Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am picking up a 55 gallon tank to breed my tilapia today and have a question or two about setting it up.

I plan to put three fish in and watch for results as I have no experience determining the sex of the fish.

If I start with water and gravel from my current tank, do I need to wait for the new tank to cycle before I put the tilapia in? I will test for a week with a few expendable goldfish in any case.

With three tilapia (5-6 inches long) and a good flow of air through a bubbler, what amount of filtration will be necessary? I thought I would try a mini sand filter on top of the tank but have not done that before and don't want to have the system go bad on me.

As always, thanks for the feedback.

The sex determining is difficult even in a fish tank, don't forget to put some stuff on the bottom of the tank to determine different territories for the fish and hides for the smaller ones.

Maybe start with four or five fish, makes it more difficult for the dominant ones to be always bashing the same smaller ones, then take them out once you have defined who are the dominant couple.

I'd say that you'd have to wait for at least three days even after having seeded it with another tank. It is what i do and it works fine.

the best would be to do a small growbed with hydroton or gravel on the top of the fish tank and take from an existing system. Just take a box, drill a few holes in the bottom and let the water exiting the pump flow down through the gravel inside it. I would be a perfect filter for an aquarium, plant mint or any other fast growing plant in it and you'll be fine.

Check the water now and then to see if you have to do a water change, fresh colder water induces spawning (simulates a rainfall), high nitrates is not very good for the fry's growth. But don't throw the old water, use it to top up the growout system.

The rule for spawning tanks is to keep it as clean as possible, in the calmest area as possible and feed the fish with live food. Once you know this you know it all.

The box i would use as a filter would be 1 sq foot and as deep (two or three 2L ice tubs would work fine for the job i'd say)

Maybe put some fine aquarium filtering media, the white fluffy stuff they use, under the water flow as a prefiltering system. You'd just have to rince it out in the other system or in a watering can for dirt plants every week to keep the nutrients low in the fish tank and not loose them.

Hope this helps

Remember that an undergravel filter will not be very good for a breeding tank. The tilapia like to rearrange the gravel. Using seasoned gravel and seasoned water, I wouldn't bother with the goldfish.

I'm thinking that once you have a pair, you shouldn't separate them if you can avoid it. I think that was my mistake.

Happy days! I have another female with eggs. I paired them Thursday last week, and they hit it off. I'm unsure exactly when they spawned, but by my count, she has had the eggs in her mouth 4-7 days. She was very plump with eggs. Everything is calm in there so far, so I know the eggs have not hatched, but they will soon, I think.

I always get in a bit early when I catch the holding females... I am too afraid she will spit the eggs in the tank and get eaten.

I can tell when they are moving in the females mouth so I have been able to get most the the babies out when they are still attached to the egg sac...

I have 20 or so 2cm ones which have been reserved, another 20 or so 0.5cm ones and just yesturday I got about 150 eggs with tails...

I can't get them to stop now...

Tim,
How do you take care of "eggs with tails"?

More so Tim, who are they reserved for???

Hope my name is on a list somewhere..

..also the 7 little fellas settled in nice today Tim, the couple of tilipia are hanging around the surface, im a bit worried the birds might think its chow time.. ..Is it normal for tilipia to be so close to the surface?

Janet, I keep them in a small net and depending on what stage they are at I add a bubbler underneath the net to keep the water flowing over them. When they are free from the egg sac they can escape through the holes in the net.

JJ, Tilapia are quite an inquisitive fish. They should soon settle down. See how those two go... If you kill 'em, your not getting any more... hehe. Only kidding. They really need to be a cm or two longer before I give them all away.

A bubbler?!?! tut tut lol its a air stone or airpump

I am trying to get some good plans for a egg tumbler as when you do get them before they are on the yolk sacs they are quite hard to grow up (fungus).

One way is to get a net and a airstone bellow but the mesh has to be tight otherwise some get stuck in the lining and don't move around. Once you get one white egg they must be removed before the fungus spreads.

Nic

OK, thanks! We'll see how things go here, then.