Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Can talapia be raised above ground swimming pools?

Well the bacteria need to be warm to work at max efficiency. If they get cold enough they could die so no I don't think it was a mistake. In the book the RBC is in the tank itself under the dome.

Do you still have algae? If so they are making oxygen. What are you doing mechanically to produce oxygen?

I have an air pump outside for oxygen. Lots of algae. Not sure if you read what I wrote correctly. I said I covered the filters that were outside the dome. In the book the guy left them outside the plastic. I don't have an RBC just five clarifiers. I thought it necessary to enclose them. Especially since there were five and not two like in the book.

I must have been tired when I read what you wrote. I guess my fish will be fine. The weather is already warming back up and all the ice is melted. My fish haven't come up to eat in over a month. But there's plenty of algae for them. Even the goldfish stopped eating a week or so ago. I wonder if the fish will grow still in the winter if they don't eat. Does winter stunt their growth?

I lost five fish today. first time I looked since the day after I covered it. The water is a little cloudy. Any suggestions besides a partial water change? Unless some sank and died on the bottom I still have 91 of the 100 I started with. With all the algae it's impossible to test for ammonia.

I lost 4 more fish today. I thought perhaps I missed them yesterday because they had algae growing on them but one of them was still alive and had a small patch of it. I took him out as well. The tempature is 45 degrees and it's warmed up a bit. I think the cold is what is killing them but it could be the dirty water so I will try and change it today...my only day off.

I had too much work going on and I waited a couple of days to change the water. When I lifted the cover it smelled really bad. There were a lot of dead and rotting fish on the bottom.

I removed all the dead and dying fish, anybody that wasn't swimming normally. For some reason I didn't lose any of the big fish. Maybe it was the cold. The water smelled decent yesterday. I think it will probably clean it's self back up.

If we have a normal winter I think the rest of my fish will be ok. That was a pretty hard cold snap. But I'm afraid if it gets much colder than that, like it does some years, I am going to loose all of them. Paying for heat is out of the question. If I can find a deal on an aquarium I will bring a few of them in.

I still have a little less than half my fish left. As smelly as that water was had it been summer I'd have lost them all. It's cool that I didn't loose any of the big ones.

What have your temps been? I have had to move ours indoors. We have had a couple of cold nights, in the upper 20's. Kept some to hold over the winter and start breeding next year and threw the rest in the pond.

I have noticed that when the water gets a cloudy look is bad news to the fish.

Fishy smell means dead fish. Learned the hard way.

Cloudy means a bacteria bloom of the wrong kind!

I am sure it was cloudy because of all the dead fish. I thought that I was going to be able to cover them and forget it but I really should be checking on it every day to check for dead ones. Been trying to check every other day at least.

Do you guys feed your fish any in the winter? I haven't fed mine in almost a couple of months.

The few that are kept through the winter are feed far and few between. the water temps in the low 60's.

I am holding some small blue tilapia at 54-60F. They eat a small amount of softened pellet food each day. I leave a few soft pellets on the tank bottom each day and food is gone the next day.

You haven't bought a heater yet?

As the little birdie said, "Cheep, cheep, cheep."

I hold all my tilapia stock in my basement...no heaters and only fed once or twice per week to maintain health, but to prevent growth. No heaters water temp is around 60 during the winter, but it is a finished, fully heated basement. Most of the vents are kept closed (except the wife's office) to keep the kids from using the computer or watching TV for hours on end.....hehehe

So how much food do you feed them if only once or twice a week? Do they slim down due to the lack of food? I think I have my water at 75-77 so I guess I should drop it a bit.

Does the lack of food and colder water help keep the exchanges down as well, I would like to keep from cleaning the tank anymore than I have to during the winter.

Thanks

2.4.1 http://edepot.wur.nl/122037

"The ARC contains a high density of neurons that produce orexigenic peptides such as
neuropeptide Y (NPY), opioids, β-endorphin (β-END), galanin (GAL) and glutamate. α-
melanophore-stimulating hormone (α-MSH), an anorexigenic peptide, is also co-produced with β-END in ARC."

Thank you andedammen, that is exactly what I was thinking too.

j/k, the paper definetely has some useful info

I only feed my fish when they come up to eat. I have a ton of algae growing though so it's not like they are going totally hungry. The goldfish eat on warmer days but the T fish just mope around the pool as if they are barely alive. Last time I checked I had only gotten the temperature up to 48 degrees but it's been really warm the past few days. The wind came up and blew the plastic off the dome that day but it was a warm wind so everything was ok. It must have been one hell of a wind.

I been debating wrapping the pool with a couple of layers of insulation. But that wind the other day made me reconsider. I don't think I will ever raise them again unless it were in a basement or a greenhouse. I don't think this dome is going to keep them warm enough to survive the winter unless I get a heater. I don't enjoy hanging out at the pool now that it has a dome over it and it takes too long to pull off the cover. I am still enjoying my goldfish but unless I could make a dome big enough to go inside of, I'd much rather be raising bluegills or goldfish than tilapia.

Sounds like its time to make some fish sticks, take down the dome, and raise something a little more enjoyable.

At 48* for more than a couple days...The tilapia are ALREADY dead...they just don't know it yet!

It's been five days since I opened the dome. I am afraid of what I might find in there. The local cats had a feast last time. I think I'm going to wait till after Christmas. Assuming they are all dead next time I guess the cats will have another feast. I will pump out the pool and buy a few hundred feeder goldfish to raise and put in my fiberglass tanks next year. The weather here is so much colder in the mornings than in Bakersfield or LA. I started to take off the dome today but as soon as I stepped off the sidewalk my foot sank in the mud from all the rain we've been having. It's a real mess out there. At least it's warm.

Sorry hear that Steve. Might want to get the nasty stuff over with sooner than later, or it will be even more nasty. Dead fish in a tank dont keep well Trust Me!

Why dont you try bluegill next time. They should work in your location. Plus, they are good eats!

Make sure you disinfect everything before starting again.

Oh yeah, Clean (scrub) it while it is still wet. Dont drain it and dry it out, then attempt to clean. Not gonna happen, unless you have a huge amount of time.

Try cleaning out 8 165 gallon enclosed tanks of the sticky, slimy, reeking, liquifeid remains of 1800 pounds of dead fish sitting in 95* water for four days....FUN stuff!!!! Put a small amount of Vick's Vapo-Rub in each nostril and a little below your nose....kills all the odor of dead animals. It took 2 hours and 2 applications of Vick's to get the job done...didn't wretch once!

Don"t know how you did it Rex.....My kids baby diapers had me gagging over the toilet.........

The bucket heater could go a long way to sustain temps in your pool.

http://www.farminnovators.com/page501.htm

I opened up the dome the day after christmas and they were all alive. I did remove one fish that was unresponsive when I chased him with the net. We've been having some pretty cold weather since then but not as cold as the first time.