Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My water has gotten a little too cold for my tilapia before I could harvest them and 3 of them are laying at the bottom still breathing, i'm pretty sure they are soon going to be floaters.

My question is, if I dispatch them while they're still alive, am I able to process them for food? or are they at this point unsafe to eat?

If I kill them, can i freeze them without processing them? or should I kill them then process them to freeze them?

Thanks for the advice!!

Chris

surely someone more knowledgeable than I will jump in
I'd kill 'em, process 'em, and either freeze or cook/eat 'em
Freezing without processing seems like a bad idea. OTOH fish caught whilst ice fishing are frozen with innards intact, by default, so not sure it matters that much.

Thanks for the answer!
that's my thought too, just looking for confirmation



Does anyone know if Tilapia can recover from this if they're not dead yet as the water warms up?

Fish dieing of cold, I'd say they are safe to kill, clean and eat or freeze.

As to recovery. Uh, I've been told that Blue Tilapia if the water gets below 53 F might survive it but their immune systems are not likely to be strong enough to let them fight off normal infections so they will be weak, sickly and likely to die of other causes. 53 F water isn't cold enough to cause blue tilapia to lye on their sides on the bottom though.

I have had bluegill and catfish recover from a sudden water temperature drop that had them lying around. That wasn't due to the water just being cold but the fact that the water went from about 64 F one afternoon down to 34 F by the next morning. That was too fast a change for them but they did all survive it though I felt terrible about having let it happen to them.

I work on the basis that it is preferable to harvest fish when they are healthy if possible, rather than to compromise them and possibly the flesh.
It is much nicer to be able to harvest a healthy fish and to enjoy eating it rather than have that horrible mmm is this okay to eat kind of feeling.
I don't think that leaving fish to suffer is very humane.

Seeing as one of the methods people like to use to kill tilapia is the drop them into icewater, I would harvest tilapia asap when it starts getting too cold for them.

I agree with Faye that it is best to keep your fish healthy and happy right up to the time to do the deed.

But if you have tilapia and it is getting too cold for them, there is not much help for it, kill em and eat them ASAP, don't leave them to languish or lye around dead in the cold water.