This year’s Tilapia water changes… easier than last year… ooo discovered fry in the breeder

Same syphon I created last year… 2 inch diameter long tube, 3/4 inch hose… there is no substrate, but this pulls all the gunk off the bottom… I syphon a ballpark of 20% of the water… any more would cool the tanks too much… last year I siphoned into 12 - 5 gallon buckets spread out on a pallet… this year, I’m using one of the tanks, from last year, that I replaced, to improve for this year… nomore messing with buckets when I can use the loader… once the water is in this tank, I can drive around, with the bottom valve open and water outside plants… I’m going to make an extension pipe on the valve, to get it wider than the back wheels on the tractor, so I can just drive along a hedge row of hazelnuts I have planted in the yard, and try to improve my hazelnut production, with fish water

I use 3/4 inch floss to filter ( on top of lava rock, for bio media )… you can see a corner in the last picture above… I cut these squares 12 inches X 12 inches, and change them out every 2-3 days, depending on how fast they get plugged… right now there are 50, 6 - 8 inch fish between the top 2 tanks, and breeding pairs in the lower tank

Wild pest snails anyone???

Nothing added that had pest snails, but they show up, and get filtered out, about as fast as they show up this is the lowest filter, that seems to catch the most… they seem to show up variably, probably depends on the weather

Water change lowers the tank temperature most, in the highest tank, as that where the make up water is added… but in this case, today changing the water in both top tanks lowered the water temperature about 5 degrees, in the top tank ( I don’t do water changes in the lower tank, as I don’t want to syphon out any fry ) the whole process, only takes 10 - 15 minutes

I’ve been buying my floss in 30 foot rolls, as I change it quite often..

Holy Tilapia Batman ! That’s an operation ! Using power equipment to horse your water around is something I bet you’re the only guy here doing . That’s a good supply of snails too .

It’s farming, an extension of my aquarium hobby… ( BTW, this is more like fish “gardening”, as we don’t sell them, only raise them for our consumption ) also fish water is great for plants… I have a hedge row of Hazelnuts in the yard, that I started a few years ago… if I can get the water change water out to the hazelnuts, I think that will increase my nut production ( we’ve only been getting a handful or two, so far, on newer plants ) Tilapia are really tolerant to bad water, but I think if they are kept in clean water, it makes a difference in how the final product tastes… Domestic raised Tilapia, is typically raised in southern mud ponds, which is better IMO than the “stacked” way of raising them, used in China ( the bulk of Tilapia available around here, are from Walmart, and are all from China ) the domestic raised fish, IMO, being raised in mud ponds, taste more “earthy” ( like Catfish ) not that there is anything wrong with Catfish… just that the tank raised fish have a “cleaner” taste

This is the thread from last year… my 1st attempt at farming Tilapia, if anyone is interested… we got an early frost, and had to emergency harvest one of the outside tanks, as it got too cold, before the fish were big enough to fillet… since then, we have a plan for any smaller fish… smoking and canning, and pickling, any that are too small to fillet at harvest ( also a good time to sex them, as often the smaller ones are females, and I could use a couple more, as I ramp up my production of fry…

I wish I had a use for the pest snails… but I guess they are about like having mice on the farm… I don’t currently have anything that would eat them, and I don’t want them breeding more, and showing back up at my tanks down the road… so at this point, those go into the burn

Magnum Man said:

the bulk of Tilapia available around here, are from Walmart, and are all from China

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Figures .

Magnum Man said:

I wish I had a use for the pest snails… but I guess they are about like having mice on the farm… I don’t currently have anything that would eat them, and I don’t want them breeding more, and showing back up at my tanks down the road… so at this point, those go into the burn

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Squish em and compost them for the hazelnut trees.

This is a pollution making machine, with more than 50 nearly adult Cichlids, and feeding all they will eat, 4 times a day….

Breeding is going on, in the lowest tank… probably several batches over the summer) hopefully ( tonight I just saw a couple 1 inch fingerlings, and at the same time a couple 2 inch fingerlings ) hoping that means a couple batches… the parents are quite comfortable in this tank, with a 3 foot tall plastic monstera, for cover, and all the roots from the tomato, and cucumbers, I almost never see them… but I have been feeding algae wafers twice a day, dropping them, in the clear, where I can see them on the bottom… tonight is the 1st time I saw babies…