I have to agree that the big downside to tilapia is the need for heat, but if you can provide warm water, they are the best fish going. The reason I say this is that they convert their feed to meat on a ratio of nearly 1:1. A pound of feed to a pound of fish. They get to 1.25 pound in just 4-5 months. 2 pound+ in under 9 months. You can pack them to 1 gallon of water per pound of fish, and they reproduce year around. This allows you to restock as often as you like.
An adult female tilapia can produce 2,000 fry at a time. She can live for 5 years and breed once every 3 weeks, not just 10 times a year. Survival of the fry under proper conditions of about 70%.
Here is the other trick. You don't need all male fish. Put the fish in a screened cage that denies them a flat surface to spawn on and they can't breed. The reason the females don't grow as big is they spend all their energy brooding. They hold the eggs in their mouth and don't eat for 2 weeks at a time. To spawn the females lay their eggs on a flat surface, the male fertilizes them, then she picks them back up. The eggs are heavier than water and sink like rocks. They go right through the screen and are lost.
If they don't breed the females eat & grow just like the males. This means you can use nile tilapia, and not sweat the hormones.
Badflash, sounds like you really have a handle on the Tilapia situation and I really like what you did with the Fish section. Very informative. I don't post very often but I like to keep up with what's going on so keep the good info coming.
I don't post very often but I like to keep up with what's going on so keep the good info coming.
Lets see you post more often. You have info others can use. After you've been at it a long time, you forget the things that used to trip you up. People closer to the beginning remember it clearly. We need to know about what goes wrong too, not just what went right. Better to learn from other's mistakes.
I don't post very often but I like to keep up with what's going on so keep the good info coming.
Lets see you post more often. You have info others can use. After you've been at it a long time, you forget the things that used to trip you up. People closer to the beginning remember it clearly. We need to know about what goes wrong too, not just what went right. Better to learn from other's mistakes.
Yeah, people like me who haven't yet got the first experimental system up and running. That way we know what to watch for
I use the Linux Operating System ...... Free as in beer!
You're never too old to learn something
Aquaponics - food'n'fish at your doorstep
Helena, Montana - Home of the Northernmost Monument to the Confederacy
We can learn from the other sites as well, but its nice to have some good old USA know how too
It's also nice to not have to open up a web site that converts all those liters, mms, cms, etc. to good old American measurements I am a member of three of those sites, and appreciate what I learn, but I have to admit that I spend a heckuva lot of time converting measurements so I can understand what they are talking about . I've always been given good advice there, just as I have been here, so I'm not knocking them, it's just nice to see things in inches, feet, and gallons.
@ crawdad, Thanks for the welcome, I hope to learn a lot from you and all the others here. I'd like to learn more about the Yellow Perch that waterrancher raises, as I am presently raising Goldfish (carp) for a food fish, and would like to know more about other cold water fish. I'd like more specifics about their tolerances, grow out time, etc. if he is willing to post more specifics for us.
I use the Linux Operating System ...... Free as in beer!
You're never too old to learn something
Aquaponics - food'n'fish at your doorstep
Helena, Montana - Home of the Northernmost Monument to the Confederacy