A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Bummer, no tilapia

State has doubts about my set-up: in 100 yr flood plan, near a big storm ditch that connects to a lake which is part of a non-tidal swamp system...which describes all of Tidewater, really. Jefferson referred to Norfolk as a "malarial swamp". He's right.

I may push the matter further later, but not now. No complaints, I'm the one wanting to import an invasive, exotic species. I could figure a way around it, but if something went wrong & it was traced back to me (like this post) I'd lose everything.

I also had to drain my 1400 gal tank down to 1000 gal, which took out 1.5 tons. The sides were showing the strain. So it's been a bummer of a day.

I'm mostly interested in the plants (four 4x8 grow beds & a sprouting table), but I want some eating fish, too.

Too hot for trout. Any other ideas?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on March 30, 2012 at 3:45pm

Ya know, tilapia are not the be all end all of aquaponic fish. You would wind up having to heat for them a good part of the year just to keep them alive let alone eating enough to poop for your plants. Though tilapia are easy if you have really warm water year round, in general I will say they are not all people have cracked them up to be. I don't bother raising them anymore. The only benefit I really see to them is it is easy to breed your own stock, otherwise they are way over rated.

Channel Catfish make really good eating and they get big fast compared to tilapia at less than optimal temperatures. And they grow much bigger for great fillets. (Catfish grown in my aquaponics system have never tasted muddy and they will happily top feed if you feed them floating food.)

Now if you have a problem with catfish (like if you are not allowed to eat fish without scales) Bluegill are good eating fish though they don't get very big.

Both bluegill and channel catfish have been great fish in my AP systems (I'm too cheap to heat the water) and both are natives to much of the USA and far more easily available from fish farms that provide stocking for farm ponds. They are warm water fish that can handle it pretty much just as warm as tilapia can (might want to provide a bit better aeration but they are still quite easy to raise, especially if you are talking about a 1000 gallon fish tank.) And the natives can live through cold water as long as the temperature swing is not unnaturally fast and the fish are not tiny fry when you chill them down. Catfish and bluegill can survive cold winters but they have to be big enough to have some reserves to last through the cold time of not eating, tiny fingerlings/fry don't have reserves and will starve to death if it is too cold for them to eat so don't get your initial stock in September or later if you will not be keeping the water above 60 F or higher. If you stock in spring, then the fish will be big enough to survive fasting for the cold months.

Permalink Reply by Tony Gilliam on March 30, 2012 at 4:40pm

I'm looking into blue gills and catfish as well as fathead minnows and crayfish. These fish will do fine in the cold winters here in ohio.

Permalink Reply by Barbara Mumpower on March 30, 2012 at 4:51pm

I agree with TCLynx. I started with channel catfish because they are very hearty fish. They will take a wide range of water conditions and they taste great. Since my system started as a large experiment I have had no problem with the fish. I haven't gotten enough plants growing for my system, but, the fish don't seem to mind.

Permalink Reply by rick kennerly on March 31, 2012 at 7:32am

Well, I was looking for hearty and resilient, so Tilapia seemed good. I hadn't considered cats. Or Blue Gills. Are BGs good eating? Never heard of a Fat Head Minnow.

It's pretty hot here in Virginia Beach in the summer, and the pond is in a greenhouse.

Anybody doing Large Mouth Bass? Are they finicky?

Or Crayfish. Guess I've got a lot of reading to do.

Permalink Reply by Vlad Jovanovic on March 31, 2012 at 7:56am

Common Carp is both hearty and resilient. Low O2 requirement, and is omnivorous as well. Very, very wide temp range as well...

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on March 31, 2012 at 10:26am

Bluegill are great eating. Some people will tell you they are the best eating. I say they are good but they are small so you usually have to deal with bones while eating.

Bass may be a bit more challenging in tank culture but I don't have any first hand experience with them.

Catfish are great since they grow so big it makes filleting them easy.

Now most Americans are not much interested in eating carp but carp are a type of fish that I think are probably far easier than tilapia. (Carp, boring goldfish) Carp could be bread fairly easily in a home system too. Though I expect people could breed their own Bluegill too but I haven't had mine long enough to try it.