Nile Tilapia

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This is the most common variety in aquaculture. Somewhat salt tolerant, but nothing like the mossambica. Very hearty in my experience. The main varieties don't start reproduction until about 6 months old, but a sub-species known as the Baringo tilapia starts as early as 3 months and only 3". The Baringo females also grow as large as the males if they are not allowed to breed.

Here is a school of young Baringo's:


These fish love plants and will rapidly take out just about anything you put in with them. They readily eat duckweed, string algae, najas, as well as just about anything that fits in their mouths.

Niles are often hybridized with Blue Tilapia (aurea) to produce a fast growing hybrid. The Rocky Mountain White is one of those crosses,

Niles are more cold tolerant than Mossambica, but not much. Keep them in the high 70's to high 80's F.

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Here is me holding a large male nile tilapia. He was hached in June of 2008. He is close to a kilo already:


Here is a close-up:


In the background is my O. hornorum breeders.

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The Nile tilapia is a native of the Nile River, North African waters and Middle East. The Nile tilapia is likely the most widely cultured tilapia species. This species (or a hybrid with the blue tilapia) is most often cultured in recirculating aquaculture systems in the US.
Blue tilapia is the second most cultured, hybridized with Oreochromis nilotica. The blue tilapia breeds at a smaller size and earlier age than Nile tilapia (2-3 months vs. 5-6 months) and is more tolerant of high salinity and low temperature than many other species.
A hybrid between the mossambica female and nilotica male is known to be fast-growing. - from Aquaculture

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It's what's for dinner!
They were yummy!

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It was time to thin the herd again. Here is a 9 month old male:

[davidstcldfl]

9 Months old ? WOW...nice looking fish badflash !

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Got any idea what he weighed?

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2.4 pounds

[davidstcldfl]

Badflash, 2.4 pds in 9 months.....I'll sound like the crazy guy, in the movie DR STRANGE LOVE.....I got to know, what's in the water ! WOW, I thought most get around 1 1/2 pds in that time (?)

In regards to your Feb 16, 09 post....In the first picture, your holding a fish. Down by your knees, there appears to be a regulator .....is it oxygen ?....and are you using it all the time ?
Same picture....there is a round duct, whick looks like it may be attached to the hood of your breeder tank (?) May I ask of it's purpose....hopeing to learn something

[badflash]

I feed them good food and keep them warm and the water clean. That is pretty much it. I use Ziegler's Finfish Silver 3 mm floating pellets. The males put on weight fast if they are not too crowded.

The Oxy tank is for shipping fish. I use pure O2 rather than air. The duct is from my furnace on the other side of the wall.

MY system is pretty simple. 100 gallon stock tank as a sump. 1/2 Hp pool pump taking suction on it, and discharging to a pool sand filter using plastic beads rather than sand. There is a distribution header that brings water to all the tanks. Overflow pipes take the water back to the sump. I also have an aquacube bio flter in the sump and 2KW of heaters.

You can see my setup here:
My 700 gallon basement system