Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Can you feed waste alfalfa hay to tilapia directly or do you have to feed the hay to worms, first? My family has a small flock of jacobsheep (about 20) & a bunch of powdery waste hay accumulates in our barn. We were wondering if we could feed it to our tilapia (coming this spring). The hay is fairly high in protein and it is just going to waste.

Tilapia like veggies. I would try it. I have heard of feeding cut grass to grass carp, too. My bigger concern would be whether longer strands of hay would wrap themselves around the pump impeller and jam it.

You could give it a try in a cage so that the fish just take what they need and you would have less issues with decomposing material on the bottom of the tank.
Do it like the food troughs for sheep in there barn.
The thing is that it wouldn't be good enough if used as the only food for the fishes, but could create enough organic material to enhance the growth of water crustaceans like daphnia and cyclops. It is what is used on extensive fish farming in dirt ponds to create the plankton bloom before putting the fish larvae.
Have fun with your fish and I hope i've been clear enough, if not, don't hesitate to ask me to explain it again.