So, What's Next
Now you have a breeding colony set up and the females are having fry like crazy. I personally decided to sell my tilapia. I hold back a small percentage of the fingerlings to let them grow up to 3-5 inches and make more breeding colonies for sale. I may at some point set up a grow out tank to produce some protein for my family in the form of tilapia filets but for now it is very rewarding to see the babies of your first breeding colony producing babies of their own.
This is a photo of the first breeding colony I set up with fish from my original breeding colony.
I have some vision problems which make sexing a 4 inch Tilapia nearly impossible so I simply
put 7 random fish together. By the next day, the male was obvious and at 7 days, 2 of the females
were carrying eggs. I sold this breeding colony and harvested the fry on the day that they were picked up.
They were really happy going home to North Carolina with a male, 6 females and 500 or so baby fish!!
I even threw in an extra female..they will end up with so many babies they won't know what to do.
The second photo is of the male of this young breeding colony.
Notice the difference in coloration......he is in breeding mode!
In the video of my fish house, you can see what I needed to have in place to do things the way I
wanted to do them. Your facility could be larger or smaller depending upon what you want to
accomplish. There is no right or wrong answer, your system will keep evolving as you zero in on
what works best. My suggestion is to leave some room to expand because as you get more and more
fish you will need too. TRUST ME!!
Let's Talk Tilapia Food
Feeding your tilapia correctly is your most important duty. You want your fish to grow quickly and be healthy and strong so you need to feed them a high quality feed. This is what works for me.. Beginning with my breeding colony, these guys are treated a little differently than all the other fish. I don't feed them as much or as often because I don't want them to outgrow their tank (my breeding colony is in a 55 gallon aquarium). I feed all my fish a diet of Zeigler Spirulina Algae Discs at first then once they are about 1 inch long they are changed over to a diet of AquaMax 300.
Now, when your fry are in a fry tank, drop about half an algae disc in the tank and see how they react. If they start nibbling on the disc, they are ready to begin eating. Ok, once the first half algae disc is eaten, throw in another. You will have to determine how many discs to put in the tank based on the number of fry and the size of the fry. If I have a brood of 500 fry, I will throw in two algae discs and see how long it takes for the fry to eat it. I only feed the fry twice a day, so make sure you are putting in enough to keep them busy eating until the next meal. Algae discs do not foul the water nearly as quickly as using fry powder (which is really easy to overfeed). The fry will eat this until you graduate them up to AquaMax 300.
Once your tilapia are about an inch long, you can change their feed to AquaMax 300. AquaMax 300 and 400 both contain 50% protein and all the vitamins and minerals for fast and continuous growth. AquaMax 300 should be fed to your fish between 1 inch and 5 inches at 5 inches you can change them over to Aquamax 400 for a while. Once the tilapia get to between 6 and 7 inches, I start feeding them Aquamax Dense 4000 that contains just the right formulation to finish growing your fish to harvest size. At this stage they will start to thicken up and put on weight......You will be surprised how much they will change in both shape and size over the next few months, they will become deep from top to bottom, thick from side to side and put on another 6 to 9 inches in length. Stand back when you throw in a hand full of 4000 or you will have to change your wet shirt!
Check out my Youtube Channel, "Mineral Springs Tilapia" for lots of instructional videos!
Mineral Springs Tilapia
Breeding Blue Tilapia
(On A Budget - In Greg's own words)
Member of the American Aquatics Growers Association & Cooperative