Question from a newb

[holidaymatt]

once the fish get mature how do you keep them from breeding? Or if they breed what do you do with the extra fish? I'm planning to use goldfish or tilapia in my first little system. Also, what would be the smallest tank that you can raise tilapia in?

TIA

Matt

[Ravnis]

If you put both in there, the goldfish will eat the tilapia eggs and stop them from breeding. They will eat the fry if any eggs happen to survive. Tilapia when crowded are less likely to breed too.

Smallest tank I've tried to raise them in is a 32 gallon trashcan from walmart. Worked better than I thought it would with about 5 fish. The problem with small tanks is that any adjustments to ph or other water conditions have to be small. A bigger tank gives more room for error.

[kellenw]

A couple of same sex small largemouth bass in the tank will prevent virtually all offspring recruitment.

[holidaymatt]

If you put both in there, the goldfish will eat the tilapia eggs and stop them from breeding. They will eat the fry if any eggs happen to survive. Tilapia when crowded are less likely to breed too.

Smallest tank I've tried to raise them in is a 32 gallon trashcan from walmart. Worked better than I thought it would with about 5 fish. The problem with small tanks is that any adjustments to ph or other water conditions have to be small. A bigger tank gives more room for error.

Thanks for your input. I think I read somewhere that tilapia will eat goldfish. I was thinking of using one or the other. Since you said that you could raise 5 tilapia in a 32 gallon system I want to go with tilapia. Should I just get them all to be males to avoid the breeding issue?

TIA

Matt

[GaryD]

Hi Folks,

While I understand that you might want to stop tilapia breeding before they reach harvest size (and that having too many little fish in the system may be an issue), I've got to say that, as a general principle, I see the fact that tilapia breed, lay eggs and produce many fingerlings as an opportunity rather than a problem.

Another name for tilapia fingerling is.......fish food. What could be better than having a prolific breeder pumping out live food for other species.......or do I have it wrong somehow?

Kellen or Ravnis.......your thoughts?

Gary

[RS_]

Gary,

I think the same thing, tilapia fry and larger babys are fish food, anytime i have lost any babys from jumpers or other accident's i have chopped them in 1/2 and thrown them in the FT for the catfish, i lost 10 or so from a lack of water flow problem a while back, and Froze most of them for a later feeding... and i may feed some of the smallest ones from the first 3 batches to the catfish any way, just to keep the numbers down for over wintering.......

[GaryD]

I agree. Any dead fish (except those that have succumbed to a disease) should be minced up and fed back to other fish. Since most fish that die in AP Systems do so because of low dissolved oxygen levels, it's sensible to feed them back to the system.

Gary

[Ravnis]

A reason to go with all males is that the females won't eat when they have eggs in their mouth, so they grow slower. I believe blue tilapia or Oreochromis aureas are legal in florida without a permit. This species is more cold tolerant than other species of tilapia and should be locally available to you. I don't think breeding in a small of a tank will be an issue anyways other than the slower growth of females. As others have pointed out, you will have a good source of fish food, should you have fry.

Personally I wouldn't worry about it with a small system and just get what ever fish were economical to aquire and fit your end desire. With 5 fish it will be awful easy to get attached to the buggers and have difficulty slaughtering them. The only reason I see to make sure what sex they are would be when you are trying to breed them as either sex will get to plate size eventually.

[holidaymatt]

I appreciate everyone's help and input. I found a source of blue tilapia locally. I've been so busy putting my system together that I haven't checked the tread for the last few days. I'll post some pics of the system when I get it cycling.

[kellenw]

Sorry for the delayed reply here. I have been swamped with tilapia orders and putting together trial data on several new tilapia strains we plan to offer.

As has been previously mentioned, it is pretty unlikely that you will experience much successful recruitment in a tank that small. The tilapia will likely try to spawn from time to time, but the close quarters will result in most of the eggs being swept away from the nest and eaten by the non-spawning tank mates. There really just isn't enough room there for the male to fend off the other fish, because his "nest" (spawning bed area he protects) would normally be about the entire size of your current fish tank. Should the female manage to get some of the eggs in her mouth for protection, it's likely they will have a very poor hatch rate due to the male being constantly interrupted while he tries to fertilize the eggs and chase off the non-spawning invaders at the same time. She'll probably be collecting unfertilized eggs if she even gets that far in the process.

Finding all male tilapia stock at a quantity of 5 fish will be extremely difficult unless you are able to secure some culled males that were being grown out for breeders. Like Ravnis and Gary said, I'd stick with mixed sex fish unless you decide you want to go BIG or begin breeding your own all male stock using a "supermale" fish. The ability to produce your own tilapia fry is a wonderful thing, assuming you have the room, the time and the patience.