Spotted Tilapia - Redbilly.  Repro. issue    4/24/12
Dear Sirs,
Good Day,
Appreciate your good efforts on the valuable web site of WWM, I've one query hope I can find the answer at your good side:
-          I've Spotted tilapia in my 25 gallon tank, spawned and I caught the eggs (sticky eggs to a PVC pipe) and now all fry hatched (2 days) but They are sticky to each other trying to release themselves, please advise will they be free or they will live sticky to each other.
<They will become free swimming within 24 hours..
-          Did I make it wrong to collect the sticky eggs after fertilized,
<Nope. Don't be too worried! Tilapia mariae breed like rabbits. So even if you make a mistake this time, you will have thousands more eggs to play with! Tilapia mariae are good parents. It is usually safe to leave them with their eggs. Remove the fry after 1-2 weeks. At this size they will be easy to catch and move. The parents will also stop looking after them at around this age.>
Thanks your help.
Moataz
<Most welcome. Cheers, Neale.>

Coptodon bythobates, Tilapia repro.     4/16/12
Hello Crew,
Last time I messaged Neale helped me with a blind Featherfin catfish that was in bad shape. First of all I will let you know that he is doing awesome and is not a Featherfin as first thought but actually a Lace Catfish.
<Ah, Synodontis nigrita. Have kept one of those. Can be REAL PUSHY at times… very much a catfish with attitude. On the plus side, rock solid and can hold its own with virtually anything short of an alligator.>
He fully regained his vision and fins and is now the boss of my Cichlid tank.
<Indeed.>
I now have another question to test your fishy brains! I recently acquired a pair of Coptodon bythobates. My problem is that I discovered I have a Male and a Female and they are trying to spawn. I really cant find any information on these rare fish let alone their breeding habits.
<Now referred to as Tilapia bythobates. Matt Clark wrote a nice summary on this unusual species for PFK, which you can read here:
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=2328
Breeding is much like other true Tilapia species (as opposed to Sarotherodon and Oreochromis spp.). They're egg-layers not mouthbrooders, and very aggressive at spawning time. Nice big fry, so not difficult to rear. We used to keep, breed Tilapia rendalli at my university; because it's a commercially important species, you can find lots about this species online, in the scientific press.>
What I have found says they lay their eggs on a flat surface, but mine appears to have built a bubble nest in the upper left corner of my tank (at least I think that is where it is at). The Male is defending it ferociously even keeping the Female away just not as much.
<Yes.>
He will let her close but not too close. He went head to head with a 5in Male Venustus and sent the big guy packing.
<Absolutely typical for the genus. True Tilapia species can be (and usually are) extremely aggressive.>
He even chased off my 9 inch Pleco! I would love to know more about these rare and spirited fish and information is lacking even at my LFS and library. I have come a long way in my fish knowledge since the last time I messaged, but am by far no expert. I am wondering if maybe I'm mistaken in thinking that they are a breeding pair, but I was sure all of the signs were there. The Female is slightly less colorful then the Male but they are so close in coloration and size that it is hard to tell.
<Again, very typical for the genus. The best trait is the shape of the "spawning tubes" or genital papillae. On males these are long, narrow, and pointed. On females they are short and stubby. Male cichlids tend to have longer dorsal and anal fins than the females, and at breeding time at least females normally look quite a bit chunkier.>
They are both definitely in full breeding colors. I am baffled and disgruntled and am wondering if I just have a moody fish.
<No; quite normal.>
Any help would be appreciated. I would hate for him to be just playing "tough guy" for nothing and get himself killed or injured.
<Definitely possible, but unlikely. If in doubt, use a tank divider, but it's best to try and get your cichlids to form a stable pair. Adding a target fish, like a big catfish or a fast-moving species like a Chinese Algae Eater can be a plus, giving the pair something to bond over (i.e., a common enemy!) but this assumes the target fish has space to escape too -- otherwise it can end up damaged or dead.>
If they are a breeding pair I would rather move them to a separate tank alone where they wont risk being injured by the big guys. In summery to this long rant, what I really require is information on this species. A website or a book with detailed information would be really helpful. I can't even really find specifics on their diet. I usually never buy a fish without knowing the specifics of their care but when I bought these they were incorrectly labeled as red bellied Cichlids.
<What are "Red-Bellied Cichlids"?>
I only found out the truth when they started to lose their spawning colors and I thought they were sick and did some research. So any tidbits you can throw my way would be appreciated.
Ashley
<Cheers, Neale.>

