Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am looking for red nile tilapia, red mossie tilapia, blue tilapia, or any of the white strains of niles or mossies that are out there. I have wild type niles and mossies now, but I am having trouble finding the others in the small quantities I am looking for. I want about 25 or so of each in mixed sex lots of 1 inch or so fry. Any one have good reliable sources for any of these.

Also, anyone in the states know where I can get barramundi fingerlings? They stock them in Florida for fishing, but I can't find a US source for the fingerlings. I would like to get a couple dozen to raise for next year in our ponds. We have 2 3000 gallon above ground pools with biofilters which should work. I would love to set up some aquaponics grow beds, but we just don't have the room where they are.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Why would you want red nile tilapia ??? The red strain has advanced a long way from there.

Chappo:

I am looking for red niles because they mostly will breed true. I teach a Marine Biology class and we breed all of our fish in our lab. I like having the colonies of each going because it cuts down on costs for restocking each year and gives us the opportunity to rebound from catastrophies like the power outage we had a few months back.

We set this whole thing up as a sustainable aquaculture project. At then end we are going to have a fish fry with the crop for the teachers to raise money for the program. This way we can continue to purchase equipment and supplies that break over time or are used up.

Anyone have any other ideas?

Snicely, I would seriously contact the Louisiana DWF before even bringing in fish as you are even responsible for the UPS guy for loss of containment.
http://aquanic.org/species/tilapia/docu ... isiana.pdf
http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/news/?id=1350

They are seriously not playing. I went to quail drive in Baton Rouge a couple weeks ago and unlike almost all other states it is not even legal to have them in an aquarium without a holders permit and if you are planning on breeding them you would need a culture permit and a fish farmer’s license. It is a $25K fine if caught and possible jail time! If you are planning on breeding then All aspects of the greenhouse has to be 1' above the flood plane and has to be inspected, so I'm not sure if a liner type above ground pool would pass a review. And if Tilapia are moved within the state the LDWF Secretary has to be notified 24 hours in advance along with a map of the route to be used and the vehicle has to have in 6" letters on both sides of the holding tank "live tilapia". and paperwork that the fish have no signs of disease. And that is just a few of the rules on the 5 page document. The contact's name is Agent Brac Salyers and his office phone is 225-765-2641.
Other than all that caution welcome aboard. I'm glad to see another AP'er from Louisiana. I am on my third holders permit but I haven't gotten any yet until I have a greenhouse/system that could make me feel warm and fuzzy about the possible penalty. Until then I will get only hybrid males and keep them in my Aquarium.

Thanks for the heads up. I liked the idea or being able to breed them in the lab and transplant them into the pools when we were ready for them, but I guess that is a no go. Any idea what we can use instead? Another teacher used catfish, but they poked holes in the sides of the pools as they got older with their spines. We don't have true blue gill here, and the sunfish here don't really get big enough to eat.

Right now I have goldfish in the pools to get them up and going. They are growing like weeds. I guess we can just track their growth rates over time and eventually sell them back to the petstore for credit to get another crop when growth slows.

I have seen barramundi for sale at the local pet shop, but at 20 bucks a piece I can't really stock a pond full of them. Trout can't take the heat, the other perch aren't available here, I am at a loss. It really sucks that Louisiana is so anti tilapia. It would have made a great learning opportunity for my students.

I was afraid that would scare you off. But catfish can be raised fairly intensively with shade and good airation. I would take down one of the pools and put in a bunch of IBC growbeds and a sump tank.
I had catfish in my pool without holes. A high quality pool liner is like a high quality water bed matress they heal up small holes. I had other problems from inexperience. I hadn't even heard of AP when I put them in and had residual copper pool chemicals that did them in But the blue gill survived. real hardy fish slow growth though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGlIS-8QBgo
http://www.dunnsfishfarm.com/fish_types.htm#bluegill

I have catfish in "tanks" made of EPDM pond liner.

As to the Tilapia, even if you have the proper permitting for the more exotic types of tilapia, most places that sell them are gonna want to sell in lots of 1000 or you could perhaps get breeding stock from some places but they tend to charge a lot for those fish.

I think you are far better off looking into types of fish that they sell for farm pond stocking in your state, then you can get them easier.

It looks like there are options of types of fish there in LA
http://www.seagrantfish.lsu.edu/aquaculture/fingerlings.htm
And many places to get them so don't give up. And keep in mind that Tilapia would be rather costly to keep warm enough over winter so it might be just as well to use something that will survive winter there with no special attention.

Forgive my ignorance, but what is an IBC growbed and where do I get one? I have been looking for Ebb and Flow growbeds but they are all pretty expensive. Anyone have good places to get them cheaply or good ideas on how to make something yourself?

Also, they are good quality pools. They are actually the Intex pools that you can get at Walmart for 150 bucks. I just don't want to come in one day and all the fish are swimming in 3 inches of water or worse not swimming at all.

I may have to write a few more grants for the money to get all this stuff, but that is what summers are for right.

I would love to see more pictures of good setups in the states. The aussies keep showing us up on this. I will be starting my PhD in two years and I am looking at schools involved in aquaculture of either marine of freshwater food and ornamental fish. This concept looks very promising to me as something to study and attempt to improve as a part of my dissertation. These same concepts could be used in Florida by the ornamental fish producers to cut cost, reduce water usage, and improve the overall profitability of the fish farms.

IBC is an Intermediate Bulk container.

You can cut the tops and bottoms 1/3 to make gravel growbeds.
They also make good sump tanks. Just make sure they didn't previously contain toxic materials. Shoot for food grade. If you look around small cement plants you might find some for free that previously contained a mild food grade acid, Citric acid.

I built my grow beds with wood and EPDM pond liner. This way I was able to get a lot more growbed space for less $ and less plumbing compared to using something like blue barrels. I'm also looking at making a fish tank using EPDM liner and cattle panels but that might not happen for a while yet.

IBC. They are the white plastic containers on a pallet and surrounded by a cage to support it. They usually hold about 1000 liters. It is best to only buy ones that you can be certain what they were used for before and know that it will be safe for fish, plants, bio-filter bacteria and you. In some places it is easier to get them than in other places and you really do want to be sure what was in them before.

There are other people out there building systems with concrete though you want to know what you are doing with concrete to know how to deal with the leaching and pH effects on an AP system.

There are also systems out there using stock tanks and troughs.

If you want a more commercial type system, then look into how the university of the virgin islands does things for an example or at earthbound's new commercial set up they have a thread about which is at the BYAP shop in Australia.

How things are done will largely depend on the schedule of the people taking care of the system. It seems that some methods require daily solids removal and tending while other ways only require a quick daily check to see that things are working and to feed the fish.

There is tons of info right here on the forum, it will just take time to read and ask questions.

Grant writing? Any tips on where to find such grant sources?

I'd love some free money to start an AP farm .

You may want to stay up a little late sometimes but there is a wealth of info in these threads and our Aussie friends have an awful lot to offer! You may want to download the BYAP publications CD's etc. to save a little time rooting thru the threads. Also sketch up what you are planning and post it. The folks here on the forum will point out the weaknesses before you build it, and could save you a lot of disappointments.

I know a person in San Diego who will sell Rocky Mountain White hybrids. She has fry now, will have ship-able fish in a month or two. PM me if you are interested.

If you are thinking about selling your fish back to the pet store, how about koi?