Talapia breeds

[AZdesertFarmer]

I have been researching aquaponics, and Talapia seem to be a good fish for my climate. What I haven't seen is info on reproduction. I have seen ads for breeding colonies (hybrids) which produce 90% or better male offspring for faster grow-out and to control reproduction. I want to create a sustainable system, so my question is: If I get a prue-bred strain do I have to worry about overpopulating my tank through reproduction or will the larger fish use the fry for food? I'm not worried about grow-out as I am not planning on producing a "market fish" just want to feed the family. Recomendations for a breed would be appreciated.

[JCO]

I would suggest you stay away from hyped advertising. There are too many out there that claim miracles and it's all smoke and mirrors until they get your money. You also have to be concerned about the laws in your state about Tilapia. For the best source of info on Tilapia, contact Badflash on this forum.

[urbanfarmer]

Badflash has also posted a thread on the local laws (to the best of our collective research, etc).

...but, I can't seem to find it. Maybe he can chime in with the link... I can't seem to find it :-/

[badflash]

The easiest tilapia and the one that is legal in the most states is O. mossambius.

The law link is: State Tilapia Regulations

[AZdesertFarmer]

Thanks guys. A couple more things. As I want this to be a sustainable system, I will be setting up an aquarium for breeding. But my concern is with in-system reproduction. Will the fish reproduce in the tank and is that a problem? Will the larger fish remedy the overpopulation through cannibalism? How quickly will a spawn of fry throw off the balance in the system? On the flipside of that, when harvesting fish, how badly does the removal of fish affect the balance? I know, It's a lot of questions, but I like to have some clue how deep the water is before I jump in.

Thanks again

[badflash]

Larger tilapia rarely breed in aquariums. They need more space. O. mossambicus breed readily in aquariums as small as 20 gallons.

Fry will quickly overwhelm the system, even with cannibalism. You have to stay on top of that.

[keith_r]

one thing you can do in your "growout" system is to put something on the bottom of the tank (like those white plastic eggcrate light covers)..
basically, something to keep the female from picking her eggs up after fertilization
i was thinking about this before i ruled out tilapia last year.. maybe put some pvc tubes on the bottom of the tank and then the eggcrate, put some crays in the bottom level to eat up the eggs and help keep the tank clean

[jackalope]

I had my first Mossies in a tank with mixed sexes ..... they bred at about 14 weeks, when we harvested the fish later on, there were only 3 young ones in the whole tank .... if you don't feed them per usual, they will be hungry enough to keep the young to a minimum .... also, take out all the hidey holes you had put in there for the female to breed, as well as the Guppy Grass, Duckweed or any other plants, etc, where the fry might hide. But, at the same time, as Badflash says, if you don't watch it, they can definitely overwhelm you very quick.

Separate the males and females and they will grow up to close to the same size (the females are inherently smaller than the males). With Mossies, it's pretty easy to tell the males from the females if you've got both in the same tank ..... the dominant male's throat turns white when he gets horny, and you pull him out and put him into an all male tank ..... keep watching and another one will become the dominant male and you pull him out .... keep it up until no more males show up that should mean that the rest are females! Keep the best of the males and females for your breeders (a couple of each), and harvest the rest! That way, you control the breeding process they only breed when you tell them to (this is a simplistic answer, there's more to breeding that just putting them together in the same tank, but that would be for another thread!). I, personally wouldn't want hybrids .... then you have to keep breeders of each species that you want to cross ... that would eventually take up a lot of space! Not only that, when you eat hybrids, you're eating a Jackass! They were never meant to be hybridized in nature, why try to hybridize them in captivity!

If you only have one tank, you can do it as was inidicated in a previous post, if you use the eggcrate lite diffusers about an inch or so off the floor of the tank, and put Corydoras or Shrimp or Crays underneath, they will eat the eggs and any leftover food that ends up on the bottom of the tank. That way, you can keep them rom breeding, because he can't fertilize the eggs, and she can't pick them up and mouthbrood them.

[RS_]

Hi AZ,

I use a Hapa Net Cage that is 4' x 4' x 4' , the bottom net is a 1/4" mesh, the eggs fall through, the grow out size female fish can't pick them up, so don't spend time brooding them in her mouth, so she eats again and grows, and the catfish clean up the eggs under the cage...

RS

[grimsteph]

Great idea RS, and congrats on your recent "promotion" at APHQ. You deserve it!