have a great fish fry! Really, they are good with butter and garlic, if you can just catch enough of them! Hah!

I have noticed the same thing -- some of the damnbusia are too smart to go in the trap. For me it is the large breeding ones that shy away from the trap every time.

I tried making a larger more stable trap out of a rectangular fry breeding quarantine box I got at Petsmart. It is a plastic box with a net around it. I put a small coke bottle top through the net and attached it with superglue. I weighted down the trap sitting up on some rocks with the top just above the water. I put the fish food bait right into the open top of the box. I am catching more breeding adults with this trap, but still not enough.

The big smart ones come over and take a look inside the door to the trap and then suddendly decide it doesn't look safe and swim away fast. But I did get about 4 of them.

I next tried a new tactic that is a bit labor-intensive but it is working. I lower a large hand-held net into the water and hold it so that the top rim is slightly below the water on one side and above the water on the other. I put some fish food next to the rim that is above the water. The damnbusia swim to the food, and when a bunch of them get in there I raise the net out of the water really fast. I can catch the big breeding ones this way, a few at a time.

It really is a pesky problem how these things overpopulate.
Between my net and my box trap, I caught 300 over the weekend, but I still have plenty more to go. I wouldn't doubt there are 1000 in there and more being born every week.

maybe we have an idea here to feed the hungry people of the world! those who have some water that is...

i tried the same thing last year: i sat on the dock in my comfortable chair and positioned a net just below the surface of the water. used a chunk of wood as a fulcrum for the pole and stomped the end of the pole whenever a fish swam over the net. you can catch a few that way but you have to stay awake. lol