Mosquito control

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The PERCH MAN ABN 42 065 149 145

Fish to eat mosquito wrigglers
I can supply fish for mosquito larvae control. 
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Larger species, such as perch, will eat mosquito larvae when they are young fish, but once they grow bigger they are not effective at reducing mosquito wrigglers.
Larger fish don't hunt small prey.
Small or large quantities of the appropriate species for mosquito management for your farm dam, garden pond, local councils, mining companies, or developers.
Large water bodies, such as settling ponds, water treatment storage etc.
Firetail gudgeons.  
These are the easiest fish to use for mosquito management in small ponds and farm dams. 
Water temperature; 10°C - 30°C.
They will breed and establish a balanced population in most garden ponds, farm dams, lakes etc.
Firetail gudgeons only grow to about 4-5cm and are prolific breeders in ponds and dams.
Native to most parts of the north east coastal areas of Australia.
Price list
30 - 50     ---      $3.74
51  - 100  ---      $3.08
101 - 500 ---      $2.64
501 - 5000  ---   $1.65
Over 10,000 - - - $0.77

Rainbow fish, Melanotaenia species

Rainbows are another species that love to eat mosquito larvae.
They will also breed and establish a balanced population in ponds and farm dams.
Most streams in Northern Australia have Australian rainbows in them.
The southernmost river system to contain rainbows is the Murray-Darling River Basin.
Each stream has a unique colour morph.
It may be a disaster to stock a pond or farm dam with the wrong colour morph.
If they were to escape and breed with the local colour morph, your local colour morph could be lost forever.
Below are a few examples of the different colours found in different locations. 
Pictures on this website can be enlarged just by right clicking on the image and opening in a new tab.
If you are using a phone, long press and select "open image," zoom in and hold your phone horizontally.
Below is a rainbow from Deep Water Creek south of Agnes Water Queensland
 Rainbows 1
Below is a rainbow from Kangaroo Creek near Tin Can Bay central Queensland
Rainbows 2
Below is a rainbow from the Lake Eyre Basin central Queensland
Rainbows 7
The best way to get the right colour morph is to catch your own.
BUT not a good idea where crocodiles might be.
It is legal in Queensland for you to catch a small number from your local streams and stock them in your dam.
 
The best way to find your local colour morph is to follow the down-hill fall of the land from your property to the first creek or river.
If the spot you find is not suitable for collecting rainbows, check a map of your area and find yourself a site on the same creek or river that you can collect from.
Choose a location as close as possible to your property.
Some river systems are quite large, and may contain different colour morphs at different locations.
 
They are easiest to catch at night.
Just use a 20 ltr bucket, with about 10cm of water in the bottom.
You need the 20 ltr bucket to stop them from jumping out.
Add about a level teaspoon of cooking salt, (not table salt) to the water in the bucket.
With a good torch the rainbows are easy to spot as they drift in the eddies or near the edge of a steep bank.
Use a long handled fine net.
A 10 or 12 inch aquarium net is ideal.
Use some plastic pipe to extend the handle, such as electrical conduit.
Just squeeze the loop at the end of the handle until it slides tightly down the pipe.
See pictures below
 Rainbows 3

Rainbows 4

Don't charge at the fish as the ripples you make or any sound of your feet on the creek bed will spook the fish.
When approaching a fish, have your net deep in the water.
Slowly lift the net up from under the fish and carefully put them in the bucket.
Don't handle the fish as this may cause damage to the fish's slime coating resulting in the fish becoming infected with bacteria.
The slime (mucus) is an important part of the fish's natural immune system.
Don't catch too many as this will overload the bucket resulting in loss of oxygen, and dead fish.
They should be released in you dam as soon as possible.
Rainbows will quickly establish a self maintaining, stable population in your dam from just a few fish.
20 fish will quickly fill a farm dam, and for a garden pond even less fish are needed to establish a stable population.
 
It is illegal to sell any of your wild caught rainbows.
Even the off-spring can't be sold without the appropriate permit from your local authority.
There are several videos on my YouTube channel about rainbow fish
In most Australian states it is illegal to stock the wrong fish.