sykofrenic:
In California, Tilapia is only permitted to be grown south of the Tehachepe mountains. The species allowed is O. Mossambicus as it is considered indigenous, having been planted in the mid-1960s in irrigation channels to fight the invasion of the waterway-clogging hydrilla weed. The tilapia slowly found their way to the Salton Sea, and thrived in its saline waters. Over time, due to agricultural runoff, the Salton sea has become hyper-saline, limiting the survivability of the Tilapia found therein.
i found that in the DFG regs too, but the thing is, they dont even spell Tehachepe correctly. the mountains they are refering to are "Tehachapi" and they are in the middle of nowhere in by bakersfield. im in humboldt county, escaped tilapia wouldnt even survive the water temperatures here, so i dont know what to think about that statement
this would be a personal consumption kind of thing, i have a friend who has an aquaculture lisc. who wants to give me an aquaculture tub and filter for free. he thinks there could be about 30 adults living in the tub he has. im a college student, so i dont have a huge ammount to spend on this project, but i have experience with all kinds of aquarium fish, and have been successful in breeding small cichlids and danios. i use RO water in my tanks for all water changes, only occasionally will i top off tanks with tap water (with water conditioner). i rent a house with my boyfriend, and we have a shed in the backyard that has power, we were thinking about maybe putting it in there to protect it from ravens. but the house is on an acre lot and i have a big covered deck i could put the tub on. i also have a 55 gallon tank that will be empty in the next few months, i thought i might be able to breed the tilapia in that, then put them in the tub outside when they got a few inches long.
let me know what you think. thanks