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Comment by Dave Lindstedt on November 28, 2011 at 1:26pm

WOW !   I'm impressed!   I have 3 or 4 that are that big out of an original 220 fish.

Comment by Dave & Yvonne Story on November 28, 2011 at 12:51pm

I give my fish a lot of room for growth. this is at 5.5 months old.

Comment by Dave Lindstedt on November 28, 2011 at 12:31pm

Interesting !  I have had my fish a little over 4 months. Some have grown to 8 or 9 inches.  I have no doubt they are males. The majority are in the 5 to 6 inch size  with about 10% to 15%  as small as 3 inches. So small as I have questioned if they were off spring of my original fish.  I have come to doubt that and tend to think they are females.

After loosing a lot of fish in my 40 gallon aquarium I have tried to limit the population to no more than 8 fish and my 20 gallon aquarium to 4 fish. I have come to the conclusion once these guys grow beyond the fingerling phase you need minimum 5 gallons of water per fish.

Next following reading some of the postings I have added about 1 inch of gravel to the bottom of the aquariums.  Next to improve filtering and better airation, I cut the bottom half of 1gallon Arizona Ice Tea jugs drilled the bottom and sides with 3/16th inch holes  added about 3 inches of gravel (above the holes) and set up a 70 GPH fountain pump ($18 @ Lowes)  with a spray discharge nozel  that sprays back into the aquarium.  I also instal an "AQUA CLEAR" filters.  These are 3 stage filters with a sponge filter, an amonia removing filter, and a carbon filter. Plus a 200 watt tank heater set at 86 degrees and  3 pieces of 6 inch PVC pipe for nesting.  Warter is starting to get a little cloudy.  With some luck I hope some breeding will take place.

Finaly I have aquiredd 3 additional 250 gallon tanks.  I have move 50 fish into the tank. With plans to move 50 more into a 2nd tank within the next week.

BOTTOM LINE... give your fish plenty of room.  They grow fast and soon become over crowed.  I have come to believe you need MINIMUM of 5 gallons of water per tilapia.

 

 

Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on November 28, 2011 at 10:29am

We keep our Nile Tilapia breeders indoors. After much trial and error, we pinned down a good male and two females, all kept separately except during breeding times of our choosing. We have a sand bottom, which they love, a couple pots, and some large rocks. Our first breeding was in a 30 gal tank, but the fish were smaller then. Now we're in a 70 gal.

Outdoors in our greenhouse we have our growing fish. If breeding takes place out there, we're unaware of it. We haven't seen any signs of fry, though.

When ready, the females release a chemical in their urine that the male smells. He turns white with black trim, then gets busy building a nest and hustling all other fish to a corner away from the nest. They turn very dark & cower. He'll do this all day long. Once in a while the mate checks out the nest, adds to the Honey-do list, spits a few mouthfuls of sand around then waits for papa to do more work.

When breeding happens, it's VERY fast. She lays, he fertilizes, and she grabs as many eggs as she can in her mouth. During the spawn all the other fish rush in. I think other males may add to the sperm count, but mostly they're trying to eat the eggs. Afterwards she swims off with her fertile mouthful and he gets lazy...or tired...

About two weeks later (two weeks without food), she releases her young. When she thinks there's danger, she picks them up again. After a few more days they become snotty & run away from her, so she gives up and lets them free.

Selecting breeders was interesting. After molesting numerous fish, we found that they are very deceiving. We had about a 50% accuracy rate, which is pretty much random chance. So we sexed by observing behavior. The active ones we kept, the others went into the growing tank. As mentioned, some females aren't as good at breeding as others. They may not be good layers or they may not hold the young well. We had one that did OK, but she didn't adapt to the indoor conditions. She was too shy.

Interestingly, from one batch of young you can end up with a huge variety in size because dominant fish take more food and grow faster. Over time, the disparity can be dramatic.

Comment by Dave & Yvonne Story on November 28, 2011 at 5:44am

about 3 weeks ago I sexed the fish. I have one female and one male in my in the house tank. I am watching to see what happens. No joy.

Comment by SW on November 28, 2011 at 5:05am

Hi Dave,
Certainly could be eggs on the way.  Have you notice the male interacting with her at all?  My male would herd the female to his place (a very large terra cotta pot) to fertilize the eggs, sometimes more than once. The female would then try to avoid the male.

The fertilization happens pretty fast too.  How these females can lay hundreds of eggs and then pick them up so quickly is really something amazing.

Best of luck & let us know how it goes!

Comment by Dave & Yvonne Story on November 26, 2011 at 5:33am

I seperated my females about 3 weeks ago. I have 13 with two males in a 100 gallon rubbermaid tank.I have 4 400 watt Thor heaters in the tanks set at 83 degrees, the tanks are outside, but well insulated.I have 30 date palms with a seeding bok choi in the upper 50 gallon rubbermaid tank. I feel I have made a good choice for my girls, any suggestions???  2 days ago I noticed one female having difficulty keeping up-right, she is gigantic around the middle. yesterday, I noticed she was settled between 2 PVC pipes in the tank. I am hopping dropped eggs to be fertilized. anybody have experience?

 

Comment by TCLynx on November 25, 2011 at 7:31pm

Yea, I think most people figure that 50 gallons is about the minimum good size for breeding Tilapia.  I had far betting luck putting a dozen random fish in a 300 gallon tank and then ignoring them because I couldn't see them under the duckweed anyway.

Comment by Dave Lindstedt on November 25, 2011 at 7:25pm

My luck with survival in the aquariums has not been good.   Despit fish being less than 6 months old, they seem to get over crowed once water ratio drops bellow 5 gallons per fish. Once I get my 40 gallon aquairium cleaned up I will look to try and put 7 females and 1 male in that tank.

 

Comment by Jon Parr on November 25, 2011 at 7:13pm

Hey Dave, you might want to throw a dozen or so females in there, and pay attention to which females decide to breed. After a couple if months, you can remove those that didn't make a love connection. For instance, I got a breeding colony of 6 mossies to one male hornorum. Only 2 of them have ever held eggs, the other 4 want nothing to do with the male. So, it might help to increase your odds to bring in a few more girls.

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