Comment

Comment by SW on August 15, 2011 at 10:17am

Thank you Silvia for the kind remarks.  I'm certainly looking forward to learning from others here too. 

Comment by Sylvia Bernstein on August 15, 2011 at 6:53am

Wow, Sam, your description of the breeding process and your practical tips are incredible!  Thanks for starting this group!

Comment by SW on August 14, 2011 at 8:06am

Here's a video of our 55 gallon divided tank with the 2 moms & fry.

Comment by TCLynx on August 14, 2011 at 7:54am

In the duckweed tank, if I fed the fish a small hand full of pellets once a day, the duckweed cover would stay intact but if I went away for a week (I didn't have an auto feeder on that tank) the duckweed would be completely gone in about 6 days.

 

I did have tilapia manage to breed in a grow out tank, they were even in a cage but I had dropped a bit of pipe into the cage and didn't fish it out right away.  Until I noticed a tilapia being very aggressive and guarding a corner of the tank.  A few days later I saw some fry.

 

In a confined environment you may find some males are rather aggressive and if the female isn't in the mood she could get quite beat up.  I think this may be why they usually recommend a few females per each male so that his aggression is spread among more females and he is less likely to kill them.  Temperature seemed to play a big role here in my situation with my fish.  The females thought it was too chilly I guess but the male would keep trying till they were tattered and I had to put the dividers in to let the females recover.

 

In the outdoor tanks where the water temperature usually reaches daytime highs of 86 F by May, the breeding happened if I liked it or not if the fish happened to have access to a bottom surface so they could pick the eggs back up.

 

Beware that a Female about to release eggs can be very aggressive too and if confined with other adult fish in a small tank, she could kill them. 

 

I think I lost one female to being beaten up by another female holding eggs and I've lost one female tilapia to the male beating her up too much and I lost one male tilapia that jumped out of a tank in his enthusiasm chasing the females who were not interested in mating yet.

 

 

Comment by SW on August 14, 2011 at 7:00am

Thanks Sahib.  I am certainly no guru but do enjoy the husbandry.  I know there are some very talented aquaculturist in the community and can't wait for them to join up and to read what they have to say.

We just had 2 more fry releases this week so we now have like 10 million fingerlings.  Does ANYONE want some?  cheap....

I will try to get a picture of our 55 gallon setup for these 2 batches. The inside of the glass is a bit dirty and the glare is bad but I'll give it a go. We used a piece of styrofoam blueboard to create a divider.  We have had to that in the past and it worked very well until the fry start getting adventurous.  The moms definitely know which are theirs and will run off or eat the other fry.  When we see that its time for the moms to go back to their breeding tank.

Comment by SW on August 14, 2011 at 6:45am

I finally added some Tilapia to my system- #20-  2-1/2 inches - 3- 1/2 inches. I was told by the seller that 90% of them will be male. He also told me to look for fish that start turning pink- they are the females... My question is -

1- At what age do they have to be to start breeding?

2- Is it necessary to have a seperate breeding tank?

3- Can/will they just breed in the AP system reservior?   

Hi & welcome to the group!  I don't know where your vendor got the 90% male from but I've never heard one way or the other on male/female ratios.

What strain of tilapia do you have?  I have blue tilapia and when they are 5 months old or so can be sexed by catching them and having a look.  Pretty easy to tell male from female.

Feed quality, quantity and feeding regimes affect both size, maturity and productivity of your tilapia.  We feed 3 times a day with a high protein pellet that we got from from Silvia (link) that is 50% protein, 16% fat.  It is also what we use to grow out our fingerlings once they are large enough.  If we had a market for all of our fingerlings, with this diet, our females could be producing another healthy brood in as little as 30 - 40 days.  Our first batch of fry was from our smallest & youngest fish.  She was probably 5 months or so old though I can't be sure exactly because the facility where we got them was only able to estimate age.  We have 1 huge older female that we've had for 5 months that still hasn't produced though it is looking promising because she has just made a bed. Its only her and 1 male in a 135 gallon tank now and I think she has finally gotten comfortable.

