Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Guys,

Purchased 2 tilapia today, but the pet shop owner do not seems know the exact type or the gender for them.

Anyone with better knowledge please have a look, i would really like to know what i have purchased.

Regards

Mossie (mossambique) I know I did spell that correctly.

Thanks, they are edible correct?? Do i have a male and female? How do i differentiate?

Found the smaller one with the dark stripes cowering on top of my aeration pump today, seems the larger white one has been chasing it around. Might have 2 males? Still have no idea how to tell them apart.

Yes they are edible, but at that size I can't tell the male from female. When they are older and breeding it is easy to tell them apart, the males will have lots of red on them.

You can determine the sex of tilapia, not real easy though.
http://www.firehow.com/200908131938/how ... table.html

Thanks Kachok,

Anyone please share your experience with tilapias, i am having a hard time with the 2 i have, they are still going at each other although it is very much one sided. The losing one is now resorting on resting on top of my water pump which is only like 1-2 mm under the water surface, and seems to be loosing much of its tail. Help required..........

Regards

2 is a bad number. The dominant fish will end up killing the smaller one because it cant get out of the territory. especially if they are male. You really need to put them in different tanks or put a lot of hides and obstructions into the tank to make it where they dont see each other often.

when you get to 5+ in the same tank, they tend to do better. The big one will still be an ahole but he'll tend to be happier with a smaller area and his aggression will be less focused and damaging.

brian

btw, i am not saying they are both male. The aggresive one is likely male but even that isnt a given. If you have substrate and he starts digging a nest then i would be pretty confident the big one is male.

for the small one you still have no idea. A territorial male will chase off both sexes unless there is mating going on and then he will chase the female away as soon as he is done.

brian

Thanks Brian, I have already added more pipes to my tank, currently being used by the big one. Will be visiting a hardware store this weekend will see if i can put in other things to prevent it going after the smaller one.

Regards