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Over the last few days my tilapia fingerlings have really started to grow out, to up to 5 inches. I've had them since mid April. This is my first batch and I'm happy with the progress.

Over the last few days I've notice some color changes. Some are a lot darker, some are getting redder in their bellies, and some are getting a uniform pattern of spots. It's the spots that worry me bc I've had fish before and you always need to watch for ick.

Note I have two batches ... Some are golds and another is a batch of f1 prob all males from another so source.

I lost one bigger fish today but only one other over the last two weeks. I'm really just checking to see if this look ok to any of you. Are these changes normal?

Feedback appreciated. Thanks.

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The spots I see in the pics are normal, and likely your fish are getting ready to breed. Ich looks like small raised bumps or pimples, like salt stuck to the scales. I've see my share of Ich, but never had a tilapia get it.
Thanks. I was hoping for confirmation of what you said. It's a shame that they are breeding so small -- they were underfed at first and I might have stunted them.

Will they continue to grow after they breed?

Sounds like I have to do some light reading to figure out optimal conditions.
Mossies breed at 3 months under ideal conditions, and the breeding females and dominant male will grow very slowly. The non-dominant males will grow as fast as ever, though, which means later they will likely become dominant, and so on. To slow breeding down you can separate the males from the females, screen the bottom, crowd them, or keep temps in high 70', below 80.
Ah. That makes sense. Fish are all about three months old but only in the last 10 days or so, during our heat wave, has the water been 85-86. It was in the 70s before that and I saw no coloring changes like now. I'm surprised that there isn't more talk of temperature as breeding control for closed systems. It seems to me that keeping water at 77 would be optimal for reducing unwanted breeding and overcrowding. I'm going to experiment and work off that assumption. Thanks!

I have several tanks of various sizes, and was going to try to set up a nursery/hatchery over the weekend to set up for the breeders.

I am wondering if they all can breed. I ask because the dark fish you see were sold to me privately as F1 moz/honorum hybrids.
The F1's are also fertile, and also breed at the same age and temp, but they are male. Personally, I wouldn't keep them together, because you will get offspring that do not have predictable or desirable traits. Literally, if the F1 is the father, and the golds of course is the the mother, then the babies will be splotchy gold and gray, and about 75% male, which is fine for the table, just not for resale and birth control. They will have lost the all-male trait, and the hybrid vigor.

Blues are the best, since they don't breed until 8-9 months, and you can pack them up over a pound by that time. They are illegal in Cal, though still quite available. They will breed in the 70's, especially if held cooler for a while and then brought up to the upper 70's. Thus, temps suitable for growth cannot control breeding in blues.

I use temp for breeding control in Mossies all the time, and crowding. It is known in the tilapia world, just not shared often.

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