Spotty Banana Homeschool

Eastern Mosquitofish are tough little fish that got their name because they love to dine on mosquito larvae. Well, every body of water in our area is filled with these little fish so we decided to learn a bit more about them. We compiled some of our favorite learning activities into a short unit study that can be modified to suit your approach. We designed this unit study for 6-9 year olds.

Our approach involved keeping mosquitofish in a fish bowl so that we could observe them. We purchased the fish bowl and supplies from our local pet store. The next step was to catch some fish. Catching Mosquitofish is easy if you have a long-handled aquarium dip net and a bit of patience. We caught 3-4 in about 20 minutes!

There are many ways to expand this study, based on your child’s interest. We checked out a microsope from a science library and used it to view microscopic organisms found in the pond water. We learned how to prepare ‘wet’ slides and how to operate the microscope. When we were finished, we transferred the remaining macroinvertebrates into the fish bowl.
Download the Unit Study

• Eastern Mosquitofish Unit Study
• Eastern Mosquitofish Coloring Page

Eastern Mosquitofish images and information

• Fairfax County Public Schools
• Discover LIfe in America

Microscopic Images from pond water samples

• Microbus
  
• Ron’s Pond Scum