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jackalope
04-07-2010, 04:19 PM
I have definitely got a male, I think. His white throat is like a balloon under his chin ....... going in and out, in and out like a toad's throat ...... the trouble is, as the day has worn on, there seems to be more than one now .... I counted 4 more whose throats seem to be getting white as well, although not as prominently as the first/largest one. From what I've read, the female doesn't have any change in color, like a white throat, so should I take out the others and relegate them to another tank to avoid undue aggression damage to any of them, or should I just ignore them? I did put two black plastic flower pots and there is a flat bottom in them due to the granite sample that is holding them down to prevent them from floating. He seems to be defending the entrance to one of the pots, but I haven't seen him allow another into the pot which might indicate that it's a female.

I've got one black one which isn't opening it's mouth as much/as far as the others do ...... but I'm not sure that it's a female with eggs, I'll have to wait on some return comments before I go as far as catching it and putting it into another tank.

Comments/advice are solicited, if you know anything about breeding the Mossambica tilapia ;)

badflash
04-07-2010, 05:28 PM
If those are from my gene line, what you describe should be males. The females do not show that coloration. The dominant male will show the most color and will have red markings on the edge of his fins. Really striking. Males are easy to sex when they color up by looking under the hood. Pretty obvious when compared to the female.

If you drop some food in the tank, a holding female will either not feed, or go for the food and shy away before taking any. I usually will isolate holding females from the rest in their own tank. Once they spit I fish them out and put them back in the breeding tank. Holding females will look like they are constantly chewing something, and their throats will start to bulge out as the eggs grow to fry.

JCO
04-08-2010, 08:23 AM
You also have to be very careful about netting a holding female...she will almost always spit the eggs out and that's the end of that! :mrgreen:

badflash
04-08-2010, 07:11 PM
She'll usually pick them back up if she gets the chance. Pretty cool. I just dump her and the eggs into a nursery tank. Key is to get females that spit or swallow eggs out fast so they don't eat the fry. Read my signature. It is there for a reason...

jackalope
04-08-2010, 09:39 PM
Well, it looks to me that I may have a couple of females, their throats look kinda like there's a bag, pouch or sac underneath the 'chin' behind the mouth, rather than the sleek look that the rest of the fish have ..... if this is an indication of them "holding," it sure took them long enuff to get the idea to breed .....

badflash, I have one more query ..... would the male show his breeding colors if there weren't any females in the tank, or would the males do this among other males without a female present?

I'd better buy another heater (I went thru four of them this winter) ..... I might need to set up a nursery tank ;)

badflash
04-09-2010, 08:14 PM
Yes, males alway vie for dominance, even with no females. They just don't fight as much.

Net a female and look in her mouth, the eggs are unmistakable. Don't worry about losing a few eggs, Lots more where that came from. This is the only way to learn.

badflash
04-10-2010, 07:09 PM
Just got a nice spawn from one of my red-red (actually orange) females. You have to love the trade names. See if you can count them:
[video:2k8b405z]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuVBkN_yXvI [/video:2k8b405z]

jackalope
04-11-2010, 01:47 AM
I have definitely got a male, I think. His white throat is like a balloon under his chin
What color are the fish you're breeding? It sounds like the male, at least, is black.

Are you trying to breed for color at all?

They go from silver/gray striped to black striped -- I'm not breeding for color, I'm just hoping they're breeding .... they are about 6 months old and are just starting to get the idea that they should breed ..... kinda slow on the uptake ...... I'll hafta check and see if I've got some females

jackalope
04-11-2010, 01:51 AM
Yes, males alway vie for dominance, even with no females. They just don't fight as much.

Net a female and look in her mouth, the eggs are unmistakable. Don't worry about losing a few eggs, Lots more where that came from. This is the only way to learn.

I was hopin that it would mean that there was at least one female in the bunch ..... I guess I'll hafta start looking in some mouths this next week. Gonna be outta town til Tues.

badflash
04-20-2010, 02:52 PM
As long as they don't get fungus, they should be OK, but you might want to put them in a breeding net and bubble air under it.

badflash
04-20-2010, 08:04 PM
I'll bet she found them. I've seen good mothers badger other fish holding until they spit and then gather up the eggs. I often find females with all stages of eggs to fy, so they are not all theirs.

jackalope
04-20-2010, 08:23 PM
I've been procrastinating, I haven't separated her/them from the males ..... it looks like I have two of them (maybe) I've been laying tile, changing out the manifolds and carb on my truck, etc., etc, too much to do, too little time ;) Gotta get things done if I wanna sell this place ;).

badflash
04-24-2010, 05:53 PM
Mossies don't need to be clipped. Niles and hornorum do unless the fish are close to equal size. If you have at least 5 females with a single male you won't need to clip them either.

jackalope
04-24-2010, 08:50 PM
I guess mine were a false alarm .... I've seen nothing to indicate eggs nor fry, and the two that I thought might be holding still don't seem to open their mouth as wide as the others, and still don't go after the food like the others :( Maybe they have lockjaw!

