Raising tilapia

[packer43064]

Anyone ever thought to raise tilapia to adulthood then skin them and whatever you do and freeze them up to use as tilapia strips for larger fish? I'm going to be building a stingray pond and thought might as well raise quite a few of them and do this before I get any rays. They grow fast I hear.

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[1bigdovii]

I dont know if its cost effective or not seeing as youll have to feed them to adulthood. You can buy tilapia fillet frozen cheap. Would still be a cool project though.

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[packer43064]

That's the million dollar question. I know you can get 50 pounds of purina aquamax fish food for a decent price. $30-40. It's not the best food out there, but people use it to feed their own tilapia systems. If people eat tilapia raised on that then it should be acceptable for larger fish to eat the frozen tilapia chunks.

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[screaminleeman]

I have raised Nile Tilapia for "Live" feeder fish.

I started with 1.5 - 2" juvies and they bred within the first year. I had a terrible time using the fry as feeders in that they are fast and tough as nails and many were added into tanks as live feeders and outgrew the viable "feeder" size. I became overun with Tilapia quickly.

They are scrumptous though and reach 12' - 15" range in 1 year easily!

A 135G produced hundreds of Nile Tilapia.

Be careful of the Tilapia breed too.


The Butti is too mean and most likely to kill the offspring. (growth rate is medium).
The Polleni and Bleekeri are much slower grower and take over 1 year to reach harvest size.

Nile Tilapia and some strain of Blue tilapia have the best temperment, growth rate and cool tolerance to make your project work.

 

[packer43064]

I have raised Nile Tilapia for "Live" feeder fish.

I started with 1.5 - 2" juvies and they bred within the first year. I had a terrible time using the fry as feeders in that they are fast and tough as nails and many were added into tanks as live feeders and outgrew the viable "feeder" size. I became overun with Tilapia quickly.

They are scrumptous though and reach 12' - 15" range in 1 year easily!

A 135G produced hundreds of Nile Tilapia.

Be careful of the Tilapia breed too.


The Butti is too mean and most likely to kill the offspring. (growth rate is medium).
The Polleni and Bleekeri are much slower grower and take over 1 year to reach harvest size.

Nile Tilapia and some strain of Blue tilapia have the best temperment, growth rate and cool tolerance to make your project work.

I believe there is a hybrid between the nile and blue tilapia. Rocky mountain white tilapia or something like that is what their called. Grows just like what your saying,real fast. I'm thinking of a 7x3x3 tank. Would just buy a whole bunch of them and let them grow big as can be and skin them and have a fricken load of tilapia fillets to last years for the larger fish I'm planning on getting. Won't even try to use them as feeders then.
Thanks!

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