Home made tilapia egg incubator

[helomech]

Made this last week, but did not have any eggs till tonight. Had 2 females with eggs, so we caught them and stole their eggs. The air flow can be adjusted to regulate how much movements the eggs have. Bought enough material to make a bunch of these. Hoping to have a bunch of tilapia to put outside when the weather warms up.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VswIwx3pP9Y

[bacpacker]

Very cool Helo. I will be keepinv an eye on this thread.

[helomech]

I will post results one way or the other.

[Vodin]

Looks great. I am still not seeing mating dances or signs of egg holding. Hopefully things will start happening soon. But it has only been 3 months so who knows.
Again congrats and I hope all works!

[helomech]

Every time I do a water change and clean my filter they breed. And they continue to breed for a while after. Are you water temps still up above 65?

[Sniper-T]

do they just eat the eggs if you let them spawn in the tanks? or not enough movement?

looks cool though... nicely one!

[helomech]

do they just eat the eggs if you let them spawn in the tanks? or not enough movement?

looks cool though... nicely one!

Lots of times the eggs or fry get eaten. They also spawn again faster if you take the eggs from her. Not sure if it is working properly wife said the eggs are sticking together. So not sure if they are going to hatch. Also don't know if it is because of the incubator, or the eggs just might not have been fertilized. We will see.

[Sniper-T]

I assume you milked them from her (the mama, not the wife)... did you have a male to squeeze?

unless Tilapia are different than other species, then yes, you would need to fertilize them.

[helomech]

Tilapia females lay the eggs in a spot the male prepared the male then fertilizes the eggs and then the female picks them up and keeps them in her mouth till they hatch. She then starts letting them out to get food and stuff, but lets them back in her mouth when danger is around. So the eggs should have been fertilized but it is a possibility they did not get fertilized. They are Chillids (spelling) and all chilids breed this way. I may not have had enough air flow, but this is what experimentation is like. You can't always get it right the first time.

[Vodin]

The tank is 75-80F and all the properties are as they should be. I believe my 4 adult 13" Tilapia may all be males. So hopefully 1 of the 2 fingerlings that a friends system produced is a female. There is on about 2/3 the length of the other they are from the same school.

[helomech]

You have Mozambique's or Blues?

[Vodin]

All 6 are Blue Tilapia.

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y534/Vodin136/Basement%20AP/IMG_0962_zps9c4b5cfb.jpg

[helomech]

Okay, then I can't help you with how to tell them apart. The Mozambique are easy to tell male from female.

[Sniper-T]

It should be easy. toss a phone in there, the ones that race over to it are the females...

jk!!

[Vodin]

LOL sadly you need to catch them, flip em over and examine the fish 'genitalia' for an exact gender. Or watch how they act and you would get an idea. For the last option you also may have a 'butch' issue that would totally throw a noddle in the mess.