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.

 

[Magnum Man]

Another 24 degree morning… the last below freezing for at least a couple weeks… outer tank at 79 degrees this morning… going to take advantage of the comfortable temperatures coming this Friday, for harvesting…

 

[Oldspartan]

Been watching this thread and will reread it soon.

Are you harvesting these for your family or are you going to sell to a fish monger.

When we had the homestead fully running I often toyed with raising fish for consumption but with the Snookhill only a few hundred feet from my door and a real enjoyment of fishing Salmon, Rainbows and Walleye on local lakes just never got around to it.

We do have two fish mongers locally though and I have four unused, food grade 275 gallon totes behind the garage. Probably would not do it, but it is a thought.

 

[Magnum Man]

I'm growing them just to eat ( we raise all our own meat... pork, beef, & lamb... used to raise chickens as well, but as Mrs. got older, she couldn't / wouldn't do the chores, & I just didn't have time to take those over... I have a friend from church, that likes to butcher, & has a large young family, so I trade him meat for labor at harvest time...

as I already had aquariums, adding fish to raise for consumption, seemed natural... I looked at several before starting, trout, catfish, etc., but the Tilapia are hands down the most practical... you can stack them into tanks like cordwood... ( I don't ) but "they say, as many as 75 Tilapia to a 275 gallon tote... ( I do 50 or less )... they are too expensive to buy as fingerlings, & feed out, to really be able to sell them easily ( if you are competing with Chinese fish from Walmart )... but tank raised fish are cleaner tasting, than even other domestic raised fish, from southern "mud" ponds ( those fish have an earthy, "Catfish" taste ), tank raised tilapia is very "clean tasting... I like to raise my own meat, so I know what goes into it...

I think the only way you could sell them for a profit, would be to raise them yourself, as fingerlings are so expensive ( I paid almost $2.00 each for guppy sized, sexed fingerlings ( males get bigger faster )... also feeding could be made more efficient, as Purina, makes several feeds for Tilapia for the various stages of growth... but my understanding, is Duckweed is a perfect food for Tilapia, and Purina actually did a nutritional analysis on Duckweed, & duplicated that in their feeds... at grow out, I feed 3-4 times a day, what they can eat in 5-10 minutes... over the summer, that amounts to a lot of feed... last year I had a tank to grow Duckweed to supplement the pellets ( I fed a big scoop of Duckweed each day, while I was at work )... this year, that 3rd tank had my breeding pair in it over the summer ( I have seen some fingerlings in that tank, I may have to move to an aquarium over winter ), so I didn't have as much Duckweed this year, I still supplemented, but not a big scoop daily... I'm hoping to add another female or two, from the fish this year, and eventually get to the point, where I don't need to buy fingerlings... I have my breeding pair's last "litter" in a 65 gallon in the house yet ( my breeder tank ) & those are 6 inches plus, over the summer... these fish grow extremely fast, if the tanks are kept in the mid 80's for temperature, & they are fed as much as they can eat...

 

[Colin_T]

@Magnum Man you need a few more containers for the Tilapia. If you set up 5 or 6 more, you could have a pr (or 4 or 5 females & 1 male) in each of those and get enough young so you didn't have to buy them in. You could also let the young grow indoors over winter and they would be a bit bigger when you put them outside.

You could also set up more ponds for Duckweed and other plants. You could freeze surplus Duckweed and use it over winter or put it in the indoor tanks to keep growing.

 

[Magnum Man]

I have the space easily for another tank, in this set up, as it is... stair stepping them up, for gravity flow, limits how many I have space for here, in this set up, right now... if I slid all 3 tanks, one space to the east, I could do 5 tanks in this group... adding the tanks together flowing into each other actually increases the gallons of water this fish are actually in, even though they are restricted, to the volume of each cube to move around...

the other day we talked about green houses... we had a plan for one on the other side of the house... but it would be pretty easy to add a wall, off the garage overhang, angled to cover the tanks, which could increase my growing period, being in Minnesota, the growing season is limited... even if that was clear plastic, for a while, the heaters in the tanks, would keep this area warm enough, for a lot longer... this year, I did order fingerlings earlier, & kept them in a 45 gallon, until they were in the ballpark of 2 inches, & the fish, are that same 2 inches longer in the outside tanks, at harvest... that's a lot more bulk, & meat on the fish, at harvest

 

[Oldspartan]

There are only two of us with the exception of a few gatherings each year so this would also be for consumption, but I am pretty sure there would be an excess over our needs hence the mention of the fish monger. The excess would most likely be too small for a monger in retrospect and more suitable for trade or gift among friends.

In truth both Linda and I miss having livestock and although we have easy sources of homegrown meat that we know is raised right it is still not quite the same. I also know the effort that goes into the endeavor and that has been a stopper the past two years.

This winter I will need to do some study on the subject.

Then again, I might just stick to angling for my scaled vittles.

 

[Magnum Man]

Well 2 more Tilapia were sexed as females, and went into the end tank, that had the breeding pair in… and the rest got harvested… I was not happy with paying extra for the premium sexed as male fish… probably 1/4 to 1/3 were females, and much smaller… so, with some in the freezer from last years harvest, we got 15-16 pints of canned fish… pretty much all the males, except for a few got fillet’… and actually the 6 fish in my 65 gallon were bigger than many in the grow out tank… so at this point I’m hoping not to have to buy fingerlings again… my buddies little kids catching the fish again this year

 

[Gamegurl564]

My buddy in Oklahoma has a 200 gallon bin he is raising tilapia in.
They are nearly dinner size
He has had great fun with the project.
Nice you have a pair, he started with purchased fry

 

[Magnum Man]

2 years ago, I bought 100 aquaponics grade. Which were supposed to be a mix of males and females, this last year, I bought 50 farm grade, that were supposed to be sexed and all males, I had some I raised from a pair I culled out from the previous year… I was really disappointed at the ones I bought this year. Twice as much money for fingerings, and I actually got more females this year, than last year, even though they were all supposed to be males… I’ve been buying from one of the premium suppliers, and spending a lot of money for them to do something, they have obviously not been doing…

 

[Magnum Man]

Canned Tilapia