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Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on December 26, 2011 at 5:26pm

Yikes, our 70 gal breeder tank sprung a leak & we just finished draining it. We have to reseal part of the bottom & refinish part of the cabinet it was sitting on, so it'll take a few days before we can get it up & running again.

The fish are being relatively sociable right now, but I'm expecting it to turn into a war zone before long. It's awfully tight in there, but maybe that's a good thing. They sure look big in that little tank!

Comment by Kellen Weissenbach on December 26, 2011 at 12:16pm

Hi Dave,

Yes, it is quite likely that you had an O2 crash in addition to your ammonia troubles.  Get that filtration taken care of, and you should be good to go. :)

Comment by TCLynx on December 26, 2011 at 7:06am

Yea, get that filtration online before you urge too much breeding.

Time line is usually better if you have filtration before you add fish to the tanks.

Comment by Dave Lindstedt on December 25, 2011 at 10:23pm

Hi folks, thank to all for your in put. I have concluded a coupled problems that compounded them selves. # 1 I added tank heaters that raised water temp from about 72 to 82 to 84 degree range.  This increased feeding and reduced the desolved oxygen inthe water. #2  I overlooked the growth of my fish.  I started with 220 fingerlings (about 4 or 5 weeks old) July 20th.  Initially all 220 were put in my 330 gallon tank.  Within a month I moved about 25 into my 100 gallon tank.  Then I began to move small numbers into my 20 & 40 gallon aquariums. The fish in the aquariums would last about a month and die.  #3 about the same time I installed the water heaters I acquired 3  250 gallon polly tanks.  I began to move fish, first 50 into 1 polly tank and 40 into a second tank.  But the polly tanks were not plumbed into the grow beds.  So nothing was cleaning the water .  I did have air pumps to all the tanks.

But the excess feed began to ferment and give off ammonia, the additional heat reduced the D.O. content and suddenly everthing went BOOM!

I have been draining and cleaning tanks.  Good news is I found more survivors. By actual count I have about 33 fish still alive with a possible another 4 to 6.  Now  if they will just start reproducing I'll be in good shape.

My next job is to start connecting 4 new grow troughs to the opperation.

Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on December 23, 2011 at 5:05pm

Randall, you'll never find two tilapia that play nicely together. It's not in their nature. :)  If you're having aggression problems, add more fish. If you overcrowd them a bit they won't be able to pick on just one other fish; their attention will be split too many ways, and they mellow out. Just be sure to add fish that are a different size so you can tell who your breeders are.

Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on December 23, 2011 at 4:58pm

Dave, I'm so sorry about your crazy week! It sounds like major imbalance, which is most likely ammonia if you've been overfeeding or overcrowding; it could be a combo of ammonia and nitrites. Have you tested the water? Was there any residual food flavoring in the tank, or possibly permeated into the plastic?

We test occasionally, and we do regular water changes to keep control of the nitrates & any excess ammonia & nitrites. We change out 55 gals each about every week or so from our 200 & 300 gal tanks.

They do need aeration and circulation, but not a lot. One of our tanks isn't even hooked up to the growbeds yet, but has been supporting about 4-6" fish for a few months. It has two bubblers & a handful of plants floating on top. We do regular water changes, which makes things work.

If your temps are between 55 & 90+, you should be OK with that unless the temp change was sudden, but since they gradually died, I don't think so.

Comment by Lonnie Kirkman on December 22, 2011 at 9:43pm

I always get my temp with in 2-3 deg of each other and I move my females 5 days after I see them w eggs its hard to do large colonies I think but I am new at this thats why I have 1 primary and trying to get 4 more colonies also easy to keep temp at 84 in a regular fish tank for my totes I use a bucket heater but I do check temp very often.

Comment by Dave & Yvonne Story on December 22, 2011 at 9:37pm

Lonnie thank you.

I have 2 tanks of males. a 150 gal and a 300 gal both have grow beds on top.

my guys are at about 78f. my girls are at about 86f.

I am worried about moving and stressing my females with eggs.   I will bring some of their current water with them when I move them. the water temp will be about the same in the new tank.

Comment by Lonnie Kirkman on December 22, 2011 at 9:26pm

The Temp is only for Breeders I try to keep my grow out at no lower than 65 and no hotter than 86

Comment by Lonnie Kirkman on December 22, 2011 at 9:23pm

I use a 120 gal for my breeders 1 male 5 females seems to work well they like temp around 84 ish I have a filter under it and put plant to take out nitrates my level are almost zero have 1 filter pad my take is clear my new breeders are in 55 gal tanks 1 male 3-4 females all of my grow outs are in IBC totes Im working on a 1500 gal Tank  my smaller tanks no water changes have made Bio-filters and use plants to take out Nitrates I will try to put more pictures up if it will help

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