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Comment by Dave & Yvonne Story on December 2, 2011 at 4:24am

Sheri, TCLynx, SW,

You all have great experiences with breeding. As a reader, I love your work and your willingness to share, Thank you

Comment by TCLynx on December 1, 2011 at 6:13am

Friendlies uses green water tanks for their tilapia breeding operation.

Comment by SW on December 1, 2011 at 5:24am

Jay,
Sheri is right as the female will definitely not eat.  I forgot that one in my answer. 

Our female blues all eat from our hands and do not get aggressive toward us after releasing the fry but certainly do toward the other fish during the entire time she is holding the eggs and then the fry.  If for some reason I have to stick my hand in her tank I have seen a bit of aggression.

By the time the fry are released she will be very hungry but tilapia can absorb nutrients through their gills so think of "green" water as being nutritious.  I also added zooplankton to the tank.  I am not sure if that really helped or not but since the female can absorb micro nutrients through her gills I thought, why not try it.

Anyone ever hear of that being done? I wonder if it helps the mom?

Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on November 30, 2011 at 10:34pm

Jay, by your description your female is probably holding eggs. You'll definitely know if she has eggs by whether she eats or not. She won't eat when she's carrying. Our Nile have never been aggressive when holding eggs...just after releasing them. Then they become really protective. If we put our finger near the tank they'll attack the glass.

Comment by SW on November 30, 2011 at 6:51pm

Hi Jay,
At 5 months it is possible. You will be able to see her spinning the eggs in her mouth.  It may take a few days before you will be able to notice but she'll open her mouth just a bit and you'll be able to see them.  They are kind of a cream color.  After about 8 days or so you'll start to see more of a black & cream color as they start hatching.  She will keep them in her mouth for a few more days after that.  We've had the mom's release them with the egg yolk completely absorbed and some with the egg yolk sac still there. 

If you need to move her to another tank I would wait for a couple of days after you start seeing the black color.  You can use a large fine mesh net with someone else holding a large pail or bucket underneath.  She will definitely spit them all out once netted but if you move quickly there will be little loss of fry.  Most fry loss will be from her thrashing around so move quickly. She will have no problem calling them all back to her mouth once moved and should go about her motherly duties.

We have even moved one too soon and she spit her eggs out but she picked them all up and carried on.

I have noticed my tilapia changing colors for many reasons but color alone is not an indicator of her being pregnant.

Best of luck and let us know what happens.

Sam

Comment by TCLynx on November 30, 2011 at 3:49pm

A female with eggs in her mouth is likely to be pretty territorial and try to chase others away from her "spot" especially when she gets ready to release the fry.  I noticed my blue tilapia females in that aggressive state would get a dark stripe over/between the eyes as viewed from above.

Comment by Dave Lindstedt on November 29, 2011 at 5:43pm

Tanks get pricy real fast.  I bought 100 gallon stock tank new for $80 + 7% tax.  I built a 4x4 3ft high 330 gallon tank 4 tries. 2,700 lbs kept blowing out the seams. Material cost was about $150.  Solved the problem with steel banding strapping. Tool & banding was another $160.  Have since located 250 gallon metal reinforced Polly, used food flavoring tanks.  I purchased 3 for $225 total ($75 each).  That is best deal I have found. I was given a 20 gallon aquarium and a 40 gallon at no cost.  I just had to pick them up.

Comment by Dave & Yvonne Story on November 29, 2011 at 8:11am

if you are not into building tanks, I like the 300 gal tanks at ACE Hardware. I have the 300 gal, the 150s, the 100, and the 50s for my original grow-beds. In my pictues on the left are 3 100 gals and a 50. They are priced right.

Comment by Dave Lindstedt on November 28, 2011 at 2:06pm

I'll keep that in mind.  I have a 100 gal. tank that has about 15 to 20 fish in that feeds my grow troughs.  It has been left undisturbed and covered  for several months.

Comment by SW on November 28, 2011 at 1:31pm

Nice Fish Dave Story!

@ Dave Lindstedt I would recommend the same thing for your breeders too.  Anything under 90 gallons is probably not optimal.

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