Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello gtmylo,

A lot of crosses will result in all male/mostly male offspring. See this post for a bit more info: viewtopic.php?f=25&t=6793#p217288

However, all male populations are not really much of an advantage in small and mid sized systems. There are other ways to control reproduction without hybridizing. Fish cages are one of the most popular, and also offer ease of harvest benefits.

Status? We're getting some really cold weather this week. What are your water temps?

Well, I was down in FL avoiding said "really cold weather" for the holidays, and also, I knocked up the wife, so we have been a bit involved with the whole "having our first kid" thing which is why I have not been more active on the posts

Since the fishies could not afford the airfare to FL what with rising travel costs and such, and I was still far enough from final FINAL setup, I just left everybody in the aquarium inside until I got back last week. Water was getting ice on the top, but then I finally installed reflective insulation on the roof and now water hovering somewhere between 35 and 40 with no heating. I bought a propane pool heater that I have plans to hook up, hopefully soon. That should have no problem keeping the temps where they belong, the cost to do so will be the variable to determine if I will do tilapia through the winter again next season, or if I will switch over to trout.

I have managed to get air temps in the newly insulated fish area to stay around 40F without any real heating going on, except the heat from the 400W growlight that I finally installed to light my 2 growbeds. Got some little sprouts shooting up, will have to post some pics sometime soon.

While I was in FL I got word that my supplier's breeder tilapia passed all their health exams and as soon as I get the documents back I will get my import permit and bring in my breeders from FL, and the fingerlings they crank out will go out into the tanks, along with the 10 guys I have left.... oh ya, 2 of my guys bit the dust while they were living in the aquarium... one a while back, and the other I found when I got back from FL. Ammonia was really high, and I have pretty much stopped feeding, but even the 2 filters that collectively should manage a 150+ gallon aquarium have not been keeping up with the ammonia in the 55 gallon tank.

So that's the update, definitely glad I am taking things slow, though maybe not by my own choosing, since I would have rushed into it like I do with everything, but one thing or another has kept slowing me down, allowing me to learn as I go and do things a bit more gradually. Hope to have more updates soon!

Ok, here is a strange 'illness' ...anybody have any idea what is wrong with this fish? Pretty sure he is a male, my biggest, I saw him doing the kissing thing with one of the other fish maybe yesterday, and then today I noticed his mouth was all flat/messed up like this? It seems to function ok, and he can eat and stuff, but anyone ever seen this?

The other fish he was talking was a Plastic surgeon and he said to him "I wanna look like Mick".

Guess the resemblance is quite striking... Mr Damage suggested the only cure is to "give him copious amounts of drugs, a steady supply of females, and stroke his ego continuously"

lol

Some fish are mutants, had a few in my batch of tilapia and seen goldfish etc. that were unconventionally put together. Tried to Google a picture of a female with eggs in her mouth but couldn't really find one. Tilapia are mouth brooders and the female will clamp her mouth shut when they are little, maybe he's really a she?

that might explain "the kissing thing". How do tilapia fertilise their eggs?.....and we can skip the fundemental birds and bees talk thankyou

i've read that males are sometimes "mouthclipped" because of fighting,, maybe this is why?

My guess is something mostly like what Keith says, not sure if what I witnessed was fighting or a mating ritual, but he/she was definitely opening his/her mouth very wide and they were going lip to lip... kinda like Mick Jagger and Alanis Morissette making out. It was pretty intense.

...and Dave, it has been opening its mouth quite frequently, feeding, showing off the new collagen injections, etc, so I am pretty confident that whatever sex it is, it is not mouth brooding...

My thought that it was a male came from the fact that it has clearly been the alpha of the group from the very beginning, defending territory, etc, and I have the "flowerpot" setup for those of you familiar with tilapia breeding, and this sucker very clearly staked out it's arena and defended it, so short of looking under a skirt, that was how I assumed it was male.

...also, some interesting behavior, since contracting the mouth issue, it seems to have given up defending its former territory, instead spending time in the middle of the tank. Still is aggressive towards the others, but I think now they are all just laughing at him/her/it.

Been a while since my last post, I had my second pump fail after I FINALLY got my pool heater installed and it was not enough pressure to activate the heater, and I JUST TODAY got the replacement hooked up (found out it was a problem with the pump not being on a dedicated circuit), and the FIRST FISH is in my system! It is Mic Jagger, from the above posts, and I have the rest of them hanging out in the tank to see how he does.

Also, my Nigerian Dwarf goad had 4 kids on Tuesday! Fresh milk, cheese, fish and veggies are all right around the corner!

Fatalities coming fast... Mic Jagger committed suicide by jumping (out of the tank, of course... I knew I should not have moved him in there alone without the women!)

Then, I noticed on my video surveillance that the one tank was overflowing! Looks like even though I read similar stories on here, i did not heed... one of the fish got stuck in the equalizer piping (I piped together the 2 IBCs through their ball-valve outlet at the bottom, and when I went to shut it to figure out the problem I heard a CRRRRRUNCH. That is at least another fish dead, maybe more.

Trying to figure out the best solution now to link the tanks... and recover the bodies.

Surveillance video? Cool. What is it tied into?

And let me know what you do to fix the tank tie lines. I wanted to do the same thing with my two IBC's and the rectangular tank that I have.

Stainless steel mesh over the holes? Or rig up a net cup over the hole?

Recover the bodies? Push a hosepipe in there and give it a blast of water when you get to the ball valve part