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fish behaving strangely

i set up a 150 gallon tank to breed talipia and hopfully get a consistant size for my growout pond. however the fish i selected were about 3-4 inches long. i tryied to sex them visually with dye but i could not see the differencein the sexes. so i picked out 8 of the best looking and the largestest fish and put them in the new tank. heres my problem, they stay on the bottom and dont move and hardly eat unless food falls right in front of them. the water paramereters are ok the water temp is ok i even extented the time with a light to think it is summer or spring. if i move up to the tank to feed or take water samples they freak out and go darting around and sometimes hitting the sides of the tank. all my other fish in the other ponds usually come up at feeding time, jumping and eating. could i have selected all the same sex fish and they are all nuns or fryers. duh cant figure it out. i have been told they even have the ability to change sex?

anyway please help its makin me crazx

other than that its all good. glad to be apart of this comunity im a newbie too

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Permalink Reply by David Hart on January 6, 2013 at 8:01am

Hi Craig, I work at Sahib Aquaponic research farm. We set up 2 glass tanks several months ago. In the 75 gallon tank, we added adult breeders. They took the better part of a month to get used to the new tank. They now press their faces against the glass and stare at me when I first get there in the morning. When I walk by the tank, they even follow me...

The other tank is a 50 gallon and it has about 20 some fish about the size of yours. Even though they've been in there for a few months, they still seem skitish when I'm near their tank.

I've noticed the same thing with my fish at home too.

I helped my friend set up an AP system. Now that his fish are larger, they no longer dash around and crash into the sides of the tank.

Maybe it's a survival thing, that the smaller ones seem more skitish...?

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Permalink Reply by craig smith on January 6, 2013 at 9:33am

Thanks for the reply. They have been in the new tank 2 wks. Ill be patient.

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Permalink Reply by Roger on January 6, 2013 at 1:21pm

Craig - When I introduced my fish to my tank it took them 2 weeks before the acted normal. Before they would barely eat and were extremely skittish as you're explaining. I wouldn't quite worry about it yet. Give them a little while longer to adjust to the tank. I wish you luck!

As a side note, breeding is something I haven't tried yet but after I get a year under my belt with my AP system I am definitely interested in trying to breed my own. It would definitely decrease the amount of money one must spend to restock tank once fish are able to be harvested.

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Permalink Reply by craig smith on January 6, 2013 at 2:51pm

I just outside feeding the fish and they ate some but still stayed on the bottom for the most part
A friend gave me a jacussie, its nice quality. Almost kept it for me. But the fish love it and its easy to maintain. Some of the fish in it are from the s ame batch i bought 4 months ago. I noticed some are changing to a dark blue and growing fast. At this rate they will outgrow thier family in the 150 gal tank. Maybe i should have let them all mature before sexing them. It all great experience!!!

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Permalink Reply by Alex Veidel on January 7, 2013 at 5:08pm

Tilapia aren't overly fond of light, did you transfer them from low light conditions to a place that is brighter? For my fish, I found that even the side glow of my grow lights was enough to keep them hiding in the bottom of the tank. After I wrapped my tank with a tarp: happy fish!