What is happening to the babies?

[dsrtlzrd32]

Hello all,

Been a while since I was on last. In the spring I lost all but two of my tilapia from tomato leaf poisoning. (It took me a long time to narrow that down, but the fish stopped dying when I removed the tomato plants that were hanging over the water, dropping leaves into the system regularly.) So if you don't know already, tomato leaves are toxic and can even kill your fish. So the two tilapia I had left ended up breeding over the summer. (I had pretty much given up on the system, did not feed them, but just let the system run over the summer). I checked on the system at the end of July and found several small fry swimming in the grow beds (continuous flow system, created water pockets in the rocks that fry were living in). I also found about 20 fry still in my fish tanks so I know my 2000 gph pump did not suck them all up. I fed the fry in the grow beds till they were about the size of my fingernail and then moved them back to the fish tanks with the other fry. It is now November and all the fry are now about the size of medium gold fish and doing well (about 70 altogether). I am feeding them regularly. However, I have not seen a new batch of fry since. From what I read, tilapia breed prolifically so I would assume if they did it once, shouldn't they do it again?

My buddy also has a system and has found 1 or 2 fingerlings in his tanks but that is all (we both have been running our systems for 2 full years now.) He has set up a breeding tank with two females and a male in a separate IBC. He says he has seen the females with mouthfuls of eggs and seen fry swimming in the system just after they hatch. But by a few days later all the fry are gone. We have finally found just 2 baby fingerlings in the breeding tank that are about 1 inch long. Obviously the fish are breeding but what is happening to all the babies? My buddy thinks the adults are eating all the fry even though he feeds his fish plenty of pellets daily. I read adults won't cannibalize the young if they are well fed, so I am not so sure of this theory. And even if they do cannibalize them, would they be able to eat them all (I know people say they have to get a predator fish like a catfish for population control so I find it hard to believe the tilapia are able to population control themselves).

Anyway, my question is what are your theories? Any ideas of things we could try? I had clay pots in my system to provide hiding spots but they did not breed until I had taken everything out and pretty much gave up on the system. This is the breed of tilapia I have if this might make a difference http://goldentilapia.com/golden-tilapia.html (bought them from that site).

[Oliver]

Any time you have juvenile fish in the breeding tank you will not see any new babies, for the juveniles will suck up the babies before you see them.

Oliver

[Apollo]

At what age or size do they turn from juvenile fish to "I'm not going to eat you fish"? I have 5" to 6" Gold Fish in with my Pink Tilapia's are these guys also eating the fry's?

[JCO]

Godlfish will eat anything that moves that they can get in their mouth

[davidstcldfl]

At what age or size do they turn from juvenile fish to "I'm not going to eat you fish"?

Basically, until they are adults...and well fed.. Then they are too lazy (normally) to give chase.
I've seen brothers and sisters, from the same batch, eat each other. It's amazing, how some grow so much faster then others.
Just look for the ones that are as 'round' as they are long.... :P

[dsrtlzrd32]

Thanks for your replies. Good to know not to expect any babies in the tank with my juveniles. Any guesses to what may be happening to the babies in my buddies breeding tank that only has 1 male and 2 females (no juveniles)? Are the parents eating them, even though he feeds them daily, or could there be something else happening I can't think of?

[davidstcldfl]

Any guesses to what may be happening to the babies in my buddies breeding tank

Tilapia fry are tiny. They'll even go through a mag drive pump and come out the other side going....."wheeeeeeee".... Then they can end up 'anywhere'....

[JCO]

Additionally, females will eat young, theirs or someone elses.

[dsrtlzrd32]

Alright, thank you guys for answering me, very helpful . I was skeptical that the parents were eating but with your knowledgeable responses I will encourage my friend to take the parents out of his tank as soon as he sees the fry swimming. I was hoping my tilapia would just naturally keep my tanks stocked without me having to set up extra breeding tanks and such.

[JCO]

Hey, check out this link:-

http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/s...bler-in-action

Maybe you should consider taking the eggs from the females and hatching them this way