MOSQUITO FISH IN MILL CREEK

     I stopped at a favorite, peaceful place behind a dam on Mill Creek in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in the middle of September to enjoy nature.  The creek has little current and is bordered on both sides by leafy-green riparian trees, including ash-leafed maples and black walnuts.  

     At first, I saw no wildlife with my eyes alone.  But with 16 power binoculars, I saw several blue-colored bluet damselflies standing on mats of algae and duckweed along the shorelines, and on twigs protruding from the shallows.  I also noticed an eastern phoebe perched on a twig of a tree hanging over the water, while it watched for flying insects to catch with its beak and consume.  And I saw a couple of young green frogs and a painted turtle half-hidden among algae and duckweed carpets on the water.

     I also noticed a tiny cove of clear, shallow water with no current along a shoreline.  That little backwater was partly covered with blobs of algae and duckweed and shaded by tall grass, spotted jewelweed plants that had lovely, orange flowers, the spear-shaped leaves of a large yellow iris plant and the leafy limbs of black walnut and ash-leafed maple trees. 

     And there were tiny ripples on the surface of the inches-deep water in that cove that could only mean small fish were there, though I couldn't see them with my naked eye.  But with my binoculars, I saw many well-camouflaged, small fish swimming about close to the muddy, dead-leaf covered bottom of that little backwater.   

     The larger fish of that finny colony had gravid spots under their tails, indicating they are live-bearing females, similar to guppies.  But the smaller, slimmer fish sported no bright colors, so they are not male guppies.  That gathering of small fish of many sizes, indicating differences in age because of reproducing all summer, are mosquito fish!  And many of them were lying still on the bottom, another reason they were hard to spot.     

     Live-bearing fish give birth to live young, and each female produces at least a few broods per summer.  Mosquito fish are live bearers, and females of this species resemble female guppies.

     As I watched the mosquito fish, I saw a young snapping turtle sneaking through algae and duckweed in an attempt to ambush some of those fish.  Northern water snakes do the same.  Green herons also try to snare them in their long beaks.  

     But mosquito fish stay in the shallows of Mill Creek to avoid the predations of bluegill sunfish and large-mouth bass.  And when they have to, the camouflaged mosquito fish hide under mats of aquatic vegetation, and sticks and twigs that fell into the shallows.

     I was happy to find those mosquito fish in my home county.  I never saw that interesting species in such a habitat before.             

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