Tilapia

[Phil Slaton]

Anyone raising Tilapia on the fish side of their aquaponics project?

 

If so, how tolerant are they of water temperatures??

 

Approximately, how fast do they grow from 6" fingerling to 1.5 pounds??

 

Thanks, phil

[Gerald Watts]

I have some Tilapia.  I've found they get lethargic at anything less than 70F.  I've had them accidentally go down to 50 once briefly and they survived fine.  I've had them on ice for hours and could hardly hold them still enough to butcher.  Can't keep them in a greenhouse w/o copious amounts of heat.  

I tried to get rid of them once, sold the whole lot and turned off all the gear, but found a mess of fry in the tank, happy as could be, swimmin all around, after a week of 50 degrees.  Just couldn't kill em.  Apparently the fry do better w cold.

Jerry

[Phil Slaton]

Thank you.  I have seen them in a friend's fish farm in the mountains in Northern Luzon, Philippines.  Water too cold to keep your hand in it and they were swimming around like it was a summer day.

[Rick Stillwagon]

Tilapia are warm water fish.  Mine wouldn't breed in water under 90 degrees.  They prefer about 80 degrees, optimally.  I am sure you know that growth is affected by many factors.  Space, feed, temp, etc., all affect growth rates.  I wouldn't expect too many fish to get to 1.5 pounds in less than 18 months, unless you had really good stock and optimal conditions.

[Phil Slaton]

Hey Rick good to hear from you and thanks much for the salient info.  I'm sticking with Trout.

[Rick Stillwagon]

Sounds like a plan.

[Phil Slaton]

Yeah.  Going to start raising the Trout from large fingerlings.  Adding 4 more 1200 gallon tanks.  During the grow out stage, I will keep purchasing and selling 1-1/2 pounders.

The cost and die off is simply too expensive to keep buying and selling full grown Trout.  Going the fingerling route.