While it is not essential to have a breeding tank there are several benefits with the biggest in my opinion being able to see the fish, thus making monitoring easier.  In an aquarium environment the fish get to know you and are very calm and peaceful.  Like I mentioned in my previous post, tilapia need to feel comfortable in their environment to produce well.  When I took a aquaponic class I was told that the majority of the fish in the grow out tanks probably would never reproduce because of the crowding.  No matter if its a breeding colony or a grow out tank I think it is a good idea to have some structure in the tank so the tilapia can find cover and relax.  I think of it like this, if it was coded in your DNA to be in the great outdoors and instead your were forced to live in a concrete box how many babies would you want to bring into that world?

Hope that helps and I would love to hear others experiences.

Comment by Sahib Punjabi on August 14, 2011 at 6:44am

Nice post. Thank you Sam.

You seem to be a Guru in breeding Tilapia. So glad that you do not do any "sex reversal" breeding. Let nature be, after all,we are only really using the fish by-product for our plants. The fish, well they are just a bonus and in an ideal non-commercial system, should only really provide a very small percentage of "food".

 

God bless,

Comment by SW on August 14, 2011 at 5:30am

Did you know that male & female tilapia pair up in the wild and raise their babies together?  They will both aggressively protect the fry but a common misconception is that they will eat them, or that the male will eat them.

 

The "ideal" breeding colony for me would not be a colony at all but a pair that can peacefully raise their young...time and time again.

If you had a large square tank, say 5' x 5' and released 10 females and 5 males after a while you would probably have 5 couples.  If they were removed to their own tanks to live a wonderful life of solitude they would be perfectly happy and would produce for you over & over again.

I have a good stud male that will take care of  4 - 5 females with no problem AND he seems happy but the females are not so happy.  Their natural instinct is to protect the fry and in crowded conditions it has to stress them out some.  When I see that they have eggs in their mouth I catch them and put them in a 55 gallon tank by themselves.  They will spit the eggs out but will pick them back up.  When she gets down to just a few dozen eggs left she might have a bit of trouble reaching them so I'll stir the water up for her so they float around letting her pick them up easier.

Sometimes if the female is comfortable in her tank I will wait to catch the female until the fry are close to being released, around the 8 day mark.  As she spins the eggs around the mouth will open a 1/4"  or so and I look for either black, which means they have hatched or a cream color which tells me they are still in the egg stage.  If I see black I will calmly & gently catch her in a large fine meshed net.  She will spit out the babies immediately so a fine mesh is essential and I will also have someone holding a big wide pan underneath the net just in case she flops around and throws some out. I then quickly move her to her prepared tank and she'll go about the business of raising them.

The female will be very hungry so I always feed her a high protein pellet as often as she likes.  Most of these females will each right from my hand so I can tell when she has had enough.

Comment by SW on August 14, 2011 at 5:00am

Hey TCLynx,

I had no luck breeding tilapia indoors in an aquarium that was supposedly 50 gallons

Though I am no expert I do know that in order for a female tilapia to produce eggs she must feel comfortable in her environment.  Whether that is a 50 gallon tank or something much larger doesn't really matter.  78 degree + water temps are where our females started producing and just like a normal woman, they need to be with a male they like.  They also need some kind of structure that they can claim as their territory.  You'll see them defend it with open mouth pushing away of others.

 

I just tossed 12 random blue tilapia into my duckweed pond and had tons of babies several weeks later.

Amazing how mother nature works isn't it?  My guess is you didn't have much duckweed left though! lol

Comment by SW on August 14, 2011 at 4:44am

Hi Conrad,

Did you get a chance to watch the video I posted of the fry returning to their mom's mouth?  The mothers protect the babies that way so I would think you that when they have disappeared that is where they are unless you have a really good hiding place(s) in the tank that they going to. After 4-5 days or so they will stop returning to her mouth.  Sounds like you are the "proud papa" of a tilapia fry hatch!

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 59
• 60
• 61
• 62
• Next ›
• Page