Hey, I'm a grandfather, sort of.

[Roger L.]

I thought I was going to have a breeding tank, but a couple have surprised me wth little guys. I am culling them out currently and will use what was supposed to be a breeding tank over to a nursery. I will watch and cull them as I see them or let them become tasty morsels like my test guppies did. My question is what to feed them? Should I just crush up some high protein flakes or pellets? I also thought about scraping the sides of the tank for small algae. Someone help a new grandfather, to fish anyway, with some sage advice. They are very small and gathering around the air stone right now. There are about 20 I've caught so far. They sure are fast for such little guys.

[JCO]

Baby what? Yes I know fish, but what kind?

[Roger L.]

Sorry about that. They are blue Talapia.

[Apollo]

Hey Congratulation,

I've got activity going on in my tank too, about 3 weeks ago 3 male Pink Tilapias started occupying and guarding the breeding pots. About 4 days ago one had a female companion in the pot with the male standing guard out side.

As far as the food supply for the small fry, the breeder that I got my fish from puts them in green algae water as they food source.

I know that I have algae build up in my breeding tank that's inside my main tank. I do have a small algae fish in that tank but with out the large fish eating the algae, there should be plenty for the Fry's.

Not sure if that the right answer or not, I was waiting for other to reply but thought my answer was better than nothing. Good Luck

[Roger L.]

Thanks Appollo. I'll scrape a little off the walls of the big tank and put it in my holding bucket until I get the nursery set up.

[Apollo]

So how's your grandbabies doing, not to much excitement for them last night?

Does any of your large male tilapias have turquoise markings on the back of their dorsal fin. My one pink tilapia fish that turned dark gray over the winter, he's now pink / med. gray with about 15 turquoise spots about 1/16 of an inch in size on his dorsal fin.

[Roger L.]

Well it's been a sad story here. I have a small tank I used to try to grow duckweed in, that I rigged up for a temporary nursery. I was afraid the little guys would be sucked out of the drain so I made a guard for the drain out of PVC. Due to the uneven surface of the bottom of this tank the guard would not fit squarely to the bottom leaving space enough for the little ones to get through. So I put my little fish net over the drain and then put the guard over that. Satisfied that they would not get out, I retired for the evening. The next afternoon I go downstairs to check on the fish and plants only to find there is only about 25 gallons of my 175 left in the big tank and the small tank overflowing a little at a time onto the floor and leading to the drain. Panic time! Looking at the problem at hand I figure out the net did not allow enough drainage to drain as fast as it filled. Out came the net, down went the water in the nursery so water loss solved. Now to add more water to the main tank so I would not loose any of the big guys. I added about 20 more gallons, not wanting to shock them to bad. This seemed to get the big guys to moving around again so I now turned to the little guys. I now only have 2 of the little guys left. I don't know if I was sad that I lost my grandbabies or pissed at myself for doing something so stupid. Well today the 2 left are growing well and I have my water levels back where they need to be.

Now the coloring of my fish changed over the winter as the water cooled some. They turned darker over the winter and have now turned pinker with the warmer water. Momma fish was one of the pinkish of the bunch, only barely being able to see where the stripes were on her body. The males seem to maintain their coloring better that the females. As far as spots I will have to go down and inspect them here in a while and let you know. With my bad back I avoid the stairs as much as possible.

Thus ends the sad tale and the "stupid tax" I paid for it. Genocide by mistake. Shame, shame on me.

[Apollo]

Sorry to hear about you're water loss problem, I'm sure the shock to your body and back wasn't good.

I'm just completing a new addition to my AP system, it's a Duckweed / Fry Catcher/ Raft.
It's 16 feet long, 13" deep and 11" wide, as water leaves the FT on it's way to my Whirlpool Filter / Fry Catcher, I install a 1/2 PVC line to my new tank. Fry's that make it though the pump will end up in one or the other.

As the water leaves the new tank it will exist though a non-working pipe siphon (only pulling water from the bottom) and will return to the Main FT. At that point I have a 5 gal nylon strainer bag to catch any Fry's / Snails / Duckweed.

[topz]

Roger I know exactly the feeling you described. Good job on getting everything calmed down so quickly.

[Roger L.]

Finally got the new nursery/breeding tank incorporated. I put a small swirl filter in because most of the water coming from the big tank is going into the smaller one and I didn't want all the poop to gather in the new tank. Think I'm going to need a larger pump now. I will begin to work on some more grow area now to balance out the water to grow bed ratio.