Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Today the nitrite and ammonia are back down, so the fishies got lunch. They were happy! They are still lively and hungry, but out of paranoia, I went ahead and dosed to 2ppt salt. DT is just having too much sorrow for me to take the risk.

I've also figured out how to construct a lid for the tank. I have a semi-transparent plastic mat that goes on top of a hard floor under a rolling desk chair. I think with the addition of a couple pieces of angle iron for support and a layer or two of bubble wrap, it will make an admireable lid. I was examining fishies this morning, and you can feel the heat rising off the water. I think the lid will be the best insulation for the effort.

how are things going? Any new news on the tilapia (I hope not)? I've been watching the wather and it is a mite chilly in your neck of the woods. I imagine the insulation is doing helping your setup. Have you thought of plexiglass for the lid? It would be rigid enough to forgo the angle iron and still be transparent. Might take some of the fun away for the kitty though.

Hi DT, It is very cold up here. I like the floor-mat lid that I made. It really traps heat and moisture. I did think of plexiglass/acrylic, but I was afraid I had less ability to cut it. The floor mat cut with tin snips. Also, with the condensation, it doesn't really matter whether it is transparent. The water droplets obscure the view regardless. I take the lid off several times a day to feed and survey the fish. Pandora (the cat) tries to assist with this, but I have to keep an eye on her. She has started reaching out like she's going to hook a fish. Mostly she's not allowed in the room anymore.

The fish are very hungry and very healthy. Minor injuries gained during transport are healed, and by the time Dave picks up his half of them on Friday, they will have almost doubled in size. Count (to my knowledge) is still 126. I'm still doing daily water tests because the bacteria is slower ramping up than the fish's appetite. I thin the fish would be happy if I dropped a handful of food in about every 5 minutes. It's hard for the bacteria to keep up with that.

The girls informed me that they didn't want to eat the fish. I told them I would pick out 4 special ones that we wouldn't eat (my breeders). That seemed to solve the worst of the problem.

Heh, sounds real good. I am happy for you. They do seem to grow quickly. Now that mine are on the mend, they seem to be eating like horses and I think even growing. I too am hoping to find an aquarium to put my two big ones in. They will look nice in the house.

Tilapia do well with a harem rather than just paired. I am going to put 1 male in with 3 females. I already have one or two bigger males starting to assert themselves -- establishing pecking order and showing off to the girls. No, I haven't turned them over to examine their private parts. Their behavior speaks volumes for sexing them, but perhaps someone unaccustomed to cichlid ritual would not realize what was going on. I'm used to using coloration and fin length to sex fish, but the behaviors are pretty good clues, too.

I'm really glad that yours are on the mend now. I will keep my fingers crossed for you.

Hi Folks:
Got the tilapia from Janet this afternoon, they are sleeping soundly in the basement tonight! Tried taking a picture but it doesn't do them justice. Looking at them in the bags they are each very pretty and there is a lot of variation in coloring/stripes/etc even though they are all Rocky Mtn whites. Right now it looks like they have a lot of room in the tub, but that will change soon enough as they are hungry little guys and girls!

Thank you so much Janet and hubbie and girls and cats for watching over the little ones!

Great stuff Dave. You guys really have got the US chapter of BYAP under control and full steam ahead!

It was great meeting Dave and his wife. As Dave commented, he has his fish--they were quite the challenge to catch. He took all the slow dumb ones since that's what I could manage to catch. I have the fast smart ones left. He'll have the easier time at harvest!

About 20 of them were in my sump this morning, they had been sucked into the drain pipe or went spelunking on their own. It took awhile to catch them and put them back!

Were they all "animated", boisterous and still yelling...
"Yippie, that was fun ...let's do it again"

Pretty much, except one who was scraped pretty badly. I like having the opportunity to look at them close up again!

Sounds like you might need to mesh the inlet/outlet

Already done - I cut a hole in a plant basket and turned it upside down at the pipe inlet. It's held down by a shot glass!

Well, the tilapia have been growing at an amazing rate. Of the 63 fast smart ones that Dave left me, I still have 62 of them. The one that died of unknown causes was 20 grams a couple weeks ago. They started out at about 2 grams on the last day of January, so I think my largest fish could be 30-40 grams now. My breeder and fry grow-out tanks are almost cycled up, and the only complication is that my large heater blew again and I'm on back-up heaters. Replacement heaters (different brand this time, thank you very much) are on order and should be here in a couple days. So.....

It's gonna be Sexing Time this weekend!!! My plan is to keep the males in the big system, and divide the best (largest, fattest, lightest color) females out into the two 50gal aquariums.

It's still too cold for me to consider shipping breeding harems, and before too long, the fish will be so large that I would be afraid to ship. If folks within driving distance want a selection of females plus one male, let me know. I'll hang on to the females for at least a month, so you have some time. After that I have to make a decision whether I can hold a temperature range that both tilapia and yellow perch will tolerate. I'm a little concerned that an actual warm sunny day may heat up my water so much that I would overheat the perch. I'm seeing a lot of heat gain during the few teaser Spring days we've had. I'll monitor that situation before I make a decision to get or pass on the yellow perch.

Any takers on tilapia breeding harems? Let me know before I feed them pepper flakes and cook them!!

Janet, watching the mad growth of the dumb and smart Talapia I feel you would be best to stick with them. My Yellow Perch seem to be the same size as when I first placed them in the tank. Granted they haven't been feeding like your's but seems more of a pain with YP's.
The gold fish that live with the YP's have grown and are twice the size of the perch at least. (the perch used to eat them so to give you an idea of starting size).
I would love to have a Breeding Harem, but the drive is out of the question. sniff....I have never eaten a tilapia and always considered them a trash fish I guess... Finding myself wanting a few now. Perch are a pain in the arse! or I lack the skills for them.