He Got Hooked On Backyard Tilapia

He Got Hooked On Backyard Tilapia FARM HOME Food You can have year-round fresh fish without a lot of work says Edgar Sanchez who got hooked on backyard tilapia In a few short years he has gone from a few fish in an aquarium to breeding feeding and eating tilapia from his backyard fish farm
I decided to use my aquarium for something I could eat recalls Sanchez I started with a colony of six female Tilapia and two males Today I have 1 500 fish of all sizes from fingerlings to 3 lbs
Most tilapia don t make it past the 1 1/2 to 2-lb weight that makes for prime eating He has been sharing his excess with family and friends while developing a breeding population and refining the two distinct breeding lines needed for small scale tilapia production
You don t want any females in a tank as they ll start breeding and the tank quickly gets overcrowded with fish of all sizes explains Sanchez It s more convenient to keep fish separated by size and only raise males
He explains that large operations will often feed hormones to their tilapia to turn females into males and restrict breeding in the growing ponds That isn t feasible for him
Sanchez s supplier and mentor Mike Sipe developed two lines which when crossed produced only males Sanchez has been purifying the two lines He reports producing three generations of all male fingerlings from crossing the lines and is now ready to sell colonies with six females from the one line and a male from the second line
Sanchez has also developed a simple backyard system for interested customers It consists of a 125-gal breeding tank and 29-gal delivery tanks where the young fry are spawned and get initial growth The third stage is to move them into one of six 8-ft diameter children s wading pools where they are fed to maturity Finally Sanchez moves them into his catch of the day tank where they are held until eaten or given away
Tilapia are perfect for small producers because they are easy to control says Sanchez Just keep the water in the breeding tank at 75ü or lower if you don t want them to breed
Sanchez explains that the 1/8-in babies eat only micrograms of food a day while the 2-lb tilapia can consume up to 16 grams or a little more than half an ounce of food per day He says they can grow from birth to 2 lbs in eight months on only 2 lbs of feed
The key is to keep sampling every day for weight to give them the right amount of food and make sure they get plenty of oxygen and clean water says Sanchez
His filtration system is a combination of homemade and purchased items Smaller tanks including the final 40-gal tank are filtered by their water pumps Water from the 6 large growing tanks is pumped into a 5 000-gal tank A pump at the bottom pumps the water to a large garbage can where most of the fish waste settles out A pvc drain in the garbage can allows him to drain solids while the water goes through a series of filters before being returned to the growth tanks
Sanchez makes use of rainwater collected from his roofs to supplement city water for his fish tanks To heat the water he relies in part on a coil of black hose covering an old satellite dish City water pumped in one end comes out the other at near boiling point temperatures on a sunny day
A bug zapper over the pools drops treats into the tanks Even the fish waste is used We have the greenest trees in the neighborhood says Sanchez It makes very good fertilizer
According to Sanchez the most difficult part of getting a tilapia farm established is permitting He urges people who are interested to contact their state department of ag and/or their department of natural resources He says the key is to declare your intentions to be a commercial supplier Some states like Florida won t allow tilapia to be kept as pets for fear they will be turned loose Even states like North Dakota where tilapia couldn t survive the winters prohibit keeping them as pets
Once I registered as a business I had no problem he says I would have to get a whole lot bigger to supply restaurants but for now I am set up to sell breeding colonies
Registration means he can t sell breeding colonies to anyone who doesn t have approval from their state A 7-fish breeding colony is priced at $399 with shipping costs estimated at $100 to $150
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Edgar Sanchez 5418 Glasgow Ave Orlando Florida 32189 ph 407 352-6620; customerservice@tilapiafarmingathome com; www tilapiafarmingathome com

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