Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have had three tilapia that I pulled from the AP system to an indoor aquarium fir breeding purposes. Its been a month or more with them in the breeding tank with no success yet. I know one is a female for sure cause when I pulled her from the AP, she had tons of eggs in her mouth. She ate them though after the move.

Anyway, here is a video of two. Phone ran out of memory. I'll do another in the future.

http://youtu.be/c-inAymFMrA

Use food die(blue) and that will help. Keep the temp at 84-85 and give them 18 hours of light per day. Put 2 empty pots on each end of the tank and feed a high protein food. they will breed...it just might take more time. Watch for breeding behavior and then be prepared to get the female out of the breeding tank, as the other fish will eat the fry.

oops...food DYE

Yes, I have a pot on one end and some 4" PVC pipes in the other side. I had the temp set for 81 degrees F until last night though. Turned it up to 85 last night.

Back to sexing, found a decent picture online.

I noticed when the fluorescent lights are on, the fish tend to stay at the bottom and not swim much. With the lights off, they are more active, swimming around, exploring, etc...

Got a better idea of the difference between the male and females. I replaced the male with a bigger male, and added a third female. My thinking is none of the other two females were brooding eggs so the male wasn't doing his thing. Took him out and put in another one from the AP system. Temp is at 85. Nitrates 40 nitrite 0 and PH 6.6

Good luck. What species are they? The golds, at least for me, are much harder to breed. While the blues are very easy. Whites are somewhere in between.

Coach Chris,

I have blue tilapia. It's all I can raise in my neck of the woods without further permitting. I'm doing the breeding to stock my own tanks for future butchering. I enjoy watching the breeding tank in my living room more than my tv.

What are your parameters for your breeding tank? Temp, pH, nitrates, lights, size of tank? Thanks.

oddly enough, when i grab a large, dominant male and turn him upside down, he is usually urinating on me. so i find sexing to be pretty easy.

Temp - above 70 degrees

pH - usually high 7's but i dont think it matters

nitrates -preferably zero but i dont think it matters

, lights- 16+ hours per day

, size of tank? - i have done 55 gallon aquarium, 100 gallon aquarium, 250 gallon ibc, 300 gallon stock tank, 300 gallon ibc, 700 gallon ferrocement tank.



of all the questions you ask, the most important variable is the phototropic cycle. (light). when doing small tanks like 55 gallon aquarium you need to be aware of damage that can be cause by aggression but if you have 5 or 6 females they can school for safety from the male. just keep the water quality good, feed them well, keep them happy and they put rabbits to shame.

Mine is the same as BCottons- 55gallon, PH 7.6, temp 85, lights, on timer 6;30 AM to midnight, high protein feed(32%) 4-5x per day. Nitates, Ammonia both zero or close.

I think this is a female. What do you think? This fish took over the pot.

Looks like a Ms. to me.

Update. Took another look at who I thought was male. It wasn't. It was female. So netted a bunch more fish and found a male and threw him in the breeder tank. Tank is getting a bit crowded now with 4 females and 1 male.

'm taking a few makes out of my indoor tank after ID 2, with 1 being extremely aggressive. The inside ones finally looked like they were breeding last night. However, they all ate this AM...so not sure what they were doing...maybe just practice.lol

So what are they? I'm still having trouble sexing. I haven't had any breeding in my indoor aquarium but they are in the aquaponics.

I'm thinking I'm just not picking out a male. What are these?