Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Fly Fishing & Other Fish Species My tilapia arrived!

Glad to hear it!! Now you know why I only use these YP to fill orders...they're awesome!

What are some recommended options on water changes when your city water if full of chloramine?

If the fish are grown out to be stocked into ponds for algae control and forage it may not be an issue to use a chemical to neutralize it.

On the other hand if I plan to consume them as well I may want to go another route if possible and use something that is not toxic to humans.

Please any suggestions you have would be helpful.

Thanks

I prefer municipal water in holding my fish...I use SeaChem "Prime" and API "Stress Coat" dechlorinators. If simply adding water, I don't bother using any dechlorinator at all (2 gallons added to 125 gallon tank. If you know your local supply has chlorine, you can use sodium thiosulfate....if chloramine, you need special chemicals like the Prime and Stress Coat.

The one thing I like about the municipal water at one of the schools I set up is a lack of iron. And like you say it's easy to neuturalize the chlorine for make up water. Even aeration works if you're patient for a day or so.

Only concern I have is a build up of fluoride in the system and plants over time.After doing a lot of reading I question why it's really added, and the amounts vary from municipal water system to system. In fact it's all over the place!

Cecil, do you have a tester for the fluridone, or do you just have to take their word that it's "x" amount? How much build up is considered a problem, and how fast does it accumulate?

I started to get concerned about the ammonia level yesterday in each of the aquariums. It was at about 1.5 ppm. So, I quickly made a cage with plastic hardware cloth. About 24 inch diameter and 36 inches deep. I'll post a photo a little later.

I left six tilapia in each tank and put 26 in the new cage, which is floating at the end of my dock. The pond temp was at 74 degrees last night.

So far, so good. The ammonia in the aquariums was barely measurable this morning. The aquarium fish will get moved to the IBC aquaponics system at my son's house in the next few days.

Good save!

No tester but I know the water treatment plant in Syracuse adds it to the water.

As far as how much build up is a problem and how fast it accumulates it's hard to say as the sources I read don't agree with each other.

I do know it's very difficult to remove from water as the only thing that will remove it is charred bone according to the sources I read.

When using these products are the fish safe for us to consume?

Where would you recommend I purchase these items as I know for sure we have switched from chlorine to chloramine.

Thanks

You can destroy chloramines with ascorbic acid (vitamin C). I crush up one 500mg capsule per 50 gallons of water. It's an acid so obviosuly expect it to lower your ph. However, I dont usually notice a significant change.


Since noone should trust what random guy says on the internet.. If you want to verify that approach the best documentation is foudn when looking for ways to prepare municipal water for medical uses.

also wiki confirms it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine#Ascorbic_acid
Ascorbic acid and sodium ascorbate completely neutralizes both chlorine and chloramines but degrades in a day or two which only make it usable for short-term applications; SFPUC determined that 1000 mg of Vitamin C (tablets purchased in a grocery store, crushed and mixed in with the bath water) remove chloramine completely in a medium size bathtub without significantly depressing pH.[14][15]


I try to avoid the store bought dechlorinating chemicals on fish i plan to eat.

brian

As of two days ago, I had six each of my new tilapia, in two 10 gallon aquariums. Six got transferred into my aquaponics tank yesterday morning, along with six 5-7 inch bluegill. (there were already some bluegill and fatheads in the tank -- more later.)

After I removed six of the tilapia from the one aquarium, I noticed that two tilapia in the other aquarium appeared to be romantically involved. I removed the other four and put them in the empty aquarium. All of these fish had grown to about 3 inches.

As of last night, the pea gravel in the aquarium with the romantics had one big excavation (about 3-inch diameter) down to the bottom of the aquarium. This morning, there was a second excavation that was about 2 inches in diameter. They appeared to be spawning, but I never saw any eggs or milt. They both have had long strings, that look much like thin dental floss, hanging from their bottoms. It eventually breaks off. As of tonight, both were vigorously eating pellets.

To prevent the eggs, yolk sacs, etc, from being sucked up, I've turned off the circulating water filter. Only the aerator is running in the tank.

I guess the bottom line question is -- have these two tilapia spawned? Is it possible I chose two alternate life-stylers who will not produced any offspring. How long before I may see results?

I'm pretty sure that female tilapia will not eat while holding eggs or fry in their mouth. Males will "mouth" fight. But they might be getting ready to spawn. Its dang near impossible to tell the difference between male and female tilapia. From what I've seen, the males turn lighter and brighter than females during the spawn....But I'm not a tilapia expert.

Good luck on your spawn!!!

Only the males make nests and usually only 1. It's possible you have two males? The strings are normal fish poo. Equal sized males do kind of jockey for position doing kind of stare downs with open mouths.


Hang loose is correct that the females will not eat when holding eggs.

If you do have a male and a female, Getting the other fish out of the tank at that stage may have stressed them to not consummate. But they will calm down in a few days. Generally other fish in the tank are good in that they distrubute male aggression better. You dont need to worry about other fish until after the female is carrying the fry. You just have to be concerned about fry mortality once they are released.


Yes it is possible for a female to not like the male and not want to participate.

brian

Thanks guys. That is exactly what I needed to know.

I chose these two out of the six in the aquarium because they were very friendly to each other, and one of them was excavating the nest. The second nest got covered in yesterday. The other four fish were rather aggressive towards these two, so that is why I chose these two.

There obviously was not a spawn, as both fish are still eating voraciously.

