Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

There certainly are earthworm based flakes on the market, I can check the ingredients for you next time I see them to give you an idea of the binders they are using if you like?
Do you have any references for the "fat content of worms can cause liver problems in tilapia"? Just curious as I have fed a fair few fish on just earthworms now as lab rats and never had a problem --- Never tried it with tilapia though!
Is it possible there may be a more suitable worm species? Any ideas on fat contents anyone?

I can no longer find the health study for fat in tilipia diets and how much fat is fatal. From http://aquanic.org/publicat/usda_rac/efs/ncrac/ncrac114.pdf Page 2 they are citing 4-8% fat at good for feeding, so I would assume twice that would be bad... Sorry I can not be more specific, I deleted some files and the stud in question was in there. It said something to the effect of: problems such as excessive fat deposition in the liver can decrease the health and market quality of fish and fish death.

Found that while browsing. Thats an interesting idea. Never thought you could feed fish hay.

I wonder how many fish of what size and for how long? Seems like a lot of food. Though, its funny. I can put ~ 1/2-1 cup of duckweed in with my 3 ~10" tilapia and it will sit there for a couple of days and then I'll walk in and it will be completely gone. Mood eating, I guess.

your never going to be able to raise fish out of thin air. BSF looks like the most promising feed, because the average household puts out more then enough scraps.
possibly BSF + duckweed, but the duckweed fails in a big way because of the surface area you need to produce a meaningful amount.

Yup... realized that with the amount they can eat when they decide to eat. And, that's only 3 tilapia. As for BSF, I remember the other thread on this topic mentioned the amount of fat in BSF as being too high for tilapia. A few are okay, but a full diet would be too much. Better to shred zucchini and other vegetables and freeze during season as a supplementary diet. Bottomline, need a source of good feed... the challenge is to find something I trust. Seem to have lost that in this corporate oriented world. Good organic tilapia food?

timmy is spot on regarding duck-weed ,, surface area to get the needed output is very VERY large.
Can I suggest ,, think 3 dimentional ,, a tree , a fast growing tree that has high protein leaves relished by humans / fish and cows /pigs etc etc .
Moringa or drum-stick tree is its name, look and judge for yourself.
I have just had 2,000 of these tree's planted on my Thailand farm.

That and those BSF look the best I have looked into.

soylent green.
ask me in 50 years if i'm joking.

If it gets that bad Timmy.... I wont be asking you.... I'll be eating you

Dang ya'll scaring me. I just wanna feed my fishes.

If you are going to make pellets or flakes then blending and boiling or pressure cooking the BSF and removing the separated fat is only a small step in the process anyway. Might even make a bar of soap from the worm fat.. LOL now theres a though.. Get your worm soap bar here!!

sounds like Foodandfish has the sustainable food figured out.

Worm soap-I can see a new organization starting-
SEW

Save Earth Worms

Alfalfa pellets, would they make an ok food for tilapia? In moderation at least? Very high in Veg protein I know.

Alfalfa pellets are my primary purchased dirt garden fertilizers. Much cheaper than buying bags of "fertilizer" especially the organic stuff. (I often need something high in Nitrogen to balance all the carbon I have for the garden.)

I read somewhere a small operation was using alfalfa bails, not even pellets, for all the protein requirements. The tilapia grow slower than when on a fish protein diet, but I think it would be fine to grow them out in 12 vs 7 months.

i would just like to add alfalfa contains a plant growth hormone called cytokinin. cytokinin is needed for the vital processes of nutrient uptake and distribution, cell division, root development and the production of flowers and fruit.

if you can get the tilapia to feed on it, your plants will love it, even if its just a small amount.