My Experience with Raising Tilapia for Aquaponics

I wanted my own source of fish that wasn’t contaminated with microplastic from the ocean.
Aquaponics seemed like it could be the answer. The premise behind aquaponics is awesome; The waste from the fish is used to fertilize the plants, and the roots of the plants filter out the water for the fish. It creates a closed loop system in which you can grow your own fish and produce.
I was sold on the concept.
I spent thousands of dollars building a system in a greenhouse and converted my dining room area into a fish breeding operation.
This video talks about my experience with aquaponics from several experiments I conducted throughout the years.
I’m Craig, and if you’re new to my channel, I’m in the process of setting up a tiny house homestead with my family. Subscribe to my channel and follow along on the journey as we ditch suburbia in an attempt to live a more self-sufficient lifestyle. / @sustainablecraig
Good book about aquaponics amzn.to/35ES8zA
My aquarium filter amzn.to/3L3hYxw
Check out my video showing how I built this tiny house from an old RV • Converting RV Trailer ...
This description contains some affiliate links, meaning that I may earn a minimal commission if you click through and use these links (at no additional cost to you).
Disclaimer: I am not a contractor. This video, and the ideas presented in it, are for entertainment purposes only and should not be construed as advice.

[@georgez6991]

Tilapia can breed after 6 to 8 months. But if the tilapia you bought were hormone treated, they will not be able to breed. I also have the same experience, but at the end I was able to make ONE fish breed. Last year, I drove 800km to a tilapia farm in western Canada. I told the farmer that I want tilapia that can breed. He recommended some very small fry to me. I bought quite some at $5 each to make sure there will be males and females. For one and half year, none of the fish can breed. I can see I have lots of female fish because the female fish have a very bulging belly. I sacrificed one and it did have lots of eggs. I checked the fish with magnifying glass using the method described online. But the females don't have ovulation vent. That's why sometimes I can see some females tried to lay eggs, but no egg come out, and the make still tried to fertilize the bottom area where the eggs supposed to be laid. I did lots of research during the past one year. I finally figured out that the fry I bought were actually hormone treated. And hormone changed the body structure of the female tilapia so they won't be able to squeeze their eggs out although they have eggs in their belly. Then I tried many different method and finally I gave all the remaining 8 female tilapia a micro surgery to open a vent for ovulation. After 2 weeks, one of the fish was holding eggs. The other 7 still couldn't reproduce. 12 days later, the mother fish spit out more than 50 fry. Now the fry are 2 weeks old (after coming out of their mother's mouth) and grow very fast. My experience tells me that it is very easy to make tilapia breed, but you have to make sure the tilapia you bought were NOT hormone treated.

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks for sharing your experience. That's really interesting. I hadn't heard that before. I'll have to look into the hormone treating next time I purchase from a supplier. I do want to give this another shot here in the near future. I appreciate all the details that you listed here.

[@colinstace1758]

Go catch some wild fish, or buy from someone who catches them from the wild. 👍🙂

[@christinalynn8143]

Good to know. There is so much knowledge out there!! So much to learn about near anything. There seems to be some who are well studied by experience and education, you seem to be. And then there are some who seem to have a natural knact for just figuring things out. Seems we are going to need all the helpers we can get, find. Fish are complex. 😁

[@christinalynn8143]

@@colinstace1758 There is NOT enough for long term sustainability. There is not going to be enough to go around. The sea life needs it's own time to regenerate and birth, and the competition there is anyone relying on it as a source AND the predators eating it themselves as animals eat animals, and animals die naturally. Humans have to come up with innovation, solutions, for the earth, the climate. The time to change is NOW!!! A big now.

[@colinstace1758]

@@christinalynn8143 greedy companies are governments want 100% control of the food supply and production chains, it's all corrupt

[@brookcodyprice]

One of the best real authentic videos describing the reality of aquaponics. Thank you!

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks Brook I really appreciate that. Sometimes you win sometimes you learn. This experience was one of the latter for me.

[@aliciadion4054]

I love that you do experiments like this and share the "failures"! I learned a ton from this. Also lol at having a tank of "Steves" 😂

[@SustainableCraig]

:)

[@thomaswolf6507]

Beats an alpha female. Damn do they ruin breeders - #1 problem fish in tilapia for me. Second ones are simply breeding males that are too aggressive, though I'm told you want dominant traits for brood stock. Which would be a giant tank of steves :P I've never named my fish, personal rule (not pets) but I think I'm gonna start calling my brood stocks Steves now. Lmao

[@giovanni545]

@@thomaswolf6507 please known damn is a curse word

[@thomaswolf6507]

@@giovanni545 Who cares?

[@shinji1264]

Failures are more insightful than victories...

[@user-vm6oz6wt5g]

I liked that it’s a cliff hanger. He’s like “well this is all the complicated stuff I did… then I did this… then that didn’t work…” lol that’s how it goes man. I have faith you can do it!

[@SustainableCraig]

I appreciate that. I got to be honest, I wish It wasn't a cliffhanger that I had figured out a good way to do it. Unfortunately I was kind of fighting nature on this one which is never a battle you can when in the long run. It did give me some ideas for my next iteration out of my homestead property. So once I have that greenhouse set up, we'll give it another go. I've been refocusing my efforts on energy creation, so once we get that dialed in I'll shift back to food. Thanks for the comment and checking out my channel!

