Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I thought some of you might be interested:
there was a power outage on Friday in Toronto lasting 24 hours. It was -18 C outside, that's around zero degrees F.

By morning, the temp in the tank had dropped to about 69 degrees F from 74; as far as I know , the Bichirs should expire at around that temp.

We covered the door to the kitchen with plastic, wrapped the tank in aluminum foil and covered it in blankets. We put alcohol burners under the tank, and were able to keep it at a steady 73 F, and it acted as a giant radiator keeping the room at a comfortable room temp 70 F. On the other side of the plastic, the temp dropped to below 50 F; the pipes in the basement froze solid. I think a case of 24 NRG burners would have kept that room at room temperature for about 24 hours. NRG is a brand, by alcohol burner I mean it was a simple tuna can sized tin filled with alcohol gel and a wick at the top, these were listed to burn for 6 hours each. With 6 burning at a time, they kept the temp steady in a room approx 12x10

So far, so good, everybody is alive and not showing ill effects from the drop in temp. I think another degree drop might have got them, the catfish would have survived.

Also, I picked up some "shiners"; wasn't sure what they were, looked like really large shiny silver minnows with orange tipped fins. I think they're a Rudd which are illegal to release in the waters around here, but still used as baitfish I think. I'm hoping to get them to multiply and use them as a food source for the catfish. They do eat a lot of protein. The fish don't seem to really like the superworms I'm growing, they break them up but spit them out again. I think I need to switch to earthworms.

I found a cheap source of chicken from a local butcher, a bag of bones for $1, boiled it and picked out the meat, have fish food for a few months, with the occasional bit of egg and protein scraped from dinner plates thrown in. A bit worried about possible food deficiencies, but the fish seem to like the diet and are growing.

I managed to get hold of two Tilapia, I was told they are female, so now I'm looking for a male. One of them seems to have broken their jaw during shipping, hopefully it will heal up. I haven't had a chance to hook up a growbed to my tank yet, and I'm not sure if I'll go through with that for a number of reasons. I have picked out the location for a fish pond in the back yard, hoping to build one by end of this summer. I'm going to do some Google sketchups and plan it out and build a solar shelter over it, and plan it so I can add grow beds and greenhouse next year.

Normally I feed my existing fish table scraps, but I didn't see these Tilapia eat anything I tried. I tried chopping up the following:

carrot shavings
chopped kale
seaweed
cooked fish
dried salted shrimp
oats
cheerios
I crumbled a super beetle in there
chicken
clam

Last night I put some baby guppies in there, and today I bought some pond fish pellets, after calling the shop owner who said he fed them goldfish pellets. I think they must be eating after I turn the lights out, but they showed no interest in most of the foods and it just floated around the tank. I'd take it out the next day, and try something else, but they weren't interested.

Here are some photos of my tank:

Oh: one of them has stripes, they don't show up so much, and one doesn't. Is it possible I might have a male and female? I want to give them another month to recover before putting them through the stress of taking them out and turning them over to verify sex.

Might be male, might be stress. Usually a male will display his colors after he has prepared a mating area and is defending it.

I'm hoping it's a male, he's a little lighter and he does seem a little more colorful. Sometimes the bands get a little darker.

The flesh on his jaw has sealed over at an amazing rate, it's still broken but I think he'll live with it. I don't know about Tilapia and bone fractures, but it looks like it might just heal crooked. I knew Tilapia were fast healers, but this is amazing to watch, every day it looks noticeably more repaired.

Am I missing something obvious with the Tilapia as far as feeding? Should I put whole vegetable leaves in the blender and put that in tank in small amounts? They don't seem eager to go after the pellets, I've seen them sift through the gravel but that's about it. My other fish fight over the food if I go one day without feeding them, but the Tilapia don't seem to care at all. I'm a bit worried they'll slowly starve, I know they can filter stuff out of the water so that makes me feel better. If they eat diatoms they should have no problem, there's lots of brown algae; I think there's phosphorous in the water. Maybe they're still traumatized, they looked fairly beat up when they got here, the couriers probably chucked the box around.

hm.
Tested the water last night:
pH: 7.3
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0.3

This is the first time I've detected Nitrite, but that's not surprising because normally I'm very careful about feeding, and the Tilapia just aren't eating so I've been throwing anything edible in there to see if they'd like it. Last night I did a 25% water change, salted and scooped anything organic out of the tank and didn't feed. None of the fish like the pellets, my old fish are probably spoiled, they'll still accept table scraps but not the pellets. The Rudd or shiners or whatever they are have lost a lot of weight because they're too scared of the Tilapia to come out and eat, I think I'm going to move them to another tank. Tilapia appear to be losing weight. They occasionally sift through the gravel and kind of suck on the algae. Tried calling the store where I got them to find out what the original Tilapia owner was feeding them, but no picky uppy. Catfish and bichirs appear to be fine and with normal healthy appetites for table scraps.

