I had suspected that my recent 'feeder guppy' bulk purchase were actually mosquito fish. The more I researched, the more conclusive was my suspicion. But they've survived well with my young Dempseys and Bichirs - so I didn't care either way. Gives the predators something to chase - and this spring I'll just throw some of the surviving females in my ponds.

Then my son was given a homeless leopard gecko and we had to clean out his 10G fish tank immediately. So, without thinking much of it - I tossed all of his fancy guppies (from last year's pond) into my quaranteen tank. (with the little dempseys and extra mosquito fish)

It wasn't the JDs that attacked their fins - it was the mosquito fish! Now most have been eaten by the JDs - because they had no fins after one evening.

Moral of the story: Don't mix fancy guppies with these mosquito fish. They're meaner than JDs!

I got some freebie guppies from a few people...1 female had no color what-so-ever! But she was much larger and had a slight black stripe going down her eye... she looked very similar to the mosquito fish I catch in the local ponds during spring and summer... come to find out...after a month of living happily with the guppies...a lot of males started loosing tails and fins. Evil lil thing. Moved her into a new tank bto cycle it and she died... kinda glad because I didn't know what to do with her after the tank was cycled...