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#524185 08/01/20 07:04 AM
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Has anyone raised a batch or any tilapia in Michigan? Curious if it is possible . Are they available? When the water gets too cold for them and they die can they still be eaten?
Ill use the search on here too.
Thanks,
jim

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Search on here ,you will find my threads. I have six breeders in a fifty gallon aquarium in the basement.

Last edited by john kelsey; 08/01/20 08:15 AM.
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End of the season Tilapia from your pond are probably the best Tilapia you'll ever get to eat.

But the only ones I get a hold of I have to catch; I believe they mostly sink when dead.


"Live like you'll die tomorrow, but manage your grass like you'll live forever."
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I will clean a dead fish if the eyes are still clear. NO problems so far and filets have always tasted normal. There are hydroponics people in MI that use tilapia year round. Search for them.


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Will study more. Thanks .

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Sort of in the same vein... don't mean to hijack your thread.

I'm curious how big tilapia will get in central Ohio by end of their life? I have some that are getting pretty large. They take feed well and I've had luck catching them on flies that resemble a piece of floating feed. But so far that's about the only way I've found to catch them with any regularity.

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I have caught more than one 3 pounder in late September/early October. These would be ones that were stocked in May - YOY have gotten up to around a pound.


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I'm with you Jim100. I'd love to get in on this but the learning curve is very steep for me. I have room in my unfinished basement but would have to learn a lot about filter media, biofilters, recirculators, how to determine number of water exchanges, how much light to use, etc etc.

I also do not have an easy way to get the adults that I want to keep over the winter come October (either for eating or for creating the next year's stocking TP). I have tried seine net, traps and no luck. Angling seems to be one of the only ways. I have thought of a way that SHOULD work (in my puny brain)

I think if you created a warm water thermal refuge they would all gather in your collection area by themselves as the water temps went down. My goal was to have a forage pond near my main pond connected by a culvert. If I could make the forage pond small enough and add artifical heat (in my case I have power at the pond so it would likely be an electric heater of some type) I could then find a way to have a warm water discharge into the main pond with a way 'upstream' for the tilapia to get into the warm water, and of course, if they were smart, they would stay there without any type of one way gate setup.

I would not be able to circulate too much pond water between the two or else I would have a huge electric bill trying to keep the smaller 'tank' warm enough given that outside temps would be cold too. But the smaller 'tank' would be small enough that it should be fairly easy to net out.

You could do this in any body of water, but you might have to have an insulated plastic tank that immerses into the larger pond with a heat source in it. I'm envisioning something like a storage cube (275 gallons) with some way to insulate the outside of it and a electric element hanging in it. It would have to be in the water far enough and deep enough that the tilapia find it safe to enter.

Of course, that all seems plausible in my imagination, but have never tried it. If you didn't have a power source one might be able to harness some of the sun's energy using dark coloring around the fish 'pen' but I'm thinking the temperature gradient would have to be pretty noticeable for the fish to gather there and later enter the warm water refuge.

I observed in my pond that right before the adults died in late Oct, they were in the exact SW corner of the pond and as far shallow as they could wedge themselves to get the last little bit of warm water left in the pond, so that instinct to find warmth no matter what might be incredibly strong.

My main barrier was that my source of tilapia dried up. The best way to find a solid future source is to get some breeder pairs and create your own future stocking size tilapia.

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I have six in a 55 gallon tank in my basement.

Last edited by john kelsey; 11/16/20 08:25 AM.

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