Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I suppose it is one thing to ear your own pet, but to feed one pet to another has a whole other feeling to it.

That said, When we clean fish to eat them ourselves, the chickens get to eat the parts we don't

As long as they don't suffer. I like to use the ice to kill the tilapia as they just slip away then wait until they are well dead before filleting. I've done it with a combination of the knife and the ice and a long ice bath until they don't respond seems gentlest to me...

What is a humane way to kill catfish? I will not describe how I killed mine (it sure was not humane & no use giving you nightmares). They are so tough, nothing seems to finish them off. I would appreciate a humane method.

I agree Dave. The ice bath is the best way I think for Tilapia, although I have only killed and cleaned one. They are tough though and do not die for quite some time even after sitting in an ice bath. Do fish sit?
You were correct the first time Doug. I refer to Tilapia as T's more for my often mispelling then anything else. Just to clarify it would be baby T's fed to the perch, live and all that. Now a clogged pump is another thing that would have to be delt with as I have found just feeding worms to the fish causes strainers to be clogged with the left overs.
That's my thoughts on closing the loop, it does not lean to big stocking densities and I add nothing for plant growth suppliments. I am currently not there as I have commercial fish food to get rid of yet, but the T's only get lettuce.

I have found the T's can survive a bit of cold water doug. Id venture to say Mine lived to below 50 to be sure. Not very comforting in knowing that if they ever got loose they could make it thru a winter in a stream or lake but in my green house its just fine. Of course the growth rate, breeding is zero. I have just today moved my basement baby t's about, Have 140 of them kept all winter or thier whole live's since last july with no filtration just an air stone. Water was nasty as hell and I fed them when I felt like it once a day or so. They lived with a few guppies, some they ate I suspect, most are only at an inch or so in length with a few perhaps, (five) over three inches. So I guess what I'm saying is that these buggars will take abuse. I call it tough love just to keep peta off my arse!

Good information. I would not want to heat my 4000 gallons even to 50F. But, I should think about a big aquarium for the winter. Then wait until I see 55F in spring in the tank. How old do the Tilapi need to be to breed? Would I have a new set of babies for the aquarium in fall before the big tank gets below 55F? Or would I need to keep breeders in an aquarium all the time. It is good news how hardy and insensitive to pollution they are. PETA will not hear from me.

Hardy definitely, I hate to say it but I have the dozen I have left in a 30 gallon aquarium with a 20 gallon container full of gravel for filtration. Water changed out rarely, but topped off a few times a week. I've been feeding them two tablespoons twice a day and they have grown almost to eating size.

Doug I had babies from the initial shipment of fingerlings from FL within a month. They start breeding almost immediately.

Then I should try Tilapi. None of my other fish choices allows me to breed my own generations and the times of availability and cost of fingerlings does not make me near closed loop or independant.

Thanks for the advice and knowledge.

Doug

Doug, the thing about Ts is that they are very voracious at eating other fish when they are small, up to about 3-4 inches. It is necessary to separate them by size if possible if you want to produce a lot of fry. However if you provide pvc and fake plants in the water for them to hide, some will escape being lunch and yet the ones that aren't fast enough to hide... well, that keeps your stocking densities in check.


They are very hardy fish. That is all I have here.

Yep, Provide hides. If you need lots of new babies then net the mother after the fry are hatched and put the fry in a nursery tank. You can also incubate the eggs. This way you get the numbers of fish you need. So far, I have only managed to save a hand full of fry that are released into the tank. Some of the tilapia that normally run form a net are willing to come near the net to try and eat fry.

I've seen 3" tilapia start showing breeding behavior. Given the right conditions, (that is very warm water and plenty of high protein food, fry can get to that 3" size in a matter of a few months I think.) Tilapia like about 86 F water to breed though and I've actually lost several tilapia by trying to get them to breed (the males can be very rough on the females if there are not enough fish to distract his attention and then a female holding eggs can very easily kill the male or other females in the tank if it is too small and they don't stay away from her.)

I'm in Central Florida and winter time here is too cool for an outdoor Aquaponics system with no supplemental heating to really usefully keep tilapia. Mine survived winter because I covered the system with plastic (like a cold frame) ran the dryer hose into it and on a few really cold nights ran warm water into the system. Cost more than I want to spend to keep things warm and the tilapia really didn't grow all winter yet the plants suffered from the heat during the day under the plastic.

Did some one ask about how to kill catfish here? We did try the knife point to the brain method but catfish have really hard skulls and we bent the knife. Now we simply club them which seems to be the safest and quickest way to deal with them at least for us.

All the babies I have were refugees that escaped through the CHIFT PIST drain pipe. If you make a non-hazardous drain into a mid-point sump or whatever then that might be enough to keep the population increasing. I'm sure the ones that remained in the tank with the adults and didn't escape through the drain were eaten. Maybe an egg crate grill on the floor with the drain pipe on the bottom would allow them all to escape being eaten by the adults and get sucked over to a holding tank of some sort.