[@stevenshepherd5721]

There needs to be more videos like this in KZbin to show that these systems are challenging to perfect. Sorry it didn’t work out.

[@SustainableCraig]

@Steven Shepherd I'm glad you found it helpful. I'm a big fan of being able to learn things on KZbin and feel like highlighting some of the issues I had might help others avoid these mistakes when they try it for themselves. I'll give it another shot in the future and see if I can rectify some of the issues I had with this system. Thanks for the comment and for checking out my channel!

[@cuteone1702]

Steven so true. I’m glad to NOT see a drone flying around the tanks and pails full off fish being grilled (store bought) while a funky music intro plays and the hosts say “Hi I’m Page, my partner is Cody, our dog is Alabaster and our van is Farnsworth, we raise fish and it’s so easy”. Ugh so much Instagram posing.

[@heathermeadows85]

I heard in another prepping video that they self-regulate their population. They might not have bred because they felt cramped; harvesting some might have actually encouraged them to breed.

[@SustainableCraig]

Heather that is definitely possible. I'll have to give it another go here in the future.

[@hvacstudent967]

You can easily control the temperature of the water and control the humidity of the tank by converting a 6-12KBTU window air conditioner to a tube in tube condenser system. With some added control equipment, a little "welding" you can have a very efficient and inexpensive hardware control system for environment. I learned this from a man in the PNW who had a company who manufactured these units, of which I still have one of the very first prototypes. Now down in Tennessee, where the humidity is more of a problem than the cold, most of the year, but still a great control mechanism even in my climate, if you want to raise warm water fishes.

[@hvacstudent967]

Heat pumps have COP some cases many times over unity. Hint hint

[@SustainableCraig]

I'm intrigued. You got a link to anybody that has done one like this?

[@djssquibbs3295]

I so, so, so appreciate the honest and direct experience that you had. I feel like it was maybe super difficult for you because of your location. I'm here in the tropics and from what I see other people grow them more or less easily. I'm thinking of trying Tilapia in a pond or in one of those big containers like you have. ty y saludos desde Costa Rica.

[@SustainableCraig]

I agree with you. I think my climate definitely played a major factor. Good luck with your system! I think it will function much better in Costa Rica. Would love to see videos of your setup once you complete it.

[@boredmonkey8190]

Thanks for the video. It gives me a lot of insights on how to start my aquaponic system in a green house.

[@SustainableCraig]

Glad to hear it. I'm in the process of constructing a greenhouse now and will be making another attempt at aquaponics inside it.

[@jakec2229]

Thanks man, I'm in the process of shopping for my first tilapia tanks for a basement aquaponics system. This has been a massive help in some of my decision making on what kind of tank to use.

[@SustainableCraig]

@Jake C I'm glad to hear it. If you can learn from my failures and implement a better design then this video was a success. Good luck with your system. :)

[@fuckingSickOfCreepyG]

trying to get started in aquaponics with tilapia and cold weather is just making it extra hard, as one would find many problems and a learning curve even without having to deal with keeping tropical fish alive with freezing temperatures outside still, thanks for sharing your experience

[@mkbman45]

I learn as much from people's failures as I do from their successes. Thanks alot, you saved me alot of $$.

[@SustainableCraig]

@mkbman45 I absolutely agree. KZbin is such a great community for learning things. I try to highlight both the good and the bad so that people have a more realistic idea of what the project entails. I'm glad I saved you money. I hope I didn't deter you from attempting a project like this yourself, because it is super cool. Just avoid my mistakes and you'll be good to go. :) Thanks for the comment and for supporting my channel.

[@troyb.4101]

I figured out how to maintain 55 degrees here in Tucson Arizona. Goat manure composting which is like 95-110 degrees. I just put it in 80 pound feed bags. and stack it the top of the pools and three feet out. It works it is now it's 7 FEB 2023. I started this in JUL of 2022 The pool has a plastic cove over it 10 miil clear plastic. which I double tarp each night. The effect of the clear tarp is like 80 degrees air temp. about 25-30 degrees above the outside temperatures. I can see where places like Florida have a huge advantage temperature wise. I have the advantage of unlimited / water. private wells, that I can power bye solar.

[@randomness8819]

With details, honesty and a shoot straight attitude, you've got a subbie 4 life!! Thank you for this refreshing vid.

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks for that really nice comment randomness! I'm glad to hear you liked my content :)

[@ryans9664]

Thank you couldn’t have asked for a better video since I live in the PNW too. Thank you for sharing the knowledge!

[@SustainableCraig]

Glad you found it useful Ryan! I wish the experiment had turned out better but I just shared my experience. Hopefully it can help other people save some time and money by not doing what I did. Thanks for the comment :)

[@nickh7056]

I feel you have had more difficulty than I have in keeping tilapia and aquaponics system. One main difference between us is climate. I'm in FL, which is tropical, so keeping the water from getting too hot is the goal here. Water temp fluctuations and struggling to keep it in the ideal range will cause a lot of your sickness problems.

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks for the comment Nickh. Sounds like you've had more success with your system for sure. Do you have videos posted? I may give this another go here in the not to distant future. I'll probably try a fish that's more local to my area though to avoid some of the problems you mentioned. Thanks for the comment.

