Breeder Colony

[urbanfarmer]

Does anyone know where to get one inexpensively? I see the following breeder colony offered for a few hundred bucks:
"A breeder colony consists of six female pure breed orange O. Mossambica, and one male pure breed improved body form O. Hornorum."

That's way out of my price range, but maybe a pure breed male Blue Tilapia and some pure breed female Nile Tilapia would do the trick? From what I have seen those are far more common species...

Does anyone know where to get specific species of fish with some kind of purity guarantee or, heck, credibility to their claims of purity? I have talked to a few guys with ads on craig's list and ebay and they claim they are pure breeds, but when they tell me where they got the parents from (a local lake or something), well, there's a good chance those are hybrids. However, at this point I will take anything because I have a pond with just feeder goldfish and it needs some real fish!

[keith_r]

i read a recent thread on the pond boss forum, there's a guy selling "pure" blue tilapia,
http://www.tilapiastockers.com/

theres a decent read on how its actually better to stick with the pure strain instead of trying to cross.. if you do cross, you'll have to keep buying your breeders

[davidstcldfl]

Most commercial places (in FL) wont sell to you (a floridian) unless you have your aquaculture licenses.
Even though they ARE in our water ways....it's still illeagal to release them....especially hybrids.
Raising them is a 'gray area' without an aquaculture licenses.
(lets see how many responses that brings up ... )

Try Morning star Fishermen....in Dade city. They have 'blues'....I don't know if they are 'certified' (?)
They are a Christian org....they ask for 'donations' for the fish you get, if I remember right. They do have classes too. A month or two ago...I went with a group of AP's from central FL....they gave us a tour of their facility.

http://www.morningstarfishermen.org/

[krfoerster]

Go to this guys site and check him out. He claims to have great quality breeds and is local to you. Might be able to drive over and see them first hand.

Kenny
http://tilapiafarmingathome.com/default.aspxy

[urbanfarmer]

I emailed morningstar and I am awaiting a response.

According to what I have read, good F-1 hybrids grow much faster even pure strain blue tilapia. Some numbers suggest that in 4 months hybrids are about the same size as 6 month blue tilapia. The guy selling breeder colonies here in Orlando won't return my emails, but the seemingly patented or copyright colony he sells boasts the 4-month growth that outperforms even pure strain blues... I'm pretty new to all this, but I assume that if hybrids do grow faster, then a male Blue and a female Nile would generate all male tilapia that would grow to plate size in 4 months. If anyone has PDF's, links, or articles that might shed light on all this feel free to post I am eager to learn!

Also, I do plan to keep separate breeder colonies. In fact, I hope to keep 3 sets of breeder colonies. 1 set to breed more pure strain blue tilapia, 1 set to breed more pure strain nile tilapia, and 1 set to breed the F-1 hybrid fish I plan to eat!

I truly enjoy nature and even simple things like raising the fish indoors in tanks; so, I have no problem caring for the breeders indoors in addition to tending to the outdoor yum-yum fish.

[JCO]

Talk to Badflash

[urbanfarmer]

PM sent.

Thank you everyone so far for all the good advice; I feel I have some good leads!

[badflash]

Stay away from the home tiliapia farmer dude. He poached rejects from Mike Sipe and has bad fish. Stick with pure species. From home use hybrids are too much trouble. I am the voice of experience.

[urbanfarmer]

Stay away from the home tiliapia farmer dude. He poached rejects from Mike Sipe and has bad fish. Stick with pure species. From home use hybrids are too much trouble. I am the voice of experience.

WOW, thanks for the warning. He offered me a set of breeding pair for $100 and I was planning to go for it if my research showed it was as good or better than pure strain blues or other hybrids... dodged that bullet!