Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all I have two red tilapia,one is orange black spots fe male,with rounded rear dorsal fin.And the other male is red white body long rear dorsal fin nearly touches tail fin.
I think first one is from blue second one mossambic(mozambique).
If they breed guess could get anything! Any ideas..Thanks artie.

Any breeders out there should I try to cross the female orange tilapia with 100% blue male...

Any comments welcome or anyone cross breeding other tilapia please let me know...

I'm not breeding my tilapia yet, but I'll give you a bump by saying, Why not give it a shot? If you haven't found the answer by searching here or on the web just go for it!

Ps don't forget to post pictures and progress here

HI DAVE THANKS FOR THAT NICE TO KNOW SOMEONE OUT THERE!

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Tilapia.. I thought that was a specific breed of. African Cichlid..

And when you have a tank of different cichlid species, they generally only breed with their own kind, so I don't know how you will go trying to cross breeding..
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This might help.
http://www.fastonline.org/images/manual ... ilapia.pdf

Hi im tying to breed tilapia only not other cichlids,mybe didnt make it clear!

I must admit that I was generalising, without knowing which cichlid family you were interested in.

There are.some.strikingly impressive looking fish in the family and they can.clearly add intrest to what is otherwise just DINNER.

I would imagine that breeding them would provide a challenge for the typical APer, with special tanks being used for sizing etc.. ie.. they are seriously carniverous from my experience..

What I wonder aboutt is the practical growth rates, but for those interested and prepared, their use would be far more fun than simply buying perch or trout fingerlings.. I would have thought that you would need a breeding tank with specially chosen fish

It will be interesting to see how you go..
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That is a most informative paper..

It suggests that tilapia will eat most anything from microbes to mud, which would make them pretty easy to feed..
But I wonder what best to feed to get best growth rates and FCRs..

I am even more keen to look at them more closely..

I wonder about local regulations about keeping them.. ie... cichlids are an accepted and common aquarium fish, so when is an AP system not an Aquarium ..

And I make note of the comments about selective breeding in that paper, producing a better growing fish..
Where the interest is ultimately in food production, cute colours may be just that, cute, and not great in practice.
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tilapia,growth rates,I have a one year mixed fish 12 inches long,some blues four plus months 6 inches,I can see from their feeding habits that if im home all day they seem to get double the food.
so i think to get the sizes\in the time that everyone claims,you need auto feeders..

Either auto feeder, self feeders or someone to feed them 4-5x per day. Also, you need super males, or at least males to get those kind of conversions. I've seen rates of 2% growth per day, and seen studies of fish that go to over a pound in 6 months.

If you look in the dictionary you will see that aquarium is a pretty broad term.As I see it, it is a compound or tank for fish including public display aquarium like the one one you have in Sydney which has sharks and sting rays etc,a little bit bigger than yours or my AP system.It leaves it wide open for enterpretation but I think it could mean a body of water where the fish cannot escape as opposed to a dam or lake and where birdes or any other thing may take them and drop them in a stream.If this is the case I think a lot of our AP systems would be OK.Dose anyone want to be the guinea pig.