[@alzeal]

Sorry to hear you had difficulties. I believe the number one thing people should consider when raising tilapia is the local environment. I've raised Tilapia here in southern California with relative ease for a few years. I have 3 grow out IBC totes, 1 above ground breeding pond (with substrate and hideaways) and a couple of fry/fingerling tanks. My growout tanks are outside in a greenhouse with supplemental heaters just in case, and my breeding pond and fingerling/fry tanks are in the garage. I literally have to give away the spawn from time to time because they are soo prolific. I have found having a wide and shallow pond is superior to promote breeding then having them in tanks. More natural in my opinion and easier to maintain. Keeping the temps up I believe is the number one important factor, if temps get too low then the fish do not metabolize properly, are prone to sickness, and do not breed.

[@SustainableCraig]

@FilRider that is great information. Thanks for the detailed comment. Would love to see some videos of your system. I think you should post them to your channel. The shallow breeding pond is a really god tip to know. I may have to try that in the future. My climate here is definitely playing a factor. I'm debating trying it again with a different breed of fish. Any ideas on what you think would work well in the PNW?

[@cja0071]

@@SustainableCraig umm YES Craig do it!!! I’m in an apartment, grow all my own greens indoors, getting into veggies indoors, and really want to produce my own protein with fish next! I don’t know if I’ll ever have land, so this has to work, and I need help!

[@SustainableCraig]

@@cja0071 sounds like you have a cool setup. Adding fish to your system sounds like a good next step. Hopefully you can learn from some of m failures that I highlighted in my video. One thing I didn't discuss when I was growing indoors with my smaller system was an issue with bugs. I had an aphid infestation. I wasn't on KZbin back then but I wrote an article about it here that you might find useful sustainablecraig.com/2013/01/13/indoor-aquaponics-the-war-on-bugs/ Would love to see videos of your system once you get it up and running!

[@cja0071]

@@SustainableCraig Yes for bugs, I bring lacewings and/or isolate. Isolation is a big advantage within indoor ecosystems, and saves you a lot of work in the long run. Its also a way of surviving outdoor plagues of pests/weather/etc.

[@tclodfelter8789]

I've been wanting to raise tilapia for 10+ years...still haven't done it for the very reasons you've mentioned. It's a lot for complicated than a 30 minute video! LOL I want to build a building with radiant heat for the tanks in winter.

[@SustainableCraig]

The radiant heat definitely looks promising. We've also been looking into thermal/sand batteries.

[@cnc-ua]

Almost similar experience on my end ))))) I end up with having koi instead of tilapia due to temperature and survival reasons. Plants are challenging too, but I managed to integrate Paulownia trees as bio filtration and succeeded. Thanks for sharing

[@grubalaboocreosote4774]

Thank you so much, this tipped my decision off the fence onto the side of shaded backyard pond.

[@SustainableCraig]

grubalaboo creosote I'm glad to hear it was helpful! Good like with your pond project! I'm looking to do a pond in the future myself as well.

[@AlexLernt]

Great video, thank you!

[@pkp2023]

thank you for the lessons learned, i was thinking of doing it. may be inside the greenhouse is a better idea

[@edengardeningtowers4923]

I just started my aquaponics journey. I am in Washington as well.

[@kraptastic333]

How are you doing with it through the winter now? I am interested in how you reflected on this video

[@SustainableCraig]

What fish are you using in your system? How is it going so far?

[@garybiggs9010]

My simple fish food method. Have a 5 acre pond dug on my Missouri property and stock it with fish.... use fish traps to harvest.

[@SustainableCraig]

Solid plan. I'd like to get a pond going like that too. Can never have too many food resources.

[@jayoyler8840]

Thank you for the view on the other side. I'm excited about trying it here in Texas. We have a lot of sun and a lot of heat, only a little bit of cold. But it's good to see the bad side and maybe learn.

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks for the comment Jay. Hope you have better luck with your system out there in Texas! 🙂

[@Tblokk89]

Awesome video bro. Thanks for showing what does not work instead of only what works.

[@SustainableCraig]

I'm glad to hear it was helpful. I find you can learn a lot from mistakes. So I figured sharing mine would help people from repeating what I did. Thanks for that comment!

[@cameranbarbieux2802]

Thank you for being straight to the point. Subscribed. I’ve been watching a bunch of Karens on their soap making. And whew! They’re long winded and still don’t say anything. Again. Thank you.

[@SustainableCraig]

🤣 I'm an instructor by trade so I try to get to the point. Thanks for the nice compliment.

[@Dave_889]

Your video was very helpful. I myself just filled my 300-gallon tank with tap water and now I am waiting about 4 days for the chemical/ chlorine to air out. I plan to put some river stones on the bottom and some water Lilly on top. wish me luck.

[@SustainableCraig]

That's great David Brown. Glad to hear my video was helpful. Would love to see your system once you have it up and running for a bit! Wishing you the best of luck.

[@rtzcoll]

I am in the process of setting up my tanks. I live in a warm desert environment. I have my heaters set to 75f for winter. A 300 gallon Rubbermaid, stock tank and a 150 gallon amoeba pond for the fry and fingerlings. You might do better with trout. I also picked Tilapia, for taste preference, and fast growing. If they do well, I will sell some for my side hustle. I'm retired and doing this after having a turtle pond for twenty years. I grow good green (spirulina) algae and will go small aquaponic to grow fish and turtle veggies. Fixed income means I have been buying parts for several years. I will be purchasing my fish in October. I am fortunate to have breeder/suppliers in my state and will be able to road trip to fetch them without the $200 shipping fee.

