Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi MF:
It's through Miami Aquaculture.

Thanks Dave, maybe this summer I will order some for the next stage of development....whatever that ends up being;)

Drumroll, please....I got the order placed with Miami Aquaculture today. No problem. They expect to ship next week, straight to the door. 150 Rocky Mountain White Tilapia in a box.

Awesome!!!!!

Sweet, some new play toys for your kitty

Janet, will these produce only males?

No, DT. The fry purchase and their offspring will be both male and female. I would need a Supermale or specific and absolutely pure tilapia lines to get all males. Here's what Dan from Miami Aquaculture had to say about all-male production. (He was quite helpful.)

"Supermales are the result of a process that converts a male tilapia into a functioning female using hormones. The offspring of this results in some YY males and the normal XY chromosome males. In theory the further mating of these YY “Supermales” to any XX female tilapia will result in all the offspring being XY males.

But the YY supermales are only produced in England, and are not available for sale. Only the all male offspring fry (XY) of the Supermale matings are sold, and called Genetically male Tilapia (GMT). They do not use this technology on T. aurea at all.

One breeder, Mike Sipe, sells Tilapia hornorum, which he claims uses a different chromosome system; a ZZ chromosome. When mated with XX females, usually of T. mossambica, they produce all male offspring. Although he calls this a Supermale, it is different than real Supermales."

Sex changed fish just seem so wrong, cant wait to see the pictures as they arrive. You and Dave are going to be knee deep in fishies I'd expect.

...and here's me thinking GMT stood for Greenwich Mean Time

Janet, I can feel the excitement generated as the ETA nears

So Janet, make sure you have two fish tanks and a magnifying glass for sexing your fish. What will you do with the females?

I was just at the local Tilapia hatchery here and they showed me the easy way to sex the fish using a tender shoot of grass. Doing it this way, they can be between 1" and 1.5" when you do the sexing.

Turn the tilapia bottom facing you awith the head towrd your body. Then take the tender stem of a shoot of grass, I suppose a stiff hair of a brush would work, move the hair from the tail toward the head gently scraping its underside. At the red dot, if it is male, the the hair will catch and then snap forward. If it is female there will be no "catch". Also he showed me that the bodys on the males tend to be longer and thicker and the females shorter and rounder when looking at them from the side. Forgive me if you already know this.

I am starting a new thread about my new system. In about two weeks I will be buying about 300 fingerlings for my tank hoping for at least 150 males. The females, I will grow out in a separate system.

Hi DT,
Thanks for the sexing hint! I've only seen stylized diagrams of how to sex them, and they just really don't make sense to me. Your method makes sense. I think when all is said and done, I just have to wait until I think they are big enough and turn them upside down and look/tickle with grass. I've also heard of putting a bit of food coloring on them to bring out the 'features'.

I will be setting up a second system for fry grow-out, but may use it to grow out some females to eatin'-size, too. I am also willing to ship breeding harems to folks who want them and have their local paperwork in order (Greenedo!!). In truth, some females may get iced young if they aren't growing well enough to earn their space. Ultimately, I plan one tank for breeders (Love Shack), one for mixed-gender fry grow-out, and one for full grow-out of males.

btw, Dan commented that the fingerlings he will be shipping are probably larger than 1 inch. Woohoo!

Uh oh

They're here.... :bom:

Not yet! Not yet! Oh no! Not yet! (HSM)



I'm ready, bring 'em on!