I know that the tilapia I got from Rex have spawned in our aquaponics tank. There are lots of them right now that are about an inch long. My son has the tank at his house, and has had great success with tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. We were having problems with fish dying the first month or so, so he added a number of $0.10 goldfish to the remaining fatheads, bluegills, and, of course, the tilapia. The water has been very clear in the tank recently. The tilapia and goldfish seem to have cleaned all the algae out of the tank and off the tank walls.
I can't really tell what has happened to the tilapia in my two fish ponds. It appears that they have spawned, but what I'm seeing could be tiny bluegill or crappie. There is something swimming in the weeds that are about only about 1/2 inch. They have a sunfish type outline, so I am pretty sure they are not bass or catfish. They are still too small to capture with a seine. Maybe next week.
When cold weather starts, I hope I can salvage some from the aquaponics tank for overwintering, and maybe get some dinner size from the ponds, using a seine.
This is my first year trying tilapia. Up until now, we didn't know if they were legal or not in West Virginia, so I'd been reluctant to try them. They are legal! And, I've got the papers to prove it.