[@MrOntorius]

glad i found this video, good to hear the bad side of this journey as i just set foot into it

[@SustainableCraig]

Good luck with your project! 🙂

[@Alserany]

You save me a lot of efforts... Big thanks

[@SustainableCraig]

I'm glad you found my video helpful. Thanks for the comment :)

[@deepallama2695]

Really the most information and detailed vedio every made on youtube the advantages and disadvantages thank you

[@SustainableCraig]

I'm glad you found it valuable and I appreciate the nice comment. :)

[@deepallama]

And then I m here again to watch this video 😅

[@georgeplisko2439]

Thank you for sharing I'm moving forward with mine kinda can't stop until I've tried although you put alot of work time and money into yours army strong

[@manishmandal-78]

By far the only person who faced the same problems as me. I don't know how the rest manages to pull it off perfectly

[@SustainableCraig]

I hear you Manish. That's honestly why I made this video. So many videos about aquaponics just cover all the great things about it. They make it look way easier than it actually is. I still think it's a great concept, obviously I just need to work out some of the kinks with my design. I'll do a follow-up video when I get a new system up and running. But that will likely be a while down the road as it's not high on the priority list for projects.

[@sarahsherman4514]

Imagine how much groceries you could have bought with the thousands you spent on the set up 😄

[@SustainableCraig]

😂 You're not wrong. It would have been a lot of groceries 😃 The plus side is I still have a lot of the equipment and can put it to use for the next iteration. Hopefully that goes a little smoother. Thanks for the comment.

[@jasonreviews]

man i love your story. It feels like things don't ever go according to plan. But yeah everything in life is learning experience. talipia are great for aquaponics for fertilizer for plants. if not buy tilapia steak from walmart, its like $3 dollar a pound. their cheap meat. LOLs.

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks for the comment on my channel Jason. It was an interesting experiment even if it didn't go as planned. I may try using catfish in the future. I think they are tasty too!

[@earacheselbowsenoch6251]

Exactly what I wanted to see thank you. In N CA and I think I'll throw a hundred in the pond feed them pelletized food and see what happens...

[@SustainableCraig]

That sounds like a great idea. If you end up making a video about it I'd love to see it. Thanks for the comment on my channel! :)

[@RyanM-ke2gu]

Entertaining and informing. Really want to try aquaponics here in southern NM. Hard to find the motivation since we have a successful garden and a trout stream in the back yard. But I love the idea of guaranteed protein and veggies.

[@bigbossadidoss8678]

Interesting, I have been considering tilapia because a lot of people swear by it. But considering all of this, I am thinking I was right to test a small, controlled system in which I can try out catfish against them. I think that I could probably do well with catfish, especially in Oklahoma.

[@SustainableCraig]

If you do attempt that, I'd be really interested to see your results. I haven't seen a lot of catfish systems. Everybody always just uses tilapia. But for those of us with different temperatures that can be a challenge. Thanks for checking out my channel. Keep me posted if you do attempt that with the catfish. I may try that myself here down the road as well. But I got a bunch of other stuff on the to-do list before I get back to getting aquaponics going again.

[@danmaltby3271]

very cool lol a tank full of Steves

[@SustainableCraig]

Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for checking out my channel.

[@infernusifrit9348]

