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Talipia stop eating above 90

We're in dry season [Hot], my water temp goes above 90 degrees in afternoon, fish not eating, other things have changed, but I think temp is why their not eating???

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Permalink Reply by TCLynx on March 31, 2011 at 3:35pm

Do you have extra aeration going. Tilapia also quit eating when the dissolved oxygen fall and hot water doesn't hold as much oxygen, you might get them to eat a bit by aerating or cycling more. But I've noticed that as temperatures get beyond the perfect number, feeding does tend to fall off a bit suddenly and again this is probably more due to oxygen demand than just the temperature of course they are definitely linked.

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Permalink Reply by Pete I on March 31, 2011 at 4:13pm

I can try to increase air, not sure how I will right now, have a fair amount going in now, clouds on horizon, hope for rain.

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Permalink Reply by TCLynx on March 31, 2011 at 4:42pm

If air bubbling is not so easy, simply adding pumping/spray bars can do a lot, and actually in your climate the spray bars may actually help with some cooling too, though it will cost you some water to evaporation.

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Permalink Reply by Pete I on March 31, 2011 at 5:46pm

That's what I do, a 1" x 8' piece of PVC with about 300 1/8 " holes is the input to my FP. Get a fair amount more with bio filter, sprays water out into GB.

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Permalink Reply by Nate Storey on April 1, 2011 at 10:54am

Depends on what kind of tilapia you're running. Most Nile and Nile variants will feed up into the mid/high 90s although you'll have some disease issues. Probably what TC said: DO problems. The warmer the water is, generally, the less soluble O2 becomes in it, so even with highly aerated water, you can only replace the O2 consumed, you can't increase the O2 concentration threshold at that temperature- if it's already at max. So you need to cool off your water (shading? evaporative cooling though high aeration, or evaporative plant production techniques?), make sure you have maximum dissolved O2 (high aeration), and lower your feeding rates, because your BOD will really shoot through the roof if you're overfeeding in hot weather. It's better to have lower weight gain over time than to have a tank full of fish soup. (I've done this fingerlings left near a radiator!!!!! It's sick. :P )