Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have been having a hard time securing domestic tilapia here on my little island, so I went to then next alternative and caught a half dozen wild tilapia that live in our irrigation ditches. I have them in a 10 gallon fish tank for the last week to quaratine and clean them our of the ditch water and mud.
The first couple days I had to change out the water because it got so dirty and mucky and looked like the the chocolate milk ditch water they came from. After that the water remained clear and my biofilter was able to keep up and the fish seem to be surviving. I've only lost one tilapia, the smallest one I caught.
After the water has cleared I began to notice dozens of uniform sized 1/4" teardrop shaped "gravel" on the bottom of the tank that wasn't there before. I've tried to take pictures of them and catch a couple of them but have been unsucessful. My best description is they look like the seed we call job's tear .
Are these "job's tears" actually tilapia eggs?. I have no idea what kind of tilapia or sex I have. The smallest one was about 3", largest one 8", so I have no idea if they are sexually mature. They are wild with miles or irrigation ditches to roam so I'm sure mating and breeding in the wild isn't an issue. Did I just happen to get a pregnant female? Is there a way to tell male and female tilapia apart
I'm at work right now and will try tomorrow to maybe suck up a couple of the tears with a gravel cleaner and set some better pictures. I'll also get some pics of my tilapia to see if they can be identified.

Thanks & Aloha,
Cory

Google sexing cychlids. This should help.
Cychlids breed in pairs.
I was under the impression that one parent retained the eggs and then fish in their mouth. They're fiercly protective and like a hideout. So add some hidey holes for them. When they have young or eggs you will see two hanging around together protecting the young.
Another possibility is that one of your fish had mussell spawn on his gills, especially from the shape. I would think this less likely, but possible. Do you have mussels in the milk ditches?

There is a good chance that you caught a female and she spit out the eggs she was holding.

Tilapia are mouth brooders. The female will lay eggs and the male fertilizes them then the female picks them back up in her mouth to brood them.

Tilapia over 3 inchs can easily be sexually mature. The problem with tilapia isn't getting them to breed but keeping them from breeding usually. They can quickly overpopulate. I keep most of my in a cage within a bigger tank to keep them from breeding (if they can't pick the eggs back up, they don't overpopulate the system.)

Six tilapia as big as 8 inches in a 10 gallon aquarium. That is pretty crowded. Hope you can put them in a bigger tanks soon.

My guess is that they ate "Job's Tears" prior to capture. The seeds have passed through their digestive tracks and you found the result after the water cleared.

I could be wrong.

Don't look like any fish eggs I have seen. Of course I haven't seen them all. LOL.

Don't look like any "fish eggs" I've ever seen pictured either jdphish...

Hmm pic looks a lot clearer when not viewd on the iphone...
My comment about mussels was incorrect.
Those things look weird. I'll got for undigested seed too. but I really have NFI

I got those 6 tilapia in the 10 gallon tank just as quarantine. I'll probally put them into my 100gallon tank tomorrow and see if I can capture some of those funny looking tear drop gravel. It very well could be job's tears as we have had a big rain last week and that is when they come floating down the rivers and possibly into the ditchs. I've never seen job's tear in the ditchs, but I don't see why not. I'll have to go to where I caught them and have a good look around and see if I see any job's tears floating around.
I'll try and get a picture of them tomorrow when I get off work.

Peace,
Cory