You might not want to hear my advice but if you can give it a read thru. Its the best advice you will get. Up in Washington u might want to switch over to trout they are readily available, from that environment naturally, grow well, are adapted to aquaculture and can be raised intensively. The following species are also naturally from your environment. Bluegill, pumpkinseed, sunfish and the shocker...bullhead or if u have low ph channel catfish. All these species except trout can handle low to medium dissolved O2 levels. These fish can handle low and moderately high water temps(again excluding trout),. Bullhead have sweet pink meat when grown in cool to cold water and handle warm or cold water well. The sunfish species have a great flavor and white flaky meat. Both sunfish and bullheads are disease resistant, can tolerate poor water quality and can grow to a good size quickly when tank fed. P.S. fish grown in cool to cold water always taste better then fish raised in warm water. And if the species you select can handle slightly brackish water try it, they will taste better. My advise is don't listen to aqua-ponics gurus. Its a green scheme/scam not unlike the ones being run on micro-greens all over fooltube. If you want to combine the two then use the water for both fish and plants and process it seperately. Then recycle it. You can collect the fish waste and use it as fertilizer. But don't rely on the two to routinely balance each other out without constant monitoring and maintenance. You shouldn't slave for a dream. Fooltube has no shortage of people traveling around on money they earned from a reliable income like retirement, a former full time successful business, an inheritance or other. Then they use FoolTube to peddle wares and a so-called green revolution either for money making or homestead schemes.............. I call these schemes/scams/hustles and rightly so because they rope u into believing u can survive or make a lively hood doing aqua-ponics or selling micro-greens. They sell u an agenda made up of ideals, classes, sources, and product. Mountains of grief later you realize your nine to five earned you more money and less stress, paid your mortgage, you car, your rent or vacations. You had vacation time because you were able to earn it. Once you venture down scheme mountain you will have a tough time climbing back to the top. Kiss your vacations, your retirement and any realistic happy dreams you had good by. The reality is raise fish to raise fish. You wont get rich but you will be happier if you take every thing into account including loss. And grow veggies like everyone else. That's why gardeners are so successful and suffer less stress and enjoy gardening. Tilapia are best and most profitably raised in warm water temps and warm climates. Yes you can grow them in cooler climates but you will need to heat the water. Trout and if you can find salmon are best raised in cold to cool water. Raise cold and cool water fish in the same source environment they are from and the same applies to warm water species. Follow natures simple rules and you keep a green operation green if such a thing exist and no true green venture truly reaches 100% green. Everything has a price and everything cost the environment something. Don't fight nature u will always lose. If you can't handle loss don't try it. If you are willing to routinely endure the good with the bad then give it a go otherwise the experience might not be so fun for you or the fish. Getting back to fish species. The sunfish family dosn't care about cold water and grows to at least 8 inches long or better when tank fed and their nearly indestructible. Another fish to try because it grows well in your climate is, hybrid striped bass. Now the problem here is that maybe the dept of fisheries won't let u acquire them in Washington, but if you can I highly recommend them and keep the number at 50 to 80 in 300 gallons if in a tote. Hybrid striped bass will grow like crazy in mildly warm water and handle 45 deg F water ok. The appetite drops only by a small margin in cool to cold water. As for feeding fish insects thats not too difficult. I make my own feed. If you want them to eat the soldier flys dehydrate them in your oven or a cheap heat source like a scrap wood barrel, not so green but nothing is not even geothermal. So use something that makes u happy to dehydrate the larvae. Once dehydrated grind them in a dedicated blender and add the powder to your feed meal. Add all your ingredients and make dough then form into pellets. I make 10 lbs of cost effective high protein meal and dehydrate it thoroughly. Then store the powder in a cool dry environment or freeze it like i do. Later I use the powder to make more dough and pellets. My hybrid striped bass and my tilapia wouldn't eat meal worms i raised for them. So i did the aforementioned and they eagerly eat them now without knowing it. As for feeding your tilapia greens. Go to a local grocer. Tell him what your doing and ask if you can acquire any past date greens for your tilapia free. Estb a reliable agreement. Feed your tilapia what ever greens are thrown out by your grocer. Spinach, greens, lettuce, celery. They love it all and supplement with other proteins like past date frozen chicken, fish etc. Dont use spoiled foods!!! You'll be surprised at how quickly the fish grow. Good luck.

[@SustainableCraig]

That's an awesome idea! I will definitely implement that next time I give this another go. Really appreciate the in-depth information. Thanks for checking out my channel and for the great comment.

[@colinstace1758]

You could probably get a better outcome with quail, they breed easy, you can use the poop for your garden and you can grow greens for them to eat. Same idea but much less complicated. Good luck 👍🙂

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks for the comment Colin. I actually tried raising quail a while back, and you're right it definitely has some great benefits to it. sustainablecraig.com/2013/09/26/raising-japanese-quail-for-meat-and-eggs/ I've experimented with a variety of different food production strategies now and I'm still figuring out kind of which ones I'd like to specialize in and focus on more. Maybe I'll give quail another shot.

[@king_kwang]

Hey man thank you very much for this video, I am in research to raising tilapia but I'm in it as a food source

[@SustainableCraig]

Malusi I'm glad you found the video helpful. Tilapia are supposed to be a great food source. That's what I was intending this experiment for as well. Hopefully you can learn from some of my mistakes and make a better system!

[@mushi9766]

Nice video friend. See you on the homestead

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks for the nice comment. :)

[@eduardocruzo8607]

Works perfect here in Florida. Not much to do when the system is established. I have an aquaponic system for 5 years now.

[@SustainableCraig]

I've been debating making the move to Florida for the better climate and more freedom. Do you have any videos of your setup? Thanks for checking out my channel.

[@eduardocruzo8607]

@@SustainableCraig I do not have videos but it is a simple setup. One 300 gal tank for fish and four halves of 55 gal barrels for beds. Another 55 gals as a biological filter too. Small system in the backyard.

[@christinalynn8143]

🐟 Fish' are tough! You REALLY need to know what you are doing with fish! The slightest offset, dead fish. But, if a person, a team, knows what they are doing, fish, yum yum dinner and fun animals. 🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟!!

[@SustainableCraig]

Yeah I agree. I had a decent run for a while there, but then the experiment went bad all at once. Hopefully others learn from my mistakes. Thanks for the comment! :)

[@CringePanda]

Well, sometimes we learn more from our failures than from our mistakes.

[@SustainableCraig]

I 100% agree. Thanks for checking out my channel. 😊

[@cuteone1702]

Thanks I’m glad I saw your video. I just subbed👍

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks for your support of my channel :)

[@TimsFishShop]

Where in WA did you try your setup. Im going to be starting up my setup soon and am in Redmond, Sammamish, Issaquah

[@thegreekanimalkeeper]

These parts that are wrong are easy to fix, but to get some experience i think you should research how to keep and maintain an aquarium, i think it will help you a lot

[@UncannySense]

First rule is choose a fish species indicative of your climate and average ambient air and water temperatures.

[@SustainableCraig]

You're not wrong. But since I was creating an artificial climate anyways, I was going for a species of fish that I enjoyed eating. Typically when I'm growing things at my homestead I start with that question; what do I enjoy having as part of my diet? At the time I did this experiment I hadn't found anyone online who had run many experiments with trout or other cold water fish. I was debating trying catfish but, I don't really like to eat catfish. I'm open to ideas for other species of fish if you have them.

