No, We ate the large ones. I only over wintered the fry. Here is a pic.
I have to give credit to rainman. He helped me ID the fish even though we were not positive they were tilapia. Very hard to ID fish that small. I was hedging my bets that they were tilapia because I had never seen balls/schools of fish like this in my pond and a tilapia was near by guarding them. Rainman also gave me some basic numbers for carrying capacity of the aquariums so I leaned on the low side since I'm lazy.
I had no idea that I would be asked such specific questions so I found my notes where I kept some data. I used two aquariums. A 45 gallon and 72 gallon (not 75 like I thought). Started with Approx. 20 fish in the 45 gallon and 35 fish in the 72 gallon. My starting count could be off for each tank because some did die but I didn't keep count. I ending up with 30 from the large tank which I re-stocked in my pond and 17 from the smaller tank which I stocked in my neighbors pond.
1)I started them on crushed/powder aquamax 500. I spent less time crushing the pellets as they grew larger. Eventually they were eating full size pellets.
2)Twice a day. Morning/Evening. I turned the filter off while feeding.
3)Pea gravel, plastic plants
4)Yes, about once a month I had to vacuum the tanks out. I used a modified hose to use the existing pumps/filter to clean the tanks. Then I would change the filters. Once they reached approx 2 inches I had to vacuum twice a month. I really didn't do a water change....but I added water occasionally to account for evaporation.
5)I can't be positive how many I lost. I know I netted a few dead ones out and it is possible that some were ate before I noticed. The fry were right at 1/4 inch. Some a little smaller and some a little bigger. All were less than 3/4 inch.
6)I did notice one time that a dead one looked like it had been snacked on....but I didn't witness the snacking : )
45 gallon tank had a Aqua-Tech 30-60 power filter and the 72 gallon had 2 of them.
I got the results I was looking for. I was able to keep the fish alive even though I'm lazy. This year I'm going with a single 72 gallon and 6 coppernose bluegill since I'm not seeing any tilapia fry. Should be much easier to care for them.
