I have fry!

[J Shocklie]

Woke up this morning and began obsessing over the amount of particles floating in my fish water when I suddenly noticed that one of those little particles was looking back at me!  We were counting 20 tilapia fry who were being chased by big tilapia before I decided to get them out.  So here we are at our next step....suddenly....  It's a good thing we went to Home Depot this morning...

[J Shocklie]

Also I wanted to mention that we started with 25 tilapia.  We now have at least 20 but only 4-5 of them have that whiter, pink color to them and everyone else is dark.  One of them is even dark all over their belly, very dark stripes and their mouth especially.  Anyway, I'm assuming the darker ones should be female but then that would mean that we have about 14-15 female.  I thought it was hard to get a female.  I know I should perhaps catch them and look at them but heard behavior tells better.  The whiter ones have taken up in all the planters we have in there for their homes while all the other ones hang out in the middle of the tank and get chased here and there by the white ones when they dart out of their homes. 

Well this is all a bit premature but I am excited that we are moving on!

[Sheri Schmeckpeper]

The darker are subordinate fish, both male and female. They get dark when they are trying to hide from the light colored dominant fish are breeding, or hoping to breed. The breeders, particularly the males, will control the pots, aka, nesting areas, and will be aggressive toward all the rest.

You've got some active breeding behavior going on in there! Congratulations!

[Jim Troyer]

Very Cool! 

BTW: what does the J stand for?

[J Shocklie]

It's our initials, Jennifer and Jacob. :)