[@thomaskitlica5572]

Dude you have to let the system cycle and stabilize just like a aquarium!!!

[@basscannon762]

Big piece missing from this build is solar and batteries for heating, pumps, and lighting.

[@SustainableCraig]

Yeah it would be to have it as an off-grid style setup. Until I knew the power requirements I didn't know how big of a power system or battery bank to design. Unfortunately the fish died off before I really got the system working. Once I get it functioning again we'll see about incorporating some power. That's on the agenda for some other videos. Looking at doing a wind turbine out of the homestead as well. Thanks for the comment.

[@011CJ]

Should just grow blue gill if u are in the washingtion lol I find them in every lake around here these days

[@SustainableCraig]

Someone else mentioned I should grow blue gill as well. I've actually never eaten them before. I'll have to try some and see if I like the taste. If so I'll use them for my next run at aquaponics here in the near future.

[@011CJ]

@@SustainableCraig Thay are nothing special not a lot of meat but Thay thrive most anywhere

[@kanlie2662]

Good job

[@BangBangTuts]

I believe you're over doing it My suggestion are: - use more aerators to give more oxygen (very important) - use wave maker, tilapias need constant moving water (very important) - since your country has winter, you are right to put them on a ground pond (important) - prepare for raw salt to balance the water ph. (Important) - mix probiotic with pallete and give them once a week. (Important) - just give them pellets, morning and afternoon. You may also give them blood worm (chopped) as their snacks. Those are my suggestions, hope it will help.

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll give these ideas a shot on my next iteration!

[@BangBangTuts]

@@SustainableCraig no worries 🙏

[@maggie4834]

Nice job on the video. 😊

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks for the nice comment. I appreciate you checking out my channel.

[@lawgivah1]

Nice vid! Has a lot of info I was looking for

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks gobeee, glad to hear it! Hope you have better luck with aquaponics than I did 🙂

[@lawgivah1]

@@SustainableCraig I live in the south, so I'm not thinking I'll have as much of an issue with the cold, so in that regards it should be a little easier. Question; Could you use a different fish or have one in mind more suited for the climate, or is the size of the tilapia that beneficial?

[@SustainableCraig]

@@lawgivah1 That's awesome you are planning a system. Would love to see what you come up with. I went with tilapia because they are supposed to be a hearty fish that can handle environmental changes, plus I like the way they taste. I've looked into catfish and shrimp a little bit but haven't seen much info on those types of setups. When I get a greenhouse going out on my homestead property I'll probably look into it more. If you have ideas or come across anything I'm all ears. Have you checked out the Urban Farming Guys channel? They have some great content on integrating tilapia into small systems.

[@lawgivah1]

@@SustainableCraig I'll check them out 👍

[@JohnDoe-np3zk]

@@SustainableCraig well first of all rain water here in the PNW is super toxic and should never be used for fish or plants if possible. Fortunately for me I have nice alkaline deep well water from the city which is at pH 7.6 which is what fish want. One of the problems with aquaponics, in fact the main one, is as you know, pH the plants want is more like 6.4 which is hugely lower than 7.6 or more so 8 which the fish system can get up to. Your story sounds a bit like mine although I never really tried breeding nor have seen little tilapia. I have been raising them for four years now and the original 50 down to 2 but they each weigh 5 plus pounds. Anyway managed to keep about 50 of them alive in an outdoor pond this winter with 2.4 kW of heat and a lot of coverings. Now I have them in the pond and also two 550 gallon white tanks and a couple of 140 gallon black tanks. The totes suck as they are square and it does matter in terms of fish when they go to their corners. I never try to sex them even when dead although found eggs in one after she died. The main thing on their health is weekly water changes and never overfeed them although that's easy to do. When they jump for the food like pirhanas and are active and you don't have that sludge on the bottom with ammonia building that's a good thing. I like to watch fish so for me that's fun but yeah growing duckweed what a joke they eat it all. Earthworms they attack but who wants to eat a fly larvae cmon. OK that's it carry on.

[@allenstafford8378]

Hello Any Tips When First Starting Out ? Also A Good place for fry Size ? ty great video

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks Allen I'm glad you enjoyed my video. I'd say the main tip I could give you is to pick a fish that is suited for the climate in your area. That was the main obstacle I faced and caused most of the problems I had. I did this experiment about 10 years ago and sourcing fish wasn't nearly the same as it is today. I had ordered mine from Colorado which is several states away from me and so the shipping on the fry was pretty expensive. Finding a local supplier would definitely be more ideal. As far as the size goes, I take as big as they can sell you as long as they're still a reasonable / affordable price. It's just going to save you time although it is super satisfying to watch them grow from a tiny inch long fish into something that would barely fit on a plate. Keep me posted if you try your experiment. Aquaponics is pretty cool and hopefully you can avoid some of the mistakes I made. Thanks for the comment!

[@ricardomorales7327]

I fed my turtles wax worm larvae and they ate it spit it out and the water turned brown from the worm.

[@SustainableCraig]

That's kinda funny about the water changing color. 😂 It sounds like we had similar experiences.

[@eddiedutoit]

Great summary mate. I'm planning on starting my own Talapia farm - but just listening to a few minutes to you, second-guessed my own aspiration vs. the science knowledge. In New Zealand, it will be tricky for sure.