Can I mix mollies with tilapia   7/23/08 Sent from my CrackBerry® wireless device available from BTC. <Not really, no. Sent by Neale from a shiny silver computer available from Apple.>

farming tilapia... At the bottom of a learning curve   6/26/08 I was asked for my opinion regarding a project to farm raise Tilapia recently and I was hoping to get your opinion on a few things. First, I made it clear to the interested party that maintaining a reef aquarium is a very different beast than farm raising thousands of tilapia in a massive tank. <In a few ways, yes> However, his idea was to construct the tank of concrete. <Nah! Has been done profitably, and much less expense, time, trouble in simple "Dough Boy" pools... If new to all this, go this route. Easier to remove later as well> The tank will be roughly 25ft X 15ft and 4ft tall. I'm thinking 4 inches of concrete should be sufficient for this. <? For what? Free standing construction? You intend to monolith cast this structure? I doubt it> What liner would you recommend? <What? Let's stop here... you need to read, not write...> Any specific concrete? <Plastic pool for you> As for filtration, there will be lots of food put in the tank so the filtration will need to accommodate this. <Oh yeah... Oh heck yeah...> Will a protein skimmer be needed, or would this be overkill for tilapia? <Heeeee! Won't work period...> Dissolved oxygen seems to be an important issue considering the volume of fish, would a series of overflows cascading the water down a material to break the water into smaller drops be sufficient or will additional equipment be required to maintain enough oxygen? <Please see the Net, books on freshwater aquaculture... perhaps works by Mike Sipes... Oreochromis/Tilapia culture is well-established...> In terms of total gallons, what should the turnover rate be for the filtration? <...> Instead of utilizing a sump, could a portion of one end of the tank be partitioned off for the water to overflow into ( a large 'false back' closed loop ) and contain the filter equipment? Also, I'm thinking the pump driving the system should be feeding an extensive PVC grid covering the bottom of the tank spraying water into the floor to keep detritus and other matter from settling on the bottom. Let me know any thoughts or experience you have with a setup of this size. Is there any other equipment needed that I'm not considering? Regarding the tilapia, is there a specific range of water chemistry that will be needed, ie pH, temperature, etc. Thanks for any help you can offer. <Stop wasting y/our time... Go to a large library, look on the Net re sellers of books, maybe (here's a plug for all who have wasted their time reading this thus far) (Argent Chemical http://www.argent-labs.com/) ... as they have a very nice aquatic science and tech. selection. Bob Fenner>

Tilapia snyderae  6/6/07 Dear crew, I love your site! I refer back to it for almost everything. I currently breed blue and gold rams and Hemichromis lifalili. Due to the recent acquisition of several tanks I have decided to start a new breeding project, which is when I happened upon Tilapia snyderae. I have searched and searched but the only thing I could find on these guys is that they are on the IUCN Redlist. (Sorry if I missed anything, I did try your cached search) I was wondering if you had any information on these guys such as adult size, tank requirements, etc. Also, I plan on using separate breeding tanks for pairs, but I also want to do a large show tank. Would they be compatible with the Hemichromis lifalili? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you for all your time and help. Stevie <Mmm, Am going to place this query in Chuck Rambo's in-box, as he is our resident "all-cichlid" expert... On fishbase.org this species max. size is given as a mere 5 cm... I suspect it might do poorly with Hemichromis (Please check your spellings... particularly of scientific names)... Do see the ref.: http://fishbase.sinica.edu.tw/Summary/speciesSummary.php?ID=10678&genusname=Tilapia&speciesname=snyderae and use the other species of this genus names given to seek further info. of use. Bob Fenner>

Tilapia Snyderae Info -- 06/07/07 Dear crew, I love your site! I refer back to it for almost everything. I currently breed blue and gold rams and Hemichromis lifalili. Due to the recent acquisition of several tanks I have decided to start a new breeding project, which is when I happened upon Tilapia Snyderae. I have searched and searched but the only thing I could find on these guys is that they are on the IUCN Redlist. (Sorry if I missed anything, I did try your cached search) I was wondering if you had any information on these guys such as adult size, tank requirements, etc. Also, I plan on using separate breeding tanks for pairs, but I also want to do a large show tank. Would they be compatible with the Hemichromis lifalili? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you for all your time and help. Stevie <This cichlid is only from Lake Bermin in Cameroon. It gets a little over 2" long in the wild ,but I have seen captive specimens almost 3"long. They come in three color morphs, green, red, and a light brownish grey. In the wild they get lots of vegetable matter like algae and live plants. I would recommend a diet with lots of Spirulina in it. They also will eat insects and other invertebrates. I would stay away from "wormy" foods. They can handle a wide range of temperatures and pH values. They are substrate spawners that can spawn as small as 1".They form very strong pair bonds. If you wanted to set up an West African dwarf cichlid tank, I would recommend adding Anomalochromis thomasi, a Pelvicachromis species, a Nanochromis species and Hemihaplochromis multicolor. All of the Hemichromis species are pretty much bullies. I would try H. cristatus instead of the H. liffalilli.