A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Feeding Tilapia

Taking TCLynx's lead, I also thought this group might want to discuss feed. What are you using? If commercial, what kind? If not, how are you growing it? Are you using a combo of the two? This is a subject that is near and dear to my heart (I wrote a blog post recently about what a drag it is not to be able to find a sustainable commercial feed!).

I have used 3 products over the past year. First, I used trout chow by Ranchway Feed, mainly because my buddy John and I got trout from a local hatchery at the same time and split a 50 lb bag. Then I ordered more feed from our Feed store here and they ordered the wrong thing and I ended up with AquaMax Pond 2000, which has Huge pellets (the NY Times article image of the tilapia with the giant ball floating in front of him was eying a Pond 2000 pellet). Work ok for my larger (8 - 12") tilapia, but the little guys can't get their mouths around it. Now I'm using AquaMax Grower 4000, which is finally what I probably should be using most of the time. The fish seem to love it.

Purina has a nice chart to show what feed should be used for Tilapia at each stage of growth - http://www.aquamaxfishfeed.com/tilapia_chart.html

I also throw most plant waste into the tanks, and when lettuce we buy starts getting slimy I feed that to the fish as well. I'm going to keep experimenting with what stuff that is headed for the compost heap can be used to feed the fish.

I want to start a duckweed bin this summer.

OK, anyone else?

Sylvia

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ken Elrich on May 23, 2012 at 2:40pm

I am still using the feed the breeder sold me out of his stock. he just put it in a ziplock baggy so I am not sure on the brand.
I have been getting duckweed from small ponds around my area. But, because it is hard to come by in the winter in michigan, I have started to dry it, and freeze it into ice cube trays. I will drop one cube in and they destroy it. by morning it is all gone. because I pump water from the bottom on the tank and above the tank to a bio filter and gravity feed back, I never find any in the bio filter and the hanging filter on the back only has mechanical filtration and activated carbon in it and very little signs of duck weed. FYI duck weed will come back to life after freezing.

Permalink Reply by Keith Rowan on June 7, 2012 at 2:57pm

i just ordered a 50lb bag of purina aquamax 5D09 for $27 for my itlapia

Permalink Reply by J Shocklie on July 21, 2012 at 8:07pm

Has anyone considered the ingredients in what they buy to feed their fish? And does anyone have any opinions that they would share with me on what they think would be considered better ingredients or whether buying bulk for low price is their main priority?