There are only a few fish in this 90 gallon tank, I had a good filter system but no air and a glass top, so I'm going to try adding air, although no one appears to be showing signs of distress. Not sure what else to do at this point. Will test water again tonight and do another change if necessary, although I'd be surprised if it needed it.

How big are those tilapia and what is the water temperature?

I've noticed that my fish are much hungrier when the tank temp gets up above the mid 70's F. I've also noticed that tilapia often ignore pellet feed till it softens up a bit. They do filter feed. My tilapia will happily tear up and eat lettuce though I notice that the greens get eaten much more in a tank with many tilapia to play tug of war with it. A lone tilapia has trouble ripping mouthfuls of lettuce from a leaf.

Both the catfish and tilapia seem to like high quality pellet feed much better than any cheap stuff. I've been shelling out quite a lot for bags of 36% protein dense recirculating culture feed after I had water quality problems with the cheap pond diet. Both Adult catfish and tilapia seem to do ok with food in the 32-36% protein range. Younger fish could probably stand higher protein levels but you need to be sure your system can handle the higher ammonia output that can cause.

Hi TCLynx,

They're about 14 inches and the water temp is at 75 degrees. I did chop up the greens well, and tried various sized bits but they didn't even try. I did pick up some pond pellets, I think it was Hagen and 33% protein but it could be stale or something. I'll check the Feed section of the forum, I'd like to order something quality online. What brand do you use?

Thanks

I get the dense culture feed from aquatic eco systems. Hum their web site doesn't seem to be working today.
However, tilapia and catfish are probably healthier to eat if they are fed a more natural diet. Most commercial fish feed is made with a large % of soy and/or corn and therefore the omega 3 and omega 6 balance is pretty out of whack.

I've currently got 4 tilapia in a duckweed tank to see how they do over summer. The rest of my tilapia get the pellets and garden thinnings as well as stuff like the lettuce that bolts and an occasional hand full of duckweed. They are eating a little better now but still not as much as they will eat when the temps get up to the mid 80's. (Female tilapia in my experience which is limited, don't seem much interested in breeding until the water gets up around 86 F.)

The tank is now at 80 degrees, and it should be up to 83 by this time tomorrow. It took me time to get accustomed to the idea of a tank that hot, I associate that temp with treating sick fish, but the fish seem to like it and they're more active, and the tilapia are showing slightly better colours and seem more active as well. I'm a bit worried about the male, he's started keeping his fins closed a bit more often and he seems thin. I called my wife while I was at work and asked her to put two pellets in to see if they responded to the warmer temperatures, she called me back an hour or two later and said that I'd been starving my fish, so she threw 30 pellets in, and none of them ate any. She has heard the rule that it's more dangerous to overfeed than underfeed countless times, and she knew there were water problems but I think the fish must have cast a spell. I had her dig them all out, each and every one right away. The whole time she nagged me that the shop owner sold me expensive bum fish, I don't think she understands that I'm the bum for not turning the heat up enough from the start.

When I got home, I tested the water and it still has Nitrites 0.3, so I did another 20 % water change, being very careful to siphon everything out of the gravel and made up the salt. I replaced two of four filter sponges with clean used ones and left the other media alone. That tank is spotless. l'll check for nitrites again tomorrow night, those fish better be hot and hungry.

The fish have been flashing a bit since I got them, so have the catfish ever since I got them six months ago. The only thing I can think is that a bit of sea monkey shrimps get into the tank with the feeder guppies from time to time and annoy the fish, there's never been any other evidence of ick or parasites, and the catfish have always seemed completely healthy otherwise.

I've heard that very occasional flashing is nothing to worry about, every one gets an itch they need to scratch on occasion. It is only when a fish is always doing it or when many of them start doing it that you really need to worry a lot.

I've noticed it can take a few days at the warmer temps for the tilapia to realize they are hungry and even then the tilapia sometimes seem shy about eating while I watch them.

The tilapia seem to like the warmer water, their base color became slightly more milky and the other colors became slightly deeper. Any wounds they had when shipped have healed, except the male's mouth, which I've decided was probably done deliberately to keep the male from killing the female. They have become a bit more active and interested in their surroundings, and spend a bit more time grazing on algae, but still don't seem interested in food. The tank is about 82 degrees and I think I want to get another heater before cranking up the heat any more. They don't seem to be losing weight, but the male still strikes me as thin, his belly is a bit concave. The shop owner says they're adjusting, and I shouldn't worry, he says they'll start eating large amounts any day. I'm going to add a flower pot so they have a proper honeymoon/hiding place, hiding spots are very limited for these larger fish right now, I think this will help them settle down. These fish are more beautiful than I expected, and completely gentle with tankmates; I expected some possible aggressive tendencies, as other cichlids can be quite aggressive.

It always takes a few days to make them selves at home. They really are pretty when they are mating.