Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So I came home Sunday from a long motorcycle ride with my son.... we went up to the Sierra Madre's it was beautiful!!!! I ask him to go feed the fish while I dial up the motoGP race on the tevo.

He comes back in a few minutes later and I ask him how it went. He said "fine, except the fish in the side tank aren't eating." Well that is the 180 gallon broodstock tank and usually they ATTACK the food.

So Jake and I head out to the greenshop and find that all is strangely quiet in the tank. So we stand perfectly still looking into the big black tank and I observe 4 out of 6 fish cowering at one end of the tank while 4 feet to the other end in the corner are a male and a female. They are impervious to our presence and the two are dancing around each other. Hmmmmm.....

Jake says "dad, she just picked up some eggs." So i look and don't see anything. Then right in front of my eyes she lays about 20 little white eggs...a little smaller than bb's. The male is up against her at this point and his little johnson is fully extended, about 2 millimeters (that oughta bring the comments-lol) and as she lays the eggs he fertilizes them, she then back paddles and gently sucks them into her mouth. They repeat this until about 100 or so eggs have been laid. The whole time they didn't seem to notice us watching...voyeurs I tell ya. Between the female laying her eggs, the male would dart over to the other side of the tank as if warning the others to stay against the wall and don't make a move. I have yet to see a full grown male move so aggressively...he meant absolute business and moved so fast that the water surface was really rocking and rolling. I think if any of the others would have come out of thier spot he would have torn them to pieces. He was also very colorful and in full display mode with the dorsal fins, etc. This was the first time I caught the fish in the act. Wish I had a video camera.....

wow

Nice MF... My Tilapia sit right beside my computer where I sit for most of the day, they have bred many many times, but I'm still yet to see them do "it"...

lets face it you would all hide away if someone was watching you do "it" as well

at least i would anyways

They are fun to watch, aren't they?