Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yes in a way the temperature requirement of tilapia does keep them from becoming an invasive species in cold winter areas. However, it does mean that if you want to grow out tilapia fast, in most parts of the country you have to invest quite a bit of money in heating.

Even in my sub-tropical climate, with a greenhouse for winter, the water cools off enough to really slow down the tilapia.
Enough so that my channel catfish grow faster than my tilapia.

Tilapia are a fine fish, don't get me wrong. I just no longer think of them as any better than other fish because their bad points do balance out the good points so it does come down to what is important in a particular situation.

(I hear so many people touting the virtues of Tilapia and it seems to me that people get an unrealistic idea of what tilapia can do.) Yes, they can be fast growing fish but as soon as you trow in one variable being less than optimum, they won't be growing at record rates. I just want to be sure people understand that they are not going to grow tilapia from fry to eating size in 6 months on a vegitarian diet in 65 F degree water with low dissolved oxygen. (You might manage a 6 month grow out from all male fingerlings in 86 F degree water with plenty of aeration and high quality feed.) My fingerlings that I left in the duckweed tank with only minimal aeration, minimal supplemental feed and all the duckweed they could eat, are still only fingerlings after several months of 70-86 F water and now the temperature has dropped, they won't grow over winter if they even survive.

My biggest tilapia I've harvested was 2 lb 2 oz and that fish would have been in the batch I got a year and a half before.
I have harvested catfish in as little as 6 months from getting large fingerlings. From the batch of catfish I got last December, I have been harvesting fish as large as 3 lb 9 oz in only a year.

Have you talked with your local wildlife resource agency? Your conditions would seem to be suitable for trout. The question you need to ask is, does Calif. do pond and creek stocking and who do they deal with in acquiring the fingerlings? If CA stocks accordingly then you have your answer.

I've read some of the reg's and other Dept. of Fish & Game materials about various species of tilapia, and I've spoken with a few different California Dept. of Fish & Game staff in recent months. I've found the information from the various different sources to be inconsistent. One DFG staffer told me recently they're having an internal meeting to discuss tilapia regulation in a few weeks and to check back after that. I'm hoping we'll get some more clarity in coming months.

I'll be interested to see if California changes its policies on Tilapia. Currently, we do not ship tilapia to California unless the customer has all the permits and so forth, which is quite difficult to obtain. I know of some other suppliers who ship there anyway, but they are doing so illegally... and NOT helping with the situation.

Glad to see this discussion here. I'm another Sonoma Co. resident, starting to think about putting in a system. I hope as folks get more information about DFG regs they'll post it back here.

Because of a current lawsuit, I believe that the DFG is not issuing stocking permits except for the exact species, location, and number of fish that have been previously stocked in a given location. Some locations require permits for any stocking, others (like the Central Valley, Sacto Valley, etc) have a list of species (like cats and bluegill) that you can stock without a permit. We folks in Sonoma (according to two calls I made last year) are TSOL at the moment, but that may change soon.

The DFG is dealing with a lawsuit at the moment and trying to come up with an environmental impact statement. Until they finish it they are apparently not issuing any permits for stocking fish that are not carbon copies of earlier permits, so we are TSOL. Folks in the inland valleys can stock catfish, bluegills, etc (I believe) without permits: a quick call to the DFG will tell you what you need to know.

It is a shame that folks who are going to keep their fish completely segregated from any waterways are affected by the repercussions of the thoughtless ecological meddling of others.

Then again, we are human: we meddle. And enjoy it. And, occasionally, collapse the ecology of an island or discover penicillin.

I recently moved to the Sebastopol area and was interested in starting a small aquaponics operation. Does anyone in the bay area have a setup they would be willing to show? I can bring some Azolla fern by in trade if you have any fish that will feed on it.

Thanks

You can certainly come by and see mine, although the fish hide out in the cavern. I'll pm you the contact info.

You can come check out mine too if you want.