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The life cycle of a mosquito consists of four stages:
egg, larva, pupa, and adult.
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Rainbowfishes seem to prefer mosquito larvae to all other live foods, and their effortless method of culturing or collection makes them the perfect live food. The life cycle of a mosquito consists of four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The eggs may be laid singly or in rafts, deposited in water, on the sides of containers where water will soon cover, or on damp soil where they can hatch when flooded by rainwater or high tides.
Culturing mosquito larvae is straightforward. First established a tub or container outside where it will obtain partial shade. Shallow containers with a large surface area seem to be preferred to deep containers. Fill the tub with pre-conditioned freshwater.
The best source of water is filtered stream or pond water; rainwater collected for low air polluted areas, or use the water from your aquarium water changes.
Next, add some animal manure or organic fertiliser. Fresh material is preferred over old because they are richer in microbes and organic matter. This especially applies to manure, which is usually dried before use. The fertiliser can be added to your culture in several ways. One is to soak the dry material for several hours, then distribute the wet material over the bottom, allowing it to slowly decompose. Another is to place the dry material in a mesh bag and suspend the bag inside the tub.
After a few days when the water has cleared, add a handful of duckweed to afford the mosquitoes a place upon which to rest while laying their eggs in the water. One female may lay several batches. The elongated eggs look like little black rafts and are about 6 mm wide. Each raft contains from 50 to 400 eggs, depending partly on how much blood the female has fed on. If the female doesn't get blood she is still able to produce eggs, but the eggs will be smaller and have less chance of survival. In warm water, the eggs of most species will hatch in two to three days and the larvae or "wrigglers" feed mainly on algae, protozoans, and organic debris.
Once you observe egg-floats or rafts, spoon them into small glass jars containing about 5 cm water and cover with a fine mesh. Later, when the eggs hatch into larvae, merely pour the contents of the jar into the aquarium. Then again, if you require them larger, place the eggs-rafts in a larger jar and when hatched, feed the larvae until the desired size is reached. The larvae are tiny and must moult five times before reaching the adult stage of life. The larvae hang upside down on the underside of the water surface. The tail of the larvae has feather like structures, which allow it to hang onto the surface using the water surface tension. The mosquito larvae have an interesting way of breathing. They have a breathing tube which reaches from the tail to the pond surface. This tube is used in much the same way humans use a snorkel to breathe while remaining underwater.
Sometimes the culture will be so successful that if all the larvae were fed at once to the fish not all would be eaten and the insects would hatch causing at the least a nuisance. In this event you can either place some of the larvae into containers in the refrigerator where their metamorphosis will be slowed down or preferably frozen and fed to the fish during the winter months. Other species of insects produce different larvae such as bloodworms and glassworms, which may also be found in the container and fed to the fish.
It is far preferable to breed mosquitos in the manner outlined than to permit the eggs to hatch in the outside tub and collect the wrigglers in a net. It is inevitable, that some will manage to complete their metamorphosis and escape to plague you and your neighbours. Remember, some mosquitos are capable of transmitting diseases such as encephalitis, malaria, and fever.
© Copyright Adrian R. Tappin
Created December, 2000.
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