Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yep those are Nile Tilapia! It isn't a for sure absolute but in looking at the pictures you posted I can spot your males and females.

Thanks for the identification MF. So far everybody is peaceful but as soon as the males start acting territorial I'll move the girls and one lucky guy into a separate tank where they can start raising a buffet, er, I mean family.

I find the display behavior to be the most telling. As they get larger, the males' mouths will be larger than the females, too.

So far the system is working fine and the fishies are doing great. Today I planted the lower 6 holes of each of the 3 middle tubes with basil, spinach and lettuce. To keep the seeds from washing down into the wet gravel I wrapped them in a 1-inch square of paper towel and then just tucked it in the gravel:



With two seeds in each hole I expect I'll get seedlings in most of them, and whatever doesn't germinate I'll just replant in a week or two since I want the plantings spaced out anyway.

After reading the Tilapia Hatchery Manual in which they illustrate breeding cages using tubes to permit multiple males in one cage, I decided to try something similar. I'm hoping that this will let individuals stake out breeding territory in order to reduce aggression and enable me to raise enough young to replace the fish I harvest (1 per week or less), without having a separate breeding tank. It's purely an experiment so I'll let you know how it goes.



I just happened to get a shot of 3 fish in 3 tubes, but they haven't really staked out territories in them. However the less aggressive fish sometimes rest in the tubes where the more aggressive males leave them alone, at least for a while.

Hahaha!

Funny!

As your residents get a little bigger, their rowdiness will re-arrange your tubes. Put a nice brick on either side of the hotel to anchor the rooms. My nice arrangement has been re-distributed several times now.

Such a lovely place....such a lovely face

great job Jay!

Your breeding program should produce more than 1 tilapia a week or less!

Can you show any pics of your veggie progress in the vertical tubes?

The lettuce seedlings are doing great. Out of 6 holes planted with two seeds in each hole, I have 5 holes with one seedling each and one hole with two seedlings.



The basil didn't do as well, with 3 holes having one seedling each and in the other 3 holes they damped off or did not germinate. The spinach did the poorest, with none successful. They either damped off, didn't germinate, or are near-dead with the seed leaves still stuck in the seed coat.

I think the main problem was wrapping the seeds in little squares of paper towel. It prevented the seeds from washing down into the gravel but the paper became a gooey mass that killed off the seedling either directly or indirectly. I may try sphagnum moss or peat moss next. I would prefer to start the seedlings separately and then transplant them into the grow tubes but it's hard to transplant a seedling into a hole full of this gravel. It would help if the gravel were smaller, but the "pea" gravel I bought includes some stones as large as 3/4".

Maybe a little pinch of vermiculite?

I really like the idea of your system. I will be watching it's progress.

Vermiculite might work better for starting the seedlings, although I'm a little reluctant to put it in the tubes because I think it may wash down into the tank eventually and it might help clog the tubes in combination with plant roots etc. I'm going to plant some more seeds today and I'll try some different approaches to see what works.