Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Howdy. I'm new here. Well, I've been lurking off and on for awhile. Small-time, experimental, indoor, "turn-my-aquarium-into-a-closed-ecosystem"-scale aquaponics hobbyist.

Now I'm in the market for a few tilapia--just a couple dozen at most. I followed through most of the thread where Janet ordered a batch from Miami Aquaponics, and had the shipment arrive sans water. Those Rocky Mtn. Whites look and sound nice. I've been looking for O. hornorums and O. mozambiques for awhile now (for that all-male cross-breeding thing), but so far, I haven't had any luck. No doubt, I'm looking in the wrong places.

At any rate, I already emailed Mr. Heavner at Valmeyer, to see if he's still breeding and selling tilapia. I'm located in the SE corner of Wisconsin (in the US), halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee. I'd be willing to drive up to 3-4 hours, if anyone within that range would be willing to sell me a few (preferably) fingerlings. If not, any other ideas on small-scale fingerling purchases?

Oh yeah ... also, what is a good time frame for flood-and-drain? Meaning, how long do you leave the media flooded, and then how long do you leave it drained?

Another oh yeah ... I've got a little vermicomposter running in my back hall. I feed them my kitchen scraps, plus what comes out of my rabbits. Tilapia can live off of worms, correct?

thanks in advance.

Hi RB and welcome to the forum - tilapia are illegal in my area so know [s]very little[/s] nothing about them,Janet and Dave Donley may be able to help in that area.

F & D normally fits in with the type and size of the system, whether continuous flow or timed [s]humping[/s] Pumping (fixed now )... plus many other variables... best idea is to start your own thread and put down a few ideas - the suggestions will then flow

Personally I've never timed myself

hehehe ROFLMAO...and my edit function has been removed by admin order

Welcome, Rainbird!
Tilapia would probably be happy eating worms, but the do like their veggies, too. I'd be suprised if you could manage to feed worms exclusively just due to production challenges. Supplement with a low protein chow, or leafy scraps from the kitchen or garden. Just watch out feeding them fiberous leaves as the fibers clog the pump.

For a while, there was a guy (bardpaper?) on eBay that had the honorums and mozambiques, but he sold out. One of our members did get some, but I can't remember who. Someone out west. I'd say your best bet is to drive over to see Mr. Heavner. Give him a call--he's very friendly, and I bet if you go over with your cooler, he'll sell you what ever number you want. They had a variety of colors - white, red, blue, green. I'd go for white or red so you can see them better in the tank. My whites show up very well. For some reason, I have a few grays, and can't see them to save my life. Every now and again when I'm netting dinner, I catch one by accident.

Flood and drain timing - My growbeds cycle completely about 4 times an hour. iow, 4 floods and 4 drains in that time. And amazingly, that means my tank volume turns over about 4 times an hour. (my growbeds = fish tank volume) Take a look at my system ("Janet's Jungle") -- it's a good beginner's example, and you can drool over the tilapia pics. I have decided that in my system, 30 tilapia per batch is about right. At the point that a batch gets to eating size, I toss in another batch of 30 fingerlings. At least that's how I'm operating for now and we'll see how it goes long term.

Thanks Janet, et all.

I certainly wouldn't be feeding worms exclusively (it's a small vermicomposter, and it's already augmenting the chicken's diet). I definitely intend to have actual fish food on hand as needed, but in general, I look for local (read: free) feedstuff for my critters.

Mr. Heavner wrote back. I could have googled; he's down at the far south end of IL, too far a drive to make for tilapia. I may order from him in the spring, if nothing else presents itself sooner. ebay was a surprise for me; just checked there -- nothing today, but I'll keep checking.

I remember seeing in a thread that a hobbyist in the Chicago area was getting set up for tilapia about a year ago. Anybody around Chicago have tilapia now, and perhaps anticipate having extra anytime soon?

I've got my little system cycling about once/hour now (no plants yet, just test-running) -- 10 minutes to flood, 20 minutes to drain, and sit empty for another 30 minutes. Is that a bad cycle? Looking through Janet's Jungle now ... it's a long thread.

Janet I believe the total volume of your growbeds is equal to the volume of your FT and your using gravel as your media right?

If thats so then your FT would be turning over only twice an hour since the gravel takes up roughly half the total volume of the GB and water takes up the other half when the GB fills.

Is my maths right

Rainbird, I suspect hobbyists will not be putting tilapia up for sale through the dead of winter. Shipping is more complex then.

Stuart, I think you might be right... except that I think it takes only 13 gallons to flood each bed, and as I do the math, that would mean I turn the fish tank over only once an hour. Now I'm going to have to go time and measure everything, because I really thought I was turning over 4x per hour. Grumble grumble grumble.... Good catch!!

Agreed, which is why I was hoping to find someone within driving distance. But fret not; I've decided to give oscars a try. I'm still interested in tilapia, if anyone close by has extras ... but I'm not waiting for spring. I'm going out to buy a few oscars tonight.