Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have fry that are 2 months old and are about 2". The males are already starting to defend their area. The females start around 3", so give them another month and they will all be romantic.

So...carrying on from HN's thread....how do we know tilapia are getting romantic.

As Joyce indicates, the males will start defending a territory. They really like to have a flowerpot turned on its side with a nice flat rock making the front porch of their loveshack. A male will defend this area, and carefully clean the rock. The flat rock for the front porch is important, because when I say "cleaning", that includes "excavating". The male may well dig away all the gravel right down to any undergravel filter you have. So put the large flat rock (like slate) down and save the poor boy some work.

After the loveshack is too his satisfaction, he will start trying to impress the gals. With all fins splayed out, he will approach his chose gal, and make big waves of water at her using his whole body. He may also approach her with wide-open mouth. His coloration will change to something brighter. In my white tilapia, their just-hanging-out coloration is white with gray patches, and their trying-to-impress-the-girls color is pure pearl white. I'm guessing that colored tilapia would show more red and other intense colors rather than grays and blacks.

If the gals are impressed, they will hang out with the male and make waves back at him. If not, they (try to) leave rapidly. Eventually, a gal will be impressed enough to accompany him back to the loveshack. She may need convincing or herding, but eventually he will get her to hang out there.

I've only seen the spawning dance once, and it involved slowly rotating in place, fins splayed, and of course laying the eggs and milting them. You can see the ovipositor extended. The female may also try to get extra fertilization for the eggs already in her mouth.

Incubation in the female's mouth is about 10 days. She will not eat. After that, she will start releasing her flock for short recesses and begin to eat.

Janet,
Thanks for the Sex education lesson

speaking of digging to undergravel filter. My tilapia managed to dig down to the plastic tray that provided a space under the gravel. Then somehow they managed to pry it up and dump all the gravel onto the floor of the aquarium -- when I checked that night, the "undergravel" filter was standing on edge with a pile of gravel on either side.

And if they don't like where a rock or flower pot is -- they'll bulldoze it wherever they want.

In one of my tanks, I'm using an old concrete block for a hide. they haven't moved that yet.

I am sure they are developing a plan. Wait til they get bigger!

if you see one spitting out a concrete block please take a picture

Tilapia like to clean the bedroom floor for their chosen mate. If they clear the sub gravel filter to the mesh, what will prevent the eggs from being sucked into the sub-gravel filter before or after fertilisation and before mum can collect them to brood in her mouth?

That would be one of the problems, Tony. That's why I recommend providing a nice slate floor on top of the UG filter.

OK, I'm having problems and could use some suggestions. My tilapia breeders (1 male, 2 females) are not playing nice. I have bred these fish before, but they were very young. Now that I'm ready to get a second spawning, the male is -more- than willing to oblige, but the females are not cooperating. I keep ending up with battered females and have to separate them before serious damage occurs. While they will start to dance with the male, they aren't interested enough to finish the deal.

I tried just introducing the male to the 2 gals' tank, and have tried letting the fish see each other through a divider for a while before allowing access. The females have hides (and I've made them more generous). I raised the temperature to about 84F/29C. I've tried no salt, and 3ppt (left over from healing period). At this point, I again have 2 battered females, and 1 horny male.

The fish are fed modestly on standard low-protein chow, and did breed previously on that diet.

Any suggestions besides a lava light and romantic music? Any specific food to use for conditioning a vegetarian fish? (Normally I'd say higher protein or live food, but I don't know about fish that eat low on the food chain.) I am sure that the females are in fact females, and the male is in fact male. They have bred before. Another option though, would be to check my growout tank for a willing female partner, possible checking the vent for signs of readiness--not that I'm prolly any good at that.

Ideas???

Can't help you I'm afraid Janet. Kind of had the idea that Talapia were just always "ready, willing and able"..... guess there must be a reason for the change in behaviour.

Any chiclid breeders around your way that might be able to help?

Now this is how you setup and breed Talapia Janet.... Picture from link below....

http://www.fastonline.org/component/opt ... itemId=360

Maybe email Travis, he might be able to help

Janet, does the info at the end of this abstract help any?


here

From the article:
This suggests that lower feeding level (1% BW day− 1), lower stocking density (3 female m− 2) and lower water-flow rate (0.06 ± 0.00 L s− 1) could be adopted as a management strategy to improve current tilapia hatchery seed production, although, optimum water flow-related stocking density needs further investigation.

hmmm...that's a bit contrary to what I would have thought. The guy at the lfs suggested dropping the pH, raising the temperature, and some generous live food.

Mostly I thought it was harder to stop these things from breeding. After the gals heal up, I will try again with a big water change, higher temp (up to 86F, maybe), slow down the filter, drop the pH maybe 0.2, provide 2 females at a time, and good hides. And romantic music. Third time's the charm, right?

I'm having similar problems. As soon as the males are introduced, they trash the females. I'm considering cutting the top lip of the males -- as I've seen pictures of -- just so they can't get such a good grip on fins and scales. One female died from the rough treatment.

My stepson's biology teacher said something about ramping up the temps a few times and doing something with lighting to encourage them. I'll ask him for some more info.