Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Here is an e-mail from a nice lady at the Department of Fisheries regards Tilapia in WA.

Now .. remember that this fish is a noxious fish in most other states and if keeping this one in the warmer regions, I would be most careful that it is not allowed to get into our waterways!

Here goes ..

I wish to advise that Tilapia is neither listed as a noxous or restricted species, and is available through the aquarium trade. It is legal to keep the fish as a pet or to undertake research or development trials at home or at the school. No permits are required and an Aquaculture Licence is also not required as you will not be undertaking commercial aquaculture.

The species is hardy and fast growing and spawns easily and is therefore the most suitable available fish in WA for the activities you propose to undertake at the school or home environment.

As they are an introduced species, it is important that the fish are not released into our natural waterways and dams. If you have unwanted fish, they should be returned to your place of purchase or disposed of humanely, such as by freezing them.

Further information on introduced species can be found on the Department of Fisheries website at www.fish.wa.gov.au and there may be merit in distributing this information to your students, so that they are aware of the importance of keeping the fish out of rivers and streams or dams.

I hope this information is useful. Please get back to me if you have any further queries.


Regards
Barbara Sheridan
Aquaculture Policy and Industry Relations Officer.

That's interesting. Maybe in a very cold place like Tasmania, where I want to end up, tilapia would also be legal... hmmmmmmm

Hhhhmmm, don't know how easy it would be to get your hands on the super fast growing red or pink varieties, they are mainly for food and as such not really around in Australia so much, people breeding them here are more interested in ornamental qualities for aquariums....

That may not be such a bad thing really. Maybe they wouldn't grow as super fast as the others, but they will still grow pretty fast, and if they are an attractive fish then they will have good presentation to market as whole fish on ice or gilled and gutted etc *shrugs* There also seems to be a lot of variability in the species and specimens present here (not that I have ever seen or kept any ). You may end up with individuals that show these features anyway with some breeding effort. That's one of the reasons why I was thinking of the oscar. The selectively bred red oscar is a very handsome looking fish with bright orange-red sides. This also makes for good presentation despite it being a trait developed for the aquarium trade. The Australian fish buyer is a fickle beast and is easily influenced by such things as colour. A few years back I went to an aquaculture conference at CSIRO in Cronulla and they were looking at, among other things, the effect of certain foods on the skin colour of pond/cage raised snapper because the consumer preferred more intense pink in these fish than some of the more green/grey specimens that sometimes turn up. There is no difference in the flesh quality of these fish but to the consumer the more intense pink equates to a more attractive product that they also associate, erroneously, with freshness. So maybe tilapia meant for the aquarium trade might be just what the Dr ordered in so far as taking advantage of an as yet untapped niche market.

Yep, thats why I was looking for res and pinks. More attractive to the meat consumer.

On the subject of colour, apparently .. regards birds, in canaries ... flamigo's you can colour feed to intensify the redness.

I think the same appies with certain fish showing these colour traits.

Maybe a little boiled beetroot and carrot in the diet might just intensify the colour! Would be an interesting thing to try.

Actually, there are already a number of colour enhancing foods on the market for aquarium fish. TetaBits is a good example. The basis of colour enhancing foods is carotenoids which is found in high concentrations in shrimp meal foods. I use to make a DIY fish food for my large South American and Central American cichlids to cut costs and provide a better nutrition especially for my oscars who are susceptible to a disease called hole in the head or lateral line degeneration when vitamin levels are too low or affected by compounds that affect vitamin B uptake. It also improved colour as well. I bought my own blender (my wife would freak if she caught me blending this in her blender lol) and blend up a packet of whitebait and packet of bait prawns, an egg (and it's shell crushed up), bakers yeast for vitamin B, a crushed up human multivitamin tablet, and some nori (sometimes I'd throw in a few squid because teh fish seemed to like some of the chewy bits lol) and then froze it in 1-2cm layers in ice cream contained so I could cut it into cubes. The egg yolk and the bait prawns were high in carotenoits and would help to really boost colour and the egg also boosted protein levels. It didn't look very appetizing but the fish loved it. The oscars would eat 2-3 cubes a day and the others, like the severums, chocolate cichlids, surinamensis etc would pick and the other cubes until they were gone. Use to make about 2-3litres of food for about $10 that would last a fair while (though I had ten tanks to spread it between). All the ingredoents were also from saltwater species too as this helps reduce the risk of transferring disease to my freshwater fish.

