Tips and information

[Hydroponics Curacao]

I started with about 20 baby tilapias a few weeks ago. They eat a lot and have grown really fast. I will post some pictures of them tomorrow after I have cleaned the tank.

What I wanted to know is, when should I expect them to start breeding? I've put a 220mm wide PVC pipe in there and 2 110mm PVC pipes. They are all 30 cm long. And in the bottom of the tank I've put some aquariums gravel. I read somewhere that they need gravel in the bottom to make holes to lay their eggs. 

Is this setup OK for them to breed in? 

And how can I know when I can sex them? I saw a picture on how to know which is female and which is male. I just need to know when I can see that.

[Bob Campbell]

Breeding age depends on the type of tilapia, Some breed as young as 12 weeks and others a little longer

Look for aggressive behavior and color changes.

Sounds like you have provided them with what they will want.

Keep then temperature above 75F and feed them well

[Michael Welber]

Mine started breeding at 10 weeks and have already had two "litters" of fish. Everyone told me the adults would eat the babies but they didn't. Twice. I don't have gravel on the bottom of my tank and that might make it harder to keep clean. However, I am NO expert and am just learning about fish. In fact, if anyone can suggest a book about tilapia I'd love to get one. 

[Hydroponics Curacao]

Bob Campbell said:

Breeding age depends on the type of tilapia, Some breed as young as 12 weeks and others a little longer

Look for aggressive behavior and color changes.

Sounds like you have provided them with what they will want.

Keep then temperature above 75F and feed them well

If they change of color, is that something bad or what?

[Hydroponics Curacao]

Michael Welber said:

Mine started breeding at 10 weeks and have already had two "litters" of fish. Everyone told me the adults would eat the babies but they didn't. Twice. I don't have gravel on the bottom of my tank and that might make it harder to keep clean. However, I am NO expert and am just learning about fish. In fact, if anyone can suggest a book about tilapia I'd love to get one. 

I don't know how old mines are. But they must be about 5 weeks or more.
If you have hiding places in your tank, the adults won't get them to eat.

I would love a book too. I'm going to look for one

[TCLynx]

The adults are not the ones likely to eat the babies, it will be the older fry/fingerlings that are likely to eat the smaller fry.  Very young tilapia have an immense protein hunger but when they get more mature they develop the ability to filter feed and are less likely to go to great efforts to eat other small fast fish of other food is abundant.

Gravel is not necessary in the bottom of the tank though it might give you a clue when they are old enough the more aggressive males will start clearing out love nests to give the females a nice clear flat bottom to be able to lay and pick the eggs back up (see the females have to pick the eggs back up after they are fertilized since they are mouth brooders.)

Optimum breeding temperatures will be up in the mid 80's F.

[Hydroponics Curacao]

Yes. I've read a little bit about tilapias before I started growing them. 

I cleaned the water today and I checked to see how many males and females I had (i only checked the larger ones). 

But if I saw correctly, I only saw males.. Hope the smaller ones have females in them. Because I'm going to put them in a pond. With plants and stuff like that. 

What I wanted to do is put some fingerlings that just got released by their mom in a raft system I have to eat the mosquitoes is there. And when they are bigger, I will transfer them to the pond. And so I keep doing. But if I put plants in the pond, can I put some smaller fish in there such as guppy, angelfish, swordtail, pink danios, neon tetra??

[TCLynx]

getting tilapia fingerlings back out of a raft bed could be a challenge and it will require removing all the rafts from the bed to do it.  And then the tilapia may eat the plant roots so are not a really good choice for skeeter control in rafts.

[Cliff Dillon]

TCLynx said:

getting tilapia fingerlings back out of a raft bed could be a challenge and it will require removing all the rafts from the bed to do it.  And then the tilapia may eat the plant roots so are not a really good choice for skeeter control in rafts.

[Cliff Dillon]

Help and fast Please!!!

 

I recently got 25 Blue tilapia fingerlings.  I have never raised tilapia before but have heard they are hardy.  I went out of town and asked my wife to keep an eye one them.  While I was away she called to tell me three had died.  I didn't think too much of it figuring early losses are normal but when I got home I found sever more dead fish and several fish with large white bumps on the scales.  Does anyone know what they are?  How can I treat?  Is there anything I can do before I loose all of them. Thanks 

[Cliff Dillon]

Temp is currenlty at 78F.  MY pH is 6.4   Amonia levels are creeping up after the fish losses but is still tolerable.  This is a small barrel ponics system in my basement.  The fish tank is a 55gal barrel with another 55gal barrel cut lengthwise to form two grow beds.  I am using hydroton for media and bell siphons to drain the GBs with fill times about 12 minutes. 

[TCLynx]

White bumps, looking like white pimples, could be Ick.  Salt to 3 ppt quickly and make sure your water temperature is up around 80-85 F and you might knock out that parasite in a couple weeks if you are lucky.  Since fish are dieing already it may be too late if the fish are actually dieing of Ick but if they were just dieing because of transport shock then maybe things will be ok.

The salt will have the benefit of mitigating nitrite tox a bit during cycle up though strawberries won't like it.

If you are seeing ammonia or nitrite you should not be feeding.