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samtheman
02-20-2014, 04:48 AM
I struggled a little this winter keeping my tilapias alive cause of the cold spells we get. I was wondering what other types of fish can I raise in Central Florida for my aquaponic system that don't required for me to use heaters during the winter in Florida. Right now I have catfish in the sump tank and they did great during the winter but I wanted to add another type of fish that I can eat in addition to the catfish...any ideas? :?

dead_sled
02-20-2014, 07:41 AM
Maybe white bass, crappie, or small mouth bass. I am not sure what is available locally for you, or legal.

eddiemigue
02-20-2014, 12:06 PM
What kind of tilapia? How cold did your water get?

samtheman
02-20-2014, 01:39 PM
I have Blue Tilapia and my water temperature dropped to 57 degrees at times and I lost some of the fish. :(

JCO
02-20-2014, 02:06 PM
Check these out:-

http://woaat.org/shoppe/shop/edible-fish-in-aquaponics-guide-book/edible-fish-in-aquaponics-guide-book/

http://woaat.org/shoppe/shop/crayfish-in-aquaponics-guide-book/crayfish-in-aquaponics-guide-book/

I highly recommend them for a reference (since I wrote them 8-) ) :mrgreen:

samtheman
02-20-2014, 06:22 PM
Thanks JCO, I had already read your book on how to raise crayfish a couple of weeks ago, so I decided to go for the Australian crayfish only to find out it requires a license in Florida :(
These books are very affordable and informative, I may have to get the other one on your list 8-)

eddiemigue
02-21-2014, 12:36 PM
I have blue tilapia as well, and my temps have dropped to 59F at the lowest. Even at this temperature, the fish seemed to have no issues and have continued to eat normally. Perhaps the size of the fish is also a factor.

davidstcldfl
02-21-2014, 12:53 PM
Hi Sam, We've bought blue gill from central FL fish farm. They do well in the cold, but they don't grow as fast as tilapia, by any means.
On that note, we had cats and blue gill in the same tanks. As the cats got bigger, they were more aggressive in feeding compared to the blue gill, plus they occasionally damaged the blue gill with their sharp barbs. I think they do better in separate tanks.


57 F. isn't too bad. I've seen our water a little lower then that.

We add small heaters when it's going to get cold (for FL) ...plus, we cover the tanks, and shut off the water pump for the night. ( 'Only' shut off your water pump 'if' you have a good size air pump).
What were trying to do is...get the water temp to drop 'very slowly'. The fish seem to survive and we save electric.
We don't worry about trying to breed tilapia year round. We normally get more then enough, when the water is naturally warm.

Looking forward to meeting you in a week or so... :)

samtheman
02-21-2014, 03:08 PM
Thanks for the info David, I have my cat fishes in a separate tank from the tilapias for the same reason. I do have a deep water air pump so I might try to shut off the water pump at night the next cold spell and see how it does work for me. My blue tilapias came from Stucco's place a couple of years ago and I still should have enough to get me by.....see you next week 8-)

Apollo
02-21-2014, 03:46 PM
Hey David, if you shut off the pump for the night what effect does that have on your GB, plants and bio filter?

I wanted to run my AP system just on my battery backup at night, it will still add water to my GB's but not enough to fire my bell siphon. Water still doing a splash down back to the FT, plants would just sit in water for the night. Will that work?

Waterboy2b98
03-10-2014, 01:35 AM
I live in South Louisiana and have the same weather as yall in Florida. I can tell you that Crappie {Soc a liat} as we call them are a very bad choice. They do NOT pellet train very easy, and dont grow fast at all. Bluegill will pellet train a little eaisier, but again dont grow fast. Tilapia are the way to go here. A few tips to survive the winter are to wrap your tank with the roll insulation. Cover your tank with the hard foam insulation. And put a aquarium heater or two in there. Works fine for me!!