Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Tilapia Courtship

I have some large males from Rex that have carried over the past few years because of our recent mild winters. I have seen plenty of territorial aggression & display between the males the last two years. I have not seen one of the bulls courting a female.

How long does the courtship & spawning last?

I have 3 bulls that I see regularly & are easy to observe. If I regularly check on them 2-3 times a day. How long would it be before I should see a female?

In fact the males are about the only tilapia I ever seen.

Each Tilpaia female will be able to make a brood every 4-6 weeks. They will start as soon as the water temp gets into the 70's.

my females have already had a couple of broods in my outdoor aquaponics. The fry usually dont make it cause of the other fish. A couple made it my sump so i *do* have some proof.

you may never see a female at the nests. They come, do a dance, drop their eggs, pick the eggs up and then the male runs them off ready for the next female. The whole visit may take less than 15 minutes.

brian




brian

bcotton, There's a good joke in there somewhere... but I'm not going there.

I do know that people in central Ohio are having success with spawns in their new aquaponic systems.

HL- I'm interested in all this.......Pm me with info if you want. Or share here?

I just need to get me some to put in my tank so I can have some spawns. I like to remove them grow them out a bit and move to different ponds later to feed the fish and for the lone survivors maybe they can pull off at least one spawn for the year if not two.

i had 9 or 10 baby tilapia make it to my sump as well, they went into a heated tank for the winter, but it was still only in the 60's.. now that it's warming up, i've got 5 baby blue's left that are starting to grow pretty quickly in a 55 gallon tank

fish_n_chips,

I started a new thread documenting my aquaponics learning curve. There's also a detailed post on breeding tilapia in aquariums on page 2

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=337096#Post337096

Yesterday,I saw my first female tilapia 10" being courted by a male. Although he is the biggest male in the pond she would have nothing to do with him. She did not seem to be brooding fry. Surprised that neither of them spooked as I watched them. They have always seemed so skittish.

Are they albinos?

It seems I received a lot more albinos or white tilapia this year. They are fun to watch because being white they are so easy to see in the water. I wonder if they tend to get spotted and eaten by the egret/herons easier too? Although these are pretty good size albino tilapia...not sure how big a fish a egret/heron can take?

JE...here ya go...from an old thread featuring mush mouth (smashed jaw as a fry from netting)...eaten in Blaine's Indiana pond after becoming pond stock...

Mating "dance" prior to spawn video

blue tilapia spawning in tank

The courtship is very brief and may last less than a minute

The male is always nesting...a gravid female comes in and makes the nest right, like many women do with a man's cleaning, then she lays her eggs, he hovers releasing milt as she immediately gathers eggs and gets out of the nest....if she stays, the male will blow out her gills with deadly head butts.

Dang mouth-brooders always eat and run !

All my tilapia are supposed to be blues. The large males have a breeding color change. Their body is a lighter color & the fins are red to orange. Females remain their normal color with dark vertical stripes. The males have established a territory near their spawning bed & defend it. They quickly chase other males away.

Thank you Rainman

J.E., You said you got your Blues from Rex...I AM Rex

Mine are pure strain Blue Tilapia.

In late August, I saw my first large female being courted by a bull male, 3-4 lbs. She was about 2/3 his length. Later, I watched as a male was courting a female & a larger male came along, chased him a away & took off with the female.

Also saw a male for the first time take some feed that I threw for the bream. His feeding style is tenative, not like the bream. He is easily discouraged by a turtle or large bream.

Now I would like to see a female brooding her young, also some one to three inch tilapia swimming in the shallows.

My pond is too stained to see what is going on unless they are right on the bank. I am sure some have spawned, but have yet to see any smaller fish yet. I am sure I will not with all the predators in the pond but the confirmation of spawning tilapia would be rewarding.

I watched a mouth brooder just two feet from my dock. She would open her mouth, let 10 to 12 fry swim out to feed on planktonic algae, then open her mouth and they swam back inside while another batch swam out. I watched this process for more than 20 minutes. I just regret that my camera was back at the house.
Tom Sterling

Incidentally, I introduced these fish to my 6 acre deep pond in May of 2011 in Shelby County, Texas. I see them in the winter too when there is bright sun and they will come to the surface to bask in the sun warmed water.