Doing it again… learned a lot last year… this year’s Tilapia

[Magnum Man]

Time to wrap up the Tilapia... literally...

I wrapped up the tanks, 2 days ago, a cold front moved in... 24 degrees F. this morning's low ... will be butchering on Friday, it'll be back in the 70's on Friday... I try to keep the water temps in the mid 80's & the center tank was 86 degrees this morning, & the tank on the west, outside, has been my problem tank to keep warm, has 2 inch foam board on the 2 outside edges, and wrapped in a tarp, was 82 degrees, it had dropped to 79 before I wrapped it up, so it's slowly warming in this cold weather... the fish will die, if the water gets to 50 degrees...

so the fish are getting fed less, on these cold days, but at least I'm keeping them warm... we got a fluke winter storm, last October, & I had to harvest early, that west tank...

 

[Colin_T]

greenhouse them for an extended growing season. it will reduce your heating cost too.

 

[Magnum Man]

I'm making this work... started the fish earlier in aquariums, & plan on harvesting around 1st frost... they are going to be much larger this year

BTW... if it were only that easy... we've wanted a Greenhouse for years... we were going to attach one to the south side of the house, & go down 4 feet or so into the dirt, because of the cold winters... even have the attaching point on the house, but that's as far as I got, with the time & money available...

 

[Colin_T]

BTW... if it were only that easy... we've wanted a Greenhouse for years... we were going to attach one to the south side of the house, & go down 4 feet or so into the dirt, because of the cold winters... even have the attaching point on the house, but that's as far as I got, with the time & money available...

You would probably have more money if you stopped buying fish, but wouldn't we all
And if you bred the fish you have in separate containers, you could sell the young and use that money to invest back into the fish. That's what I used to do. breed fish and use the money from them to buy more fish, plants, etc.

You don't have to build a perfect greenhouse straight away. Just a basic frame and some plastic over the ponds would do the job. As the finances improve, then improve the structure.

Back when I was keeping birds I had wild caught Gouldian finches and they were tropical birds that didn't like the cold weather we had here. Every winter I would be going back and forth to the vet with sick birds because of the cold. I couldn't afford to build a proper greenhouse over the aviary so taped and nailed some clear plastic over the front and sides. There was a gap of about 1 foot that was open around the bottom for air to get in. It worked great and the money I saved on vet bills allowed me to build something better the following year.