[@SustainableCraig]

Eduard Glad you found my video helpful. The climate is significantly different where you're at and I think you'll have more success with tilapia. Most of the tutorials I watched were actually from Australia. Murray Hallum has some great tutorials on aquaponics and converting IBC totes that I used. If you haven't come across his work I think it would be helpful. Also the urban farming guys have had success with it. I've been wanting to get out to their operation to check it out in person but haven't made the time yet. Best of luck with your system. Keep me posted how it goes. Would love to see videos of what you end up doing. I posted this video not to discourage anyone from doing it, merely so that you could avoid the pitfalls that I made. Hopefully you have better luck.

[@notetoself5165]

Your duckweed did not reproduce faster as there was no wind that will help the microseeds of duckweed spread. Also, tilapias become herbivores when they get into adult stage which may be the reason why they dont eat the larvae. Disclaimer: These came from my own research, not from experience.

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks for the info! 🙂

[@ComeOneComeAll]

I work at a tilapia farm in rural Costa Rica. We have an abundance of algae to feed the fish. However the quest now is to find alternative sources of nutrition apart from the dry food we buy in the city. In the event of economic collapse, what would be a great staple for the tilapia aside from the algae? Many thanks for any feedback

[@ComeOneComeAll]

To clarify, there are bananas and papayas that grow in this area. However the size of the grow op is substantial. At least 6 or 7 thousand, it is a farm to restaurant deal. We believe using conventional fruit would not work to maintain and grow a population of this size.

[@SustainableCraig]

That's a great question. I'm not sure what a good solution would be.

[@ComeOneComeAll]

@@SustainableCraig The way things are looking, we all are going to find out soon what works when the stores are closed

[@saukiitumaz428]

Very helpful video. Thanks alot

[@SustainableCraig]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for the comment :)

[@kookia213]

Thank you for sharing, and you are the few who actually tells the truth. Have you considered using catfish?. Even if not for the purpose of eating, they are still way more durable fish then talapia and can basically live in a paddle of sh**. I don't think they care about temperature as well. They will cover the aquaphonics part. as for eating the fish you grow, maybe try a different approach for growing talapia. let me know what you think. thanks.

[@SustainableCraig]

I made a lot of mistakes with my aquaponics system so I just wanted to make sure other people could avoid doing the same thing I did. Hopefully it helps. Thanks for the nice comment. I'm not a huge fan of the taste of catfish so I didn't use them for the system, however I may give them a shot in the future if I can't find another fish that I'd like to use.

[@evilrooster9960]

Put endlers livebearers into the Duckweed tubs and feed them well, the duckweed will explode

[@veronicajones6403]

Thanks for sharing . This information was so good.

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks for the comment Veronica Jones. I'm glad to hear it was helpful!

[@jasonreviews]

try growing catfish. their bottom feeders. pretty tasty.

[@SustainableCraig]

I'm definitely going to have to give this a try. I've also been debating trying something with shrimp. I saw some systems about a number of years ago, but at the time there wasn't a lot of content on it. I bet there's more stuff out there now.

[@blackstoneblkstntv5551]

I have tilapia, after a several month their population is massive. It's very easy to breed tilapia just give them enough space because some tilapia eat juvenile tilapia

[@SustainableCraig]

That's great you've had success. After having seen my video, what areas would you suggest I improve upon with my design? I'm looking into giving it another go in the future and I'm open to other ideas.

[@Ngwaaaron]

A "like" for the attempt.

[@bubblerings]

Liked the video... Good to see you talking other about if something g that may not work for the climate.. You would do better with a catfish pond.. No work. Feed em and eat em. Or move to a hot and sunny place, like south Texas. But, they do have hurricanes. Cheers, man!! Thx for sharing.. 🏝🍻

[@bubblerings]

(talking people Out of...) spell checker.. 😴

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks for the comment. I would love to do catfish, I just don't really like the taste of catfish. That was part of my motivation for using tilapia in the first place. I knew I'd have some trouble with the climate thing but I thought I could overcome it better than I did. I'll give it another shot here in the near future, just got to figure out the right fish. Thanks for the comment.

[@Ryebread3325]

Have you considered a local fish for the tanks? I live in the PNW and my biggest hang up on getting one of these started are the cold, dark, wet months. I've always wondered if bluegill or crappie might be the way to go in this region.

[@SustainableCraig]

Ryebread I think that's going to be the way to go in the future. Part of my experiments with growing food sources were meant to replace the food I was eating from the store. I had to tilapia as part of my diet and so I started there. Lots of aquaponics sources recommended tilapia because of their hardiness for aquaponics systems. However as we saw in this video they weren't exactly ideal here in the PNW like you mentioned. I think switching to a different breed that handles our temperatures better will have different results. I'm definitely in the market for a different variety of fish to try that should handle our climates better. I'd also like to do an outdoor pond on my homestead property as well. Thanks for the comment and for checking out my channel.

