Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

With more sunlight, the sunroom is really warming up. I'm needing to open up the windows to vent some of the heat already. I've also cut back the heaters to compensate for the heat gain from the sun's warmth. I am getting a 4F/2C gain on a sunny day. The veggies and basil are loving it, but the wasabi is unhappy. I'm afraid it may be a bad combo with warm water fish like tilapia.

There has been a lot of action in the breeder tanks. I've been observing a lot, and have determined that my fears of inaccurate sexing were very correct. I tried to load each tank with 4 females and 2 males. I actually got that in one tank, but the other was the reverse. None-the-less, I've been netting the more aggressive males out of the breeder tanks and returning them to the grow-out tank. With a slight re-distribution of fish, I will hopefully have two sets of 1M:3F breeders. I'm 80% certain of the sexes of the remaining fish right now, and 100% certain of the dominant male in each tank. I also am nearly 100% certain of one of the females, because....

there has been some HANKY PANKY in the TANKY!!!
One of the probable-females has been hanging out with the male in her tank, there is excavation in front of their flower pot, and she has a slightly puffed out throat. The normal fish-mouth-breathing action has been replaced by a more tight-lipped expression. Hmmmm....wonder what's in her mouth?!?!? How long 'til I get to see the little ones? A couple weeks? Just to spite me, she'll probably swallow them before I can confirm the eggs/fry, but it really looks suspicious to me. Very exciting!!!

Congratulations JP.

Man, tilapia sound like sooo much fun. Go Janet.

Go Janet...... Yes, that tight lipped expression, I'm just looking at my two girls in the tank next to me, they have eggs again.... I think mine generally seem to take just over a week, between 1 and 2 weeks anyway, you can sometimes see the eggs tumbling around in their mouth. Then if you watch carefully you can get to see flashes of silver in their mouth once they have hatched.

The other way to tell that they have hatched is because she will become aggressive towards the male or other fish, trying to stake out a little safe area for her to release her fry. When you see her aggressiveness, I'd be looking at getting the male out of there as quickly as possible..

Cool you go Janet's fish!

awwwww babies

So that makes you a grandma? Congrats.

Janet, you definately will have babies in no time! Even when it's too soon to tell the males and females apart by looking at thier external organs, thier behavior definately gives them away. The males are so aggressive as juveniles and start to color quickly (my males go pink/red with a dark dorsal fin stripe). But sometimes when they are still young it is easy to confuse the recessive males as females.

It is ideal to breed them in a glass tank so when the female is holding you can spot her clutch. If in tubs or tanks I've found a good method is to go into the fish area at night with a mini flashlight and when the female turns to face you spot the light on her mouth. If you get a reflection from inside her mouth, she is holding.

A good mom will hold her babies no matter what (even when she's netted) and that's when you can move her to her own tank where she will spit them out confident there are no predators (including other Tilapia) to eat them. She will then begin eating food you put in the tank. Keep her in the nursery tank for a week before putting her back.

2-3 weeks is a complete cycle.

Mike

Great advice, Mike! I was afraid to disturb her, but I guess I don't have to worry so much. I got some big plastic foliage to put in the tanks to give fry/females more places to hide right now. After I downsize my breeders, I will have one tank for hanky panky, and one tank for fry and brooding females. We'll see if I can save some of these fry for sharing.

My one male (and father of this pending spawn) has a cool orange trim to his dorsal, and just a hint of pink/orange coloration. He's mostly a pearly white. The females tend more to grey/silver. The ones that are less mature or feeling cowed go darker gray with black patches. They're pretty great fish.

Hey Janet do you have black ones too? A couple of mine are very dark. There is a wide variation in color for this batch.

I do have some black ones, but I have a lot of trouble seeing them. They will only be eaten, and will not be used as breeders. Some of my females have metallic blue cheeks. You really only get to see the neat colors when you get them into an aquarium.

I had 4 tilapia left over from my `Learning curve` fish that didn`t grow out too big. (Was feeding mainly redworms...they did not fancy greens for some reason.) They are at home in a glass tank. I am feeding pellets now, but I had been curious why one of them wasn`t feeding recently, and had been aggressive to other fish, including a larger male.....
The plot thickens.

Hayden

Grandpa Hayden! We might just be grandparents at the same time!

Well, she was holding indeed. I tried to remove the other fish and she was spooked and released a bunch of fry.... I noticed when I saw the male eat something in the tank. After removing all but the mother I watched her almost eat one of them, and she ate a few pellets. I decided to remove as many fry as possible into a seperate tank. There are about 30 or so (the mother wasn't too big).
Now to learn more about caring for fry.

Hayden, the involuntary, but still pleased grandpa.

Congrats! I hope I am as lucky as you! 30 is a nice size for a first spawning. I know full-grown fish will lay hundreds of eggs, but I would be delighted with 30. I would think the fry could take powdered flake food, and they would probably suck algae off the walls of an established tank.

I have put some large plastic plants in each of my aquariums to provide more cover/privacy for the females/fry. I'm going to get a plastic basket to float to contain fry if I can. Now I wait and watch.