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Comment by Adam Shivers on February 11, 2011 at 8:23pm

wow - I had no idea. I guess I had heard about either being rich or poor but I didn't know what was true. I know I am going against the grain here but it is the only way I believe is right and I just want my life to reflect real life rather than a movie or video game or something like everyone else's goals. atleast that's how it seems sometimes to me.

Comment by Kobus Jooste on February 11, 2011 at 9:48am

My coutry is a bit of a mess - especially my province.  5.5 million tax payers, 17 million on wellfare.  That should tell you.  The tax payers live like there is no tomorrow, with no self-production to speak of.  We are an arid country so our agriculture is not enough to support the country.  The government is also so up the trade union's behinds that they have made farming non-viable to many people (crazy minimum wage, life rights on the property for workers etc.).  With agriculture slowing down, rural economies are screwed, and the people are flocking to towns looking for work that does not exist.  In our metro of 1.5 million, 500 000 are under the breadline.  Still there is almost no self production (if it is not given away why should we work for it mentality)Food prices is a big issue here too, with many items we consider staple (meat, corn, peas, fruit) tripling in cost over the last few years. I live in the city, but have a large enough plot to do some serious production if I have to, but I'd love to move to a small farm one day. 

Comment by Adam Shivers on February 11, 2011 at 8:45am

My goals are basically to feed my family. If I can stumble across something that helps pay bills bonus. I have been learning about any which way and we are still in town so this was attractive. I believe I will take this with me into the country because I love it so much (and still desire to teach others to grow food no matter what their location. 3 years ago I didn't think about where my food came from or the cost ($ and beyond) of it's production. I was like most of America.

Is this what it's like there?

I just have a harder time living like I don't believe I should than most people seem to.

Comment by Kobus Jooste on February 11, 2011 at 2:23am

I've been at it since 2008.  I got into aquaponics while looking for the most sustainable form of aquaculture I could find.  I'm a fish person really - still improving my knowledge of plant culture.

Comment by Adam Shivers on February 10, 2011 at 1:10pm

sounds good! I am in hopes to have this breed one day. they sound great! I'm doing the same type stuff with coturnix quail as I am trying to set realistic goals to work towards - such as how ever many quail a day for my family, how ever many fish a day, eggs, greens,etc.

How long have you done this? How did you get started?

Comment by Kobus Jooste on February 10, 2011 at 12:41pm

Growth with the local stock is a bit patchy as the bloodline is really not that well developed.  I bought 40 of the colour variants from a local breeder in order to get hold of hopefully 5 - 6 good breeders to use with good stock from a friend of mine (wild).  I bought the fish (around 4 - 6 inch then) at the end of August last year, thus they have been in my system around 160 days, which incidently is the rotation time at UVI.  Some are beautiful, most are plate size and there are a few runts.  If I take the 6 best and cross them back with the wild ones, and I can get the same growth rate out of all my fish, I'd be happy.  They are generally slower growing than Nile tilapia, thus you will be looking for a 1 pound fish after 160 odd days.

 

Breeding is normally not a problem, although I have a all male batch by the looks of it (big fish and no offspring). Usually getting them to not breed is the problem.  I have a basic document from the South Pacific region setting out a number of basic breeding options.  I'll try to get it over to you soon.  As we do not typically have intensive tilapia culture here, I'm not sure as to ideal ratios, but in the UVI system, they ran the smaller breeds they used at 154 fish per cubic meter of water, which is around 1.7 gal per fish.  I had 40 in around 900 liters, which is now 1100 liters, or over 6 gal per fish.  They live the good life!

Comment by Adam Shivers on February 10, 2011 at 12:09pm

how long does it take for them to get to "Plate sized" and do you know if the standard gallon per tilapia ratio stands with this breed? Also I have never learned about breeding fish. How do you do this?

Comment by Adam Shivers on February 10, 2011 at 11:59am

Was there more? not that this wasn't completely helpful. I appreciate your help as always!

Comment by Kobus Jooste on February 10, 2011 at 6:59am

Bummer - comments getting chopped again

 

Comment by Kobus Jooste on February 10, 2011 at 6:59am

Mozambique tilapia are the closest living thing to a cockroach with fins that you will get.  They can take horrendous water quality and still do well - their only real issue at present is slow growth rates, but I'm sure selective breeding programs and all male stocking can fix that. Even the most basically maintained AP system should be able to make them happy.

 

Below is an extract from the web site FishBase that gives you an idea of what the species is all about.

 

 Thrives in standing waters (Ref. 7248, 12501). Inhabits reservoirs, rivers, creeks, drains, swamps and tidal creeks; commonly over mud bottoms, often in well-vegetated areas (Ref. 44894). Also found in warm weedy pools of sluggish streams, canals, and ponds (Ref. 5723). Most common in blind estuaries and coastal lakes (Ref. 32693), but usually absent from permanently open estuaries and open sea (Ref. 6465) and from fast-flowing waters (Ref. 7248, 12501). Normally not found at high altitudes (Ref. 6465). Able to survive extreme reduction of temporary waterbodies (Ref. 2, 27445). Highly euryhaline (Ref. 2, 3, 23, 58, 61, 6465,

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