Rex -- I too could have easily miscounted. I just know you sent me more than the 30 that I ordered. Trying to count them is harder than counting my chickens and guineas. Even when transferring using a small aquarium net, it is hard to tell if there are 4,5, or 6 fish in the net. I don't ever touch the fish or the net when I move small fish -- except for fatheads and creek chubs that get used for catfish bait. That makes it easier to miscount.
I figure I'll keep them in the aquariums for the next several days. I went down to the barn and found that I've got several rolls of good plastic netting with 1/2 inch octagonal holes. Normally I wouldn't use this for fish cages because it closes up with algae too quickly. But, I think I'll build two small cages with it, and get the tilapia into them early next week before I head out of town for a few days.
If the fish grow anywhere close to the 1.5 inches a week you mentioned, I'm going to be really happy. Heck, I'll be happy with even a half-inch per week. Right now, I'm using 38% protein "Lil Strike" 1/8-inch pellets. Once they soften just a little bit in the water, even the smaller tilapia are able to suck the pellets in.
Bobby -- In the meantime, I plan to change out 1/3 of the water each morning with pond water. I'll also be be checking aquarium nitrites/nitrates and pH late every afternoon. While in the aquariums, I'll probably only feed once a day.
A few years back I started using pond or stream water in my aquaponics tank and in my bait minnow tank. That pretty much eliminates "cycling." I started up my IBC aquaculture tank several weeks ago, filling it with 275 gallons of stream water with my trash pump. I also added a shovel full of fresh chicken manure. The water was near perfect, so I added bluegill and fatheads the next day. The water came it with a pH of 6.7-6.8, and within a day of adding the fish, it stabilized at 7.0, where it has remained. There has not been an ammonia spike. The fish are thriving. I put in tomato, pepper, cucumber, squash, lettuce, and spinach plants from my hoop house when I added the fish. The plants are growing like crazy. I'm now just checking the water once a week.
Cecil -- Hopefully, I won't make any stupid mistakes. If they make it, I need to re-read all your RAS stuff in Pond Boss and here on the site so I can bring some in for the winter.
(Last week, when I found my HBG were having lots of babies in my year-old, put-and-take pond, I read and re-read Cody's Pond Boss series about raising smallmouth bass in ponds like mine. It certainly makes me glad I found this site and the Magazine many years ago.)
Thanks all,
Ken
