I was thinking that the breeding tank and the fry tank could be the same tank.

You could just select a nice male and a nice female from one of the larger fish tanks and put them together in a tank with about 4 inches of gravel. They are almost sure to do their thing: dig a hole, dance around and get eggs and sperm together, and then you'll see the female with an obvious distention of the lower cheeks area, and that's when she's holding.

I don't know when exactly the eggs get fertilised, but it's within a couple days of her holding anyway. Then put the male back where he came from and leave the female to spawn the eggs within her mouth. Don't feed, or only very lightly feed with crushed up flakes (the females are not supposed to eat during the time she's holding, though I think they may be able to get a few crumbs in- you'll have to watch and see).

After she lets the fry out, after a week to 3 weeks, I see no reason you can't take her and put her back where she came from and just feed the fry till they reach about 3-4 inches, at which time they will start to spawn themselves.

You'll have a period where it's kinda like limbo, where you won't know who is male and who is female, at about 3-4 inches. I have about 40 at this stage and I'll think about what the best way to go from this point is. I'd say that as soon as you can tell the males from the females that you separate them and maybe have 2 tanks for each. Have a tank for each sex when they're smaller adults and a tank for each when they're larger. Depending on how big you want the tilapia when you harvest, and I suggest you cut fillets and freeze, or bread the filets and freeze, you could have more tanks for graduating stages of adults. These are smart fish and if they see you dipping a net in to fish out certian sizes they're gona get really wise to what you're doing, so the less you have to net out fish the better.

I'm going to watch and see how aggressive mine get as they get mature. Maybe I'll separate my males from my females and see if the same sex will be agressive to each other. You just don't want your fish to be descaled before it's time.

PK gimme an idea of how big these fish can get or i should say whats a good eating size..................how many can i keep in a tank..............im thinking about poly tanks from tractor supply or something like that - - -so i could go up to 300-500 gallons pretty easily - - if i could just make a wall of 55's that would be cool - --then i could build my office in there since i'm gonna have to heat and cool it anyway - - -

heres my idea - - -tell me what you think - - if i can do this with glass or acrylic tanks, one 150 gallon adult tank in the middle with 2 stacked 55's on each side {4 total} for males, females and two for juvees . . than maybe three stacked 20 longs on the outsides {6 total} for breeding couples, holding mommas, and fry - - the basic thought being everything will work it's way from the outsides to the center -

filtration ; i want to use a pool filter {20gallons per minute} and 350 bucks complete, put it at the end of the "river bed} in the green house and pump back to the tank room, from the main trunk ill have everything valved to each tank - - -from the tanks I want to use drilled over flows that will run to one poly tank and either gravity feed or be pumped to the green house - - -i can valve out of the green house return into the poly tank where it enters the tank room and bypass the tanks so say 50 % of the filtered water is returning to the tanks and 50% just recirculates to the green house - -should i need extra filtration i can add media to the pool filter, and i can mix ferts and chems in the poly tank to feed the greenhouse

hope that didn't get to confuseing - - -it looks good on paper, lol

Boss

I think there would be a lot of flexability with the adult and juvi tanks. They can be kept pretty packed and they may be less territorial this way. As for the breeding. One breeding adult pair will produce at least 100 fry each time, and as soon as the previous fry are gone they will breed again, producing fry at the rate of once every 2-4 weeks I believe. That means that I wouldn't put too much of the operation into multiple pairs. One will probably be enough, and to keep genetic diversity, I'd select a new pair each time.

I have a 55 gallon tank with, I just counted, about 25 juvuniles. I'll keep them for a while and let you know if I run into any problems with overcrowding. I have another tank with about 60 1.5 inch fry and maybe I'll wait till they're bigger and separate the sexes and let you know how that goes. It's just a hobby for me so it's no bother.

thanks man

they make sand bed filters for aquriums...

http://www.tmc-ltd.co.uk/commercial/fluidised-sand.asp

check this DIY filter...
http://pets.webshots.com/photo/11362991 ... 7345eYaUza

this one looks pretty cool...