Tilapia is a mouth breeder, they can be easily breed in captivity and a fast grower. This makes them ideal as a food fish. With fish in the tank and backyard breeding this is a good sustainable farming.
To breed Tilapia I need good breeder. All Tilapia from the same source is not a good choice as breeder, in-breeding will cause bad gene. It's best to get Tilapia from different shops in different location over a period of time to make them genetically far from each other.
Another option is wild Tilapia, they are the best option to ensure genetically of very different origin. However wild Tilapia, there will be risk that they might bring parasite or disease into my tank. At aquarium shop they sell solution to make sure parasite can be eliminated before introducing these wild Tilapia or any other into the tank.
What better way to get wild Tilapia then go fishing for it. Near my home there are many water catchment area, after a few years these catchment form beautiful man made lake. They are teaming with Tilapia for the picking.
So with a fishing rod in hand,, I spend slightly more then an hour at the catchment area and the result were 4 juvenile Tilapia each about 4 ~ 5 inches long. Tomorrow I'll try to catch few more. These will make good breeder with my Red Tilapia.
Hi Affnan,
ReplyDeleteWill you separate male tilapia from female tilapia so they do not overpopulate your tanks? If so, how will you pick out the males from the females? Thank you.
--Paul in Sacramento, California, USA
Female tilapia have 2 opening aft, and male have one. Its quite easy to tell the difference.
ReplyDeleteBut if you don't want to separate them, get plastic netting, use 4 inch pcv pipe to make frame same size as tank bottom, place/tie netting over frame and submerge frame into tank.
Space between netting and tank bottom will be the height of the pvc pipe, this way, if female tilapia lay eggs the male cannot pick them up.
Also its difficult to fertilise this way.
i learned alot from your videos me & my husband love your videos! (:
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments, its been a good experience for me making all those videos. From the worst shakey earlier to a better later videos. I hv not made any lately due to my aquaponics set had been dismantle for renovation, I hope to start back in a couple of months time.
Deletebtw my talapia looks koi mix...will it be edible? as i don't eat koi at all...LOL. anyway so far so good, I still have to check which one is female or male I have 6 to start off with for my system, it was given to me adult size no fingerlings. How would I be able to tell if any of my talapia is pregnant? i don't want all of them to birth as i am starting my AP system. & want to be able to have atleast 3 or 4 females and 2 boys.
ReplyDeleteThat a million dollar question to me, when can you tell when they are pregnant. As my experiment, keep them together for 3 months, surely babies Tilapia will be around by the hundreds. It will be more that you need actually. You may not be able to see any Tilapia fry initially because they hide inside the mother mouth, try observing them quietly they may swim around the parent.
DeleteCatch all fry and separate them from the adult otherwise it could be fish food, and grow them separately with crush fish pallets as meal.
thanks Affnan this is really helpful i will try keep an eye out! (:
DeleteWill 2 inch red tilapia breed in a650 l pond with 10 koi 3 to 7 cm and 2 golden apple snail
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion there should not be any problem, since 1 Tilapia only require about 5 ~ 6 liter of water as ration to pond. Koi is non aggresive same with Tilapia, so should not be a problem. On the golden apple snail, unless they are tiny then you don't have anything to worry about.
Deleteare tilapia mouth brooders?meaning they keep their eggs and young in their mouths.
ReplyDeleteyes
DeleteHi do you have schematic diagram of your aquaponic setup? Thanks
ReplyDeleteHi Giovanni, try check the "How To Start" on the righthand panel, it will link to various write up on my aquaponics setup layout.
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