I bought an 8 foot pool the other day, going to put plywood on the concrete floor to break the cold temps, then I've got some closed-cell double side reflective 1" foam board to put on top of the plywood ..... then I'll fill the pool and get it ready for the fish ...... it's going to be cold all this week, so I probably won't get the fish put in yet, but I've got about 80 or 90 gallons of cycled water that I could put into it so I might just do that and still use the same boifilter .... that way, I think I can change everything in a couple of days, rather than wait a couple of weeks ;) That would be like a 60% or 75% change-out !

davidstcldfl
04-25-2010, 03:04 AM
I bought an 8 foot pool the other day, going to put plywood on the concrete floor to break the cold temps, then I've got some closed-cell double side reflective 1" foam board to put on top of the plywood .....
How about a waterbed heater too ? I know, it may not be big enough 'KW wise'....but it would help 'some'. Might be able to find one cheap or even free...and they wouldn't use much electric.
You could lay another section of vinyl or something over the heater, just to add some protection to the pool liner (?)

jackalope
04-25-2010, 07:29 AM
I bought an 8 foot pool the other day, going to put plywood on the concrete floor to break the cold temps, then I've got some closed-cell double side reflective 1" foam board to put on top of the plywood .....
How about a waterbed heater too ? I know, it may not be big enough 'KW wise'....but it would help 'some'. Might be able to find one cheap or even free...and they wouldn't use much electric.
You could lay another section of vinyl or something over the heater, just to add some protection to the pool liner (?)

I've got that 1000 watt bucket heater that badflash recommended .... that will sit somewhere in the center (if possible), then I will pump the water into a swirly, and out of that into the biofilter ..... it's still too cold here to have an AP system, it's snowing down south of us and feels like it's going to snow here today ...... this Global Warming is just killing my plans for an AP system this yeear ..... :( :(

I don't know where I would find any waterbed heaters here, we usually scour the two thrift shops in Lewistown (approx 70 mi. round trip) whenever we go to town (Usually once or twice a week), but I have never yet seen a waterbed heater in either one.

JCO
04-25-2010, 01:21 PM
Don't forget http://carigslist.com or can you get it that far out in the boonies :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :mrgreen:

badflash
04-25-2010, 06:40 PM
I've gotten them off ebay before.

jackalope
04-25-2010, 08:17 PM
I've seen them on ebay ....but for 30 and 40 dollars ..... if I gotta pay that much, I'd just as soon use the bucket heater! I set up the pool today, and put about 30 - 35 gallons of hot water in, the rest of it is cold water ..... I was sure I bought the 8' pool, but when I set it up it's only a 6' ..... it's good enuff for the experiment tho ...... I poured about 6 gallons of ammonia water in it to get it started cycling ..... I had to do a change-out on one of the FT's, so I figured I'd use some of the old water to make it cycle faster ;) Some of the water was so dirty, that I just couldn't bring myself to use it, so it may take a little longer to cycle than I'd hoped.

That 6 footer is 258 gallons .... I didn't go all the way to the top, so I've probably got about 250 gallons in it, but for $12.00 at WalMart, I can live with a 200 gallon FT for now ;) I'm hoping to get the big one going too, so I can get my Blues going as well.

badflash
04-26-2010, 07:08 PM
She's not just sucking them up. They actively dive into her mouth.

Get your hands wet. Net her and she'll spit most of them. Next grab her with one hand and hold her lower lip open with your thumb. You'll figure it out. Dip her head down in the water past her gills a few times until the fry stop comming out. Put her in a recovery tank.

jackalope
05-02-2010, 02:25 PM
I still don't know if I've got any females yet .... at least I don't think any of them are bred .... so I caught them all today and put them into the swimming pool - (6'round, 14" deep - about 250 gallons). They are enjoying their freedom from confined quarters ;). I've got to clean some plastic flower pots and put some hidey-holes for them to see if I can get something to breed now that they've got a bigger space. I'll be glad when/if it warms up so I can do some aquaponics ..... that room is so warm, I may just start without worrying about the weather ;).

jackalope
05-22-2010, 10:37 AM
Good News! When I gave all of my feeder Guppies to the guys that bought my Mossies, we discovered that there were 6 Mossie Juvies in with the Guppies. I had just fished out all of the Mossies and left a few of what I thought were escaped Guppies in the tank, and then emptied the Guppy tank into the larger Mossie tank. I was wondering why the Guppies weren't producing much in the past couple of weeks ;). Well, now at least I know that there was A female left in the bunch, there may be more ;) ! Those guys are putting them in stock tanks to run aquaponics, I've invited them to join us here so we can help them in their quest!

badflash
07-07-2010, 07:56 AM
I hate lipping fish. It is effective for saving females, but I've found that in my fish, they don't breed nearly as much.

A stategy that works for me is having lots of females with a single male. This keeps the male busy with receptive females. When they don't want to breed is when they get beat up.