We have babies!

[Sheri Schmeckpeper]

Well, we have eggs anyway. Yesterday two of our tilapia in the breeding tank started actively building nests. All the fish started acting differently. It was very interesting. The dominant female was one of them, and she turned all white except for a dark strip on the tip of her top fin. A smaller fish was the other one, and it looked kind of like it might be the male.

The next thing we knew she was holding her mouth oddly. At one point she spat out hundreds of little yellow-ish eggs, which were quickly scooped up by...a third fish! The apparent father wasn't the father after all! Papa's been holding them ever since, and he missed feeding time today.

When Mamma spat out the fish, all the other fish in the tank had their noses right in the nest, probably hoping for a meal. We filmed it, so I'll share the link when I get it edited.

[Sheri Schmeckpeper]

Dr. George, any time you're ready. 14 fingerlings and a batch of fry are waiting for you.

[Sheri Schmeckpeper]

I'll contact you.  We came home from vacation to find, maybe, 50 fry in the tank...and another 50-ish in the filter. All are back in the tank and happy now.

[Sheri Schmeckpeper]

A new update:

We moved Mama#1 back into the breeding tank and the 12 fry into a fry tank. Mama/Papa is now in the nursery and we expect to see the young any day now.
We have a new breeding couple who mated today, so this will be our third batch of fry from totally different parents. At least now we know for certain what sex these two are. :) 

[Heather Rose]

I would like to start raising tilapia. Do you have any that I may purchase to get my tank started or any advise where I may purchase some?

[Sheri Schmeckpeper]

Heather, we will soon, I hope. We've had 12 fry born, and have promised a couple dozen to Dr. George once we get enough. We've had 3 or 4 more breedings, but no fry. I think we might have a sterile, but very enthusiastic male...but that's only a guess. We're taking him out of the tank this weekend to see if another male will take the alpha role. We're also moving them to a larger tank to give move breeding privacy. We should know in a couple weeks if we have success. It takes a couple weeks for them to incubate, and a couple to reach a healthy size to sell, so we're talking 4-6 weeks, if you can wait that long.

In the meantime, you can check Craigslist, from time-to-time there are tilapia advertised there. You can also contact Dennis McClung, on GardenPool.org. Sometimes he gets fry and keeps a list, too.  I'll put an announcement out here when we have enough to sell.

One thing to consider is inbreeding, if you plan to breed your tilapia. You should get some from different sources. We have fish from two sources & will be picking some up from another source when we take a trip to CA soon.

Do you have a system set up for them?

[Dr. George B. Brooks, Jr.]

Thank you ;-)

[Sheri Schmeckpeper]

We'll be gone for two weeks, so we should come home to a nice little batch of fry. I'll check back in when we return.

[Sheri Schmeckpeper]

Well, we're not home yet but word has it we have a couple hundred or so. A nice batch that'll supply us & a few other folk well. :)

[Heather Rose]

Thanks for the advise. I'll keep looking!

I have set up a 350 gallon pond for them in my backyard.

I have wanted to raise tilapia for sometime now... I finally made it a priority!

[Sheri Schmeckpeper]

We just had what appears to be another successful breeding yesterday. A mama is holding a mouthful. I'll keep you posted on how it goes!