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

I added some snails and duckweed to my pools two days ago. The snails are fine but half the duckweed was dead by the time I got it. I put it in the pond and by the next morning the rest of what the fish didn't eat was dead. Maybe I will order some more when the weather cools down enough to ship.

I didn't know goldfish liked plants so much. I was looking at fish food and actually the cat food I been feeding them has a lot less meat in it according to the ingredients.

I found out that they really like dried peas if I soak them in water and mash them up for them. I was thinking about feeding them corn meal but that is the major ingredient in dry catfood so I'm probably good on that.

Why dont you just feed them fish food?

I was wondering if the water temperature in a tank/aquarium could be lowered to say 60 degrees to put tilapia into a sluggish inactive hibernation state where they live through the winter eating very little, using less oxygen and producing little waist, much like what most northern fish go through?

Those of you that put in Tilapia to control FA, are they doing the job OK? A concern of mine is would they eat my Corkscrew ell grass? I have read they will eat some water plants.

I am heading north in the morning to hunt down the algae eating Northern redbelly dace minnow.

John, tilapia can and will eat FA. However, I find that they aren't particularly effective after a large infestation gets started. It appears, to me, that they are effective when used with other tools(chemical). And, the often quoted 10 pounds per acre is woefully short.

Essentially I believe that they are a maintenance tool. Do I use them? Yep.

What is the best way to get the solid waste material up off the bottom of a tank?

I am having issues keeping it lifted and pumped up. I think I need two kinds of filtration, or a larger biofilter?

I just cleaned my tank out about a week ago and it was dirty after 2 days, alothough it does appear to be a little more clear now.

The way that I see it is that you only have 2 choices:

1) bottom drain and make the incoming water flow in a circular motion to make the solids gravitate towards and then down into the center drain

2) use a vaccum like what is used to suck up stuff from the bottom of a swimming pool.

A tank with a bottom drain going onto a clarifier, then into a biological filter (like a fluidized bed filter) works pretty slick.

or you could use a solids lift overflow.. pipe from the bottom of the pool near the middle out to the edge, up to the water level you want, and out through the side of the fishtank...
a "tee" at the top of the standpipe (before it goes through the pool wall) will help avoide overflowing

If anyone knows of a place to buy this book that isn't broken (charging from $100-$2500 for this paper back) I would greatly appreciate it. It seems that amazon.com price adjustment bots have inflated the price of this book for every online book store that I found stocking it.