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Gambusia holbrooki, the “Mosquito Fish” introduced to Australian waterways from North America to control mosquito larvae, is widely distributed and abundant in both disturbed and undisturbed aquatic environments. Because it has become established in areas where Litoria aurea was once abundant, there is some suspicion that G. holbrooki's non-specific predatory behaviour may be instrumental in the decline of L. aurea.

Laboratory and field experiments were conducted to assess the impact of G. holbrooki predation on L. aurea tadpole survivorship. Laboratory trials involved placing 30 L. aurea tadpoles per 46-litre aquarium in each of the following four treatments: control treatments (two aquaria with just tadpoles and two aquaria with tadpoles and the pondweed, Egeria densa) and two predator treatments (two aquaria with fish and tadpoles and two aquaria with tadpoles, fish and pondweed). A daily …