I'm now thinking of introducing two additional fish to the tank to increase my chances of success.

I've looked at a number of the tilapia, and I from the reading I've done, I cannot see anything to differentiate a male from a female.

I thought I had 2 kissing Gourami in my pond the other day. Now I know why.

Grabbed from the internet:

It is difficult to differentiate male and female tilapia when they are young (less than 3-4"). When the fish are larger, they can be separated by inspecting the genital papilla on the ventral or underside of the fish. The papilla of the male tends to be elongated with one opening. The papilla of the female tends to be wider, and has two openings, one of which is a transverse slit.

Scott -- I found something similar. My fish are now between 3-4 inches. The instruction I found said to very gently pull a tooth pick across that area. It said that you should be able to feel two very small indentations, very close to each other on the females, but only one on the male. I couldn't find any differences.

I added three more fish to the tank. That puts five in the tank. I'll see what happens. If I again start to see what appears to be spawning activity, I'll move the non-breeders out.

There is a lot of aggression amongst a few of them right now.

From reading Bcottons thread, he eluded to the fact its good to have 5-6 females to the one male in a 55 gal tank. That way he can't bully them so bad. Then when they get done breeding, immediately take out the male so he doesn't kill off the female. I think Rainman also has mentioned that the male will kill the female afterwards if she is still around.

fish,

the male can if it's only 1 other but if there are 6 of them they will school for protection.

Hides like terra cotta pots and 3" pvc pieces help with line of sight as well.


brian

I have to disagree bcotton.....the male is very aggressive and the larger it gets, the larger area from the nest it will defend. Also, females will eagerly attack a weakened, fry/egg holding female.

Using structure, like fake plant mats and pvc pipe lying perpendicular to the male's nest in order to hide from his (and other female's) sight prevents undue fish handling and mortality.

Tilapia can kill one another in a single blow by bruising the gills.

Rainman, what are your thoughts on the male tilapias colors getting lighter and brighter when the "photo period" begins to get longer? Guys, i'm talking about the sun being out longer.

Mark...That varies widely when it comes to colorations. Dominant males in my clear, filtered water aquariums would get very colorless on their bodies while getting very dark fin tips and throats. In ponds with decent algae blooms or even some darker, deeper waters, males often get very bright red color in the tail and margins between fin spines and also the body sides will darken.

In both settings, female color changes will vary widely and cuckold males will take on the female colorations.

Rex, so its still a 50-50 shot . I've seen some that the top of the head (forehead) has turned an orangeish to a pink coloring. Plus the fins.

By the way, good luck in Bowling Green....They're kinda strict up there .

This is a great informational thread about tilapia spawning.

As mentioned above, I think I have a breeding pair of blue tilapia in a 10 gallon aquarium. I initially placed six tilapia, each about 2-inches, in this tank. They quickly grew to 3-4 inches. Two looked like they had paired up. A nest was built. I removed the other four that I felt were not part of this pair.

One of this remaining pair had a very red breast and other red on its body and fins. The other fish of this pair remained rather bland. Both are about four inches. Of the other four in this tanak, there were a couple of others that had a lot of red on their bodies, but they were far from dominant. They were segregated to corners of the aquarium before being removed.

The two that I figured were a breeding pair seemed to start a spawning cycle several days ago. A nest was dug in the bottom of the aquarium -- down to bare glass at the bottom of the aquarium. The sides are now about three inches high.

These two fish have stayed very close together, while the other four fish in the aquarium were very aggressively pushed off by what I figured was the male of this pair. I removed the other four fish from the tank, and put them in my aquaculture tank.

These two dug another nest, but then it became one big nest.

Although it looked like these two were spawning, I saw nothing that convinced me they were spawning. What I thought was the female, has kept eating voraciously. I thought maybe I had two males.

I don't know what small tilapia eggs look like, or if they are so small that I can't see them. I don't know what the milt looks like, if identifiable in water.

This morning I added three to this aquarium from a cage in my pond. I did this because I thought it was possible I had two males in the aquarium. Of those added, two of the three were the same size as the two in the aquarium. The third was somewhat smaller.

All three of the introduced fish were much darker in color than the original aquarium residents. I was worried about the smallest tilipia because it stayed vertical against the pond heater, in the upsweep of bubbles from the airstone. I took it out and put it back in the pond cage.

The other two introduced fish attempted to move around the aquarium, but what I believe are the breeding pair, really intimidated these other two. The newly introduced tilapia have basically hidden all day behind the heater and filter in the aquarium.

I'm still thinking I have a breeding pair that continue to make me think they are spawning. Yet, I'm not seeing anything that makes me think they are laying and fertilizing eggs.

One goes into the nest and leaves. The other goes into the nest and leaves. Sometimes they'll be next to each other in the nest at the same time. The first one then goes back into the nest and appears to suck the bottom. I cannot see anything in the nest, nor anything coming out of either fish.

As of earlier this afternoon, all of the fish were eating voraciously.

Will I ever be a tilipia grandparent?

Whats your water temp? And also Rainman has some excellent videos of tilapia spawning on youtube. Hope I'm not in trouble for mentioning that .

Unless you catch them in the act you may miss it. They lay the eggs pretty quick males fertilize and she picks them back up.

I have yet to see it but I had many sets of fry last summer and lost many eggs when netting the female and they spit them out.

I hope you see them soon and can give us an update.

Thanks