Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yes, on my better days. Actually, this is really fun and it's easy to kneel down by the fish tank and watch them for long stretches of time. That along with the sound of water and warmth of the sun, is pretty intoxicating.

If your male you can tell if you are a type A personality if you flush the toilet before you have finished peeing.

I don't know the equivilent test for females

:LOL: Not sure what the equivalent would be fore women...

Wow, it's been a month since we last updated here. It's been a bit crazy around here. We got 4 chicks and they seem to have absorbed most of our time and energy. Luckily, the AP system has kept on growing even though we weren't paying as much attention to it.

We had our first vegetables out of the system last night for dinner. We had a salad from mesclun and radish. I realized as I went to eat it that I expected it to be watered down in flavor, but instead everything was very flavorful and fresh. It was very exciting and the hint of things to come.

Recently we were talking with the owners of our favorite Chinese restaurant and they mentioned we could get live tilapia from the Asian fish market. Tonight we ventured down and came home with 4 nice sized tilapia. We could have gotten bigger but my theory is that if a female slipped through, she'd be smaller so I asked for 4 smaller ones.

They seemed much happier in their new digs and within an hour one was chasing two others. The 4th one was a bit lethargic and just staying out of the way. So, maybe we did get a female??? Only time will tell and it's great having some real fish in the system while we wait to order with another AP'er.

Nice fishies Victoria....

Wow, those should be large enough to tell if the are male or female by looking at their privets.

Yes, I figured I'd give them a couple of days to calm down before I started looking at the privets. I know they were picked up in Idaho (over 500 miles away) and driven across to the Portland area. Then dumped into a very crowded tank at the fish shop, pulled out, dumped in a bucket.... you get the picture. But now they are happily swimming around in our smaller tank. I may try my hand at sexing today... we'll see.

Did they say what type of Tilapia? They look like my hornorum.

They did not say and I didn't think to ask until later. We happened to get there when the guy was delivering. He was actually really helpful... told us to keep the water above 70 and that if there were females, they would be among the smaller ones. Also, to squeeze their privets and if there were females, the eggs would come out. He also said they "should" be all male.

Interesting! If that works then that information needs to be posted in the tilapia thread. I will give that a try when I try to sex my tilapia. If I cant see what they are then I will just squeeze them.

I'll post this info on one of the tilapia threads as well, but I'm now thinking that getting fish from the Asian market is not such a hot setup. Our fish look pretty awful this morning, with big white splotches and some battered looking fins. I've been to the store, purchased about 10 pounds of salt and salted to 3ppt. ::Prayers over strawberries::

I've tried looking at a couple of the fish up close, looks like all are males. I'm guessing the initial nipping and chasing was strictly a stress reaction. Now the race is on to either get them responding and looking healthy or have 'em for dinner. Either way, we have about a week to get things in order before the fingerlings arrive.

We lost one of the tilapia. Based on what I can find with some searching, it looks like it hemorrhaged to death in the end. The other one that was affected with the initial white splotches seems to be recovering.

For the moment, I'm just leaving them alone. We salted to 3ppt and warmed up the water just a bit so it stays between about 74-82F (23-28C). Almost 3 full days and the veggies, citrus & strawberries still look okay. If anyone has any other ideas on the fate of the one tilapia, please let us know. We did not eat it...

On a brighter note, we did pick up a 55 gallon aquarium yesterday. Now I just need to figure out where it goes and consider how to create a small indoor ap system with it. Shhh... don't tell Tom. (Hi Honey)

The tilapia appears to have died from a bacterial infection usually associated with stress and subsequent weakening of the immune system. The best thing to do for all affected fish would be an immediate treatment of salt and copper in a separate quarantine tank. You can pick up coppersafe at most pet stores but don't let it come into contact with plants as it will kill them in short order.

Awesome setup by the way, I have just discovered AP and am currently building an indoor system similar to what you will be doing with the 55. I am a bit of a north american native fish enthusiast and can perhaps help with anyone who decides to try cold water fish instead of tilapia.

I hesitate to mention this, but there is one fish that would be perfect in a temperate AP system, its hearty, grows really fast, will eat anything, and SOME people say its the best tasting fish out there. If I decide to build a full size outdoor system I MIGHT give these fish a go. What is it you ask? The humble carp. I haven't eaten them before and I'm not sure I want to start but how bad can it be?

Arnoldi, Thanks for the confirmation. That's pretty much what someone else mentioned on the Tilapia thread. I suppose to have only lost one is not too bad.

I understand some types of carp are eaten as delicacies in other countries. And, until we started on this idea, I hadn't had tilapia either. So, who knows?

Squeezing Tilapia...I would say that if a tilapia is at the stage where squeezing her would release eggs, she will have a bit of a blush going on around the privates, and will be noticeably plump in the belly. No need to squeeze.

Welcome, Arnoldi! I have heard that carp is good, but bony. Grass Carp is apparently very tasty, but pretty well banned in the US unless it is a sterile ($$$) triploid. The Jewish dish Gefilte Fish is often made with Carp. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gefilte_fish