Babies, babies, babies!!!

[Windy Elliott]

I'm still relatively new to aquaponics. I think I bought Sylvia's system for my basement only a few months ago and I am still struggling with getting my plants to grow. What I am not struggling with however, is keeping my fish alive. I have gone from having 6 mollies, 6 koi, and 5 tilapia, to over 100 mollies, 4 koi, 3 lobster and over a hundred tilapia. I have two aquaponic systems and 4 regular aquariums ranging in size from 20 to 75 gallons. I recently moved a pair of the adult tilapia in with the mollies to try to get rid of some of the molly fry and the local pet store has offered to take some in trade when they get to 1 inch in size. Obviously the mollies are just using up resources at this point. I guess the Koi are too, but they are so pretty that I don't mind.

I was just down feeding everyone and noticed that one tilapia female has eggs in her mouth and there is another batch of fry swimming around in the main tank.

My fish are breeding like rabbits and I am worried that I won't have enough room for them all to grow! Right now I only have one male, so I guess I could separate him from the females for a while, but that still leaves me with 4 adult females and well over 100 babies.

 

Any advice on how I should be planning out this growth? Winter is coming so I can't plan on moving any outdoors and I have run out of space in the basement. My electric bill has doubled so I would rather not add to the systems if I can avoid it. If I plan to dedicate all the tanks to tilapia eventually, will that be enough? If only I could get my plants to grow as well as my fish!

[Chi Ma]

Feed some of the fry to the other fish.

[Windy Elliott]

I'm trying. I have the tilapia in the molly aquarium now in the hope that they will eat some. So far, nobody is biting. I think I will take the female out and just leave the male. Maybe then he will think about food a bit more.

[RW]

It's my understanding bluegill (or any kind of sunfish) love to eat fry.

 

My system is 3 months old and I'm struggling a bit with growing plants too.  Adding liquid seaweed with iron periodically seems to be helping. That and making sure the plants get plenty of light. Best of luck.

[TCLynx]

Well if you know anyone with chickens, they love pumpkin seed sized fry as snacks.