breeding tilapia

[Fabio H Cedeno]

ok, I've set up a 20 gal tank, with good filtration, aeration and nice warm water at about 75 to 85, I put a male and 3 females, the male eventually cleared a nest area at bottom, but no takers, in the mean time it kept side bumping females until 2 had bad bruises, I removed them but one die, I removed 3rd one because it started mashing that one also, so I removed both and started again.

1 male and 2 females, and same thing, the females get beat up and fins get tore and damaged so they cant swim, so far it's happen 3 times with 3 different groups...is this normal ritual, ? or am I doing something wrong? I'm frustrated and need helpful advice,  thanks in advance. 

 

[Randy Mann]

Hey Fabio....I have not tried breeding Tilapia but I have seen other tanks that are bigger and they have PVC pipe in them that the female fish can go in to to get away from the male. There is also a breeding Tilapia forum that you can follow on site.  You might want to check that out. Good luck. Here is the Tilapia Breeding group link  http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/group/tilapia-breeding

Randy

[Bob Campbell]

I too set up a breeding tank and those fish don't breed.  The main 800 gallon tank on the other hand produces hundreds of tilapia fry.  I discovered that I can find them swimming in the radial filter, and save them before flushing the filter.  It's really too easy.  All you need to do is place a strainer large enough for the tiny little fry to get sucked into, but small enough to keep fingerlings from going out the overflow tube.