There are other colour enhancing foods around which, IMO, go too far. They affect colour so much they make female fish of african cichlid species look like males. This, from a breeding point of view, was very bad and resulted in heightened aggression because they all looked like males and ended up sparring all the time. I won't mention the brand on here because that would be liabelous, but let's just say it has something to do with a tall white bird lol

The Goverment have an ethics committee .. (I applaud that! Because I do not like cruelty to any animal) but .. it means that ...

I have to do more paperwork for keeping a goldfish in a classroom or on the school farm than someone who is registered to foster care for orphan Kangaroos!

To kill a fish .. (humanely) we have to freeze it! (I never saw an Angler do that!) If a fish gets sick, we have to notify a vet! (The visions in my head!) We have to provide an end of year report and fill out umpteen other forms!

Thats quite amazing Johnnie.......

Obviously kids aren't meant to learn about real life stuff... Take a fish to the vet..?

Hey John,

I'm a High School Teacher too (science/ag./marine studies) in the NSW system and the animal welfare policy has been around, and causing us a pain the butt, for years. It is not so prescriptive as this sounds but it does lay down guidelines for how we should run our tanks down to how many bubbles/minute we shold have to aerate the water. Typical red tape written by someone who hasn't got a clue. Those restictions you mention do sound a bit heavy handed. Are you sure they refer to any fish? They sound like the guidelines we had for natives. Hell I even had a reptile license at my last school near Newcastle to keep turtles and frogs in the lab and had less paperwork. Here on Norfolk Island... well let's just say things are done differently out here lol ("animal welfare - are you high?" lol). I have a tank of guppies that I fish out and feed to my grouper and no-one raises an eye brow.

I have recently recieved a very helpful e-mail from Gordon Motherwell who is the Translocation Officer from the WA Department of Fisheries who indicated that non-commercial aquaponics of non-endemic fish in WA requires translocation approval under the Fish Resources Management Act 1994.

It is important the West Australians who keep fish understand the law relating to translocation of exotic fish as it relates to aquaculture, aquaponics and aquariums and environmental risks.

At the time of my initial post (2006) I was not aware of the regulations regarding translocation.

I understand that the Department will post this information in detail on the site in the very near future.

If in any doubt may I suggest that you contact the department with your question.

Gordon can be contacted at the fish and fish habitat protection programme of the Department of Fisheries in WA.

Thank you, Johnnie. I trust you'll keep us posted as the information becomes available.

Regards
Adrian

I hope I can find a link to the Act 1994 for fellow Western Australians to have a look at

Also needed is a link to the Regulations 1995. in particular Regulation 176


http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/pub/Tran ... 3.php?0505

http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/pub/Aqua ... x.php?0307

According to fisheries management paper 159, we can't even have barramundi in a closed recirc system, without prior translocation approval and property inspection.

The Barramundi shall be sourced from a batch that has been certified disease free to the satisfaction of the senior fish pathologist of the department of fisheries.

At least 48 hours prior to transportation of the barramundi, a copy of the certificate citing freedom from disease shall be forwarded to the translocation officer of the department of fisheries.

Any unusually high mortalities must be reported to the senior fish pathologist and the translocation officer of the department of fisheries within 24hours of their occurrence.

I know this isn't Tilapia so it's a bit off topic, but it's certainly opening a big can of worms... And yes, this is for non-commercial growing of Barramundi, outside their natural environment, in a recirculating system.. There are loads of papers for W.A. that can be found here: http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/mp/index.php

Edit: Ahhh, you found the same paper Johnnie..

idunno i just can't take to the idea of tilapia, they are scum suckers used by fish farms to clean up the crud from the other fish :/
same deal with perch, they aren't traditionally a high value fish. perch usually just ends up crumbed.
i like the idea of trout though. once i've finished my other 1000 jobs around the house i'm going for a go with trout

I lived in East Africa for a total of 14 years. I caught lots of tilapia and ate even more. They're excellent eating, steamed, roasted, curried.