[@GottiSnafu]

Awesome summary ! Wish it would’ve worked out better (w all the work you put into it)… You definitely saved me some time & $ ‼️

[@SustainableCraig]

Durk I'm glad to hear that this is going to save you some money. Keep in mind I'm not trying to discourage you from doing your own system. I think aquaponics is awesome. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes if you do try it. Thanks for the comment on my channel :)

[@GottiSnafu]

@@SustainableCraig Appreciate reply ‼️ Def not a deterring me from giving it a shot … everyone else makes it seem so easy … nice to see a bit of reality ! Thx

[@SustainableCraig]

@@GottiSnafu Murray Hallam out of Australia has some great videos out there and so do the urban farming guys out of the US. If you haven't checked out their systems yet I would definitely recommended checking their content. And I'm always happy to reply to other tinkerers. I figure we can share our success stories and failures and in the end create a much better system. Keep me posted on how yours goes. I'd love to see what you end up coming up with.

[@GottiSnafu]

@@SustainableCraig I’ll def check ‘em out ! Appreciated ‼️😊‼️

[@dwightrivera3281]

Great videoo

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks Dwight :)

[@charlesbrady3135]

Cool!

[@chizzlemo3094]

Funny! And useful

[@kodiakjoe3365]

Hey man where about in washington are you in up in deer park

[@SustainableCraig]

I'm in Central Washington. I'm not familiar with the Deer Park area I'll have to look it up. Are you in Washington as well Kodiak Joe?

[@Racing2Learn]

Subscribed!

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks for the sub. Glad you've been enjoying my content. :)

[@dwight5731]

Thanks for the information sir

[@leboyoyo]

Thanks for sharing failures!!!! They help as much as successes :) winter will come, ans i'll probably have the same issues, I am thinking about remove tilapia from the system ans use perche or cape for plants, or just pause the system in winter. anways. thanks

[@SustainableCraig]

Glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for subscribing to my channel. Hopefully you have better luck than I did with aquaponics. Check out the Urban Farming Guys channel. They had a system that I think they run all year round.

[@alexrahardjazh]

Use the fishes that suitable with your temperature and climate. The best is the local native species of fishes. Omnivores and edible. IMHO

[@SustainableCraig]

Those are definitely good considerations. I'm in a bit of a tricky climate for aquaponics as I'm not sure what an ideal fish breed would be for it here. Trout do well in this climate, but they're a little big for an aquaponics system. I was also considering catfish, however I'm not a huge fan of the taste. 🤷‍♂️ Any ideas?

[@alexrahardjazh]

@@SustainableCraig smaĺler fron trouts? Omnivores if you can.get them. That also hardy. I am pretty sure the local wildlife department know which other local and native apecies that is smaller than trouts, edible and tasty. And also easy to breed.

[@tracydr01]

I think a fish suited to cold water would have worked better.

[@SustainableCraig]

Yeah I agree. I just like cooking tilapia so I wanted to start with that. I'm still trying to figure out a good species to use for my next go-around.

[@zazugee]

intensive systems are hard to maintain also, i recently found out that the ebb and flow one or the gravel bed was a corruption of sandponics (AVs) been thinking of starting my system, but now i'm thinking about a low maintenance 1m3 algua filled PBC tank with low density (less than 5-10lb) stocking

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks for the comment. Would love to see some videos of your system when you get it up and running.

[@SandStoneofArabia]

why did you not use trout

[@Fithvial]

I am not sure if anyone asked but did you end up fixing up another aquaponics system? Just curious about how it went.

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks for the follow-up question. It is in the works. I have a geodesic dome kit I will be setting up at the homestead soon and that will be where I'll be giving aquaponics another attempt. I wish I could crank these projects out sooner but they just take a lot of time to research, build, and fund.

[@Fithvial]

@@SustainableCraig Thanks for the response mate, I was just curious as I'm interested in setting one up myself too. Though I live in a much different climate to yourself in Australia and I completely understand how life is. All good 👍

[@daywithmike4892]

All i did was i got 300 gal water trough and 55 gal barrel add 1 x 3 pvc pipe for spill ways and filled it up with river rocks and add creek water ......2 1200 watt heater i still have all my fish from day one and i live in Burney Ca and it get supper cold .....

[@SustainableCraig]

Very cool. Do you have any videos posted of your system?

[@TheOffGridTinyHouse]

very cool

[@SustainableCraig]

Thanks man. Appreciate your support on my channel.

[@lukekaspersky7990]

Do we need to separate the tilapia by size ? Or it can comm together in one tank ?

[@SustainableCraig]

I never had small fish in with the big ones as I was unsuccessful at my breeding attempts, however the stuff I researched suggested keeping the small fish in a different tank to prevent the larger ones from eating them.

[@Addictedtothewild]

Maybe try a native species. Like crappie.

[@SustainableCraig]

Yeah I'm definitely going to experiment with some different species on my next go around. Hopefully I have better success next time. Thanks for the comment.

[@byronbirdsong7040]

I have succesfully raised koi without any chemicals or additives at all for over 15 years. they are huge and healthy. All i use is plastic a 55 gallon drum of bioballs, a rock waterfall, and some of the plastic filtering sheets, also about 20 gallons of rocks in a trickle filter. my pond is 20 x 15 x 4ft deep I feed them dogfood and sometimes white rice and table scraps. I do not know if I would have the same success with tilipia but someday I will try. I live in california so I dont worry about temperture. I just wondering if the temperture is the issue with this guys fish. at first I had alge problems but I decided to just leave it alone and the pond self corrected. in the summer the algae comes back but I try to leave it alone becuase I feel that it helps the water condition. I only remove it around my skimmer becuase of potential clogging. my pond has diffused sunlight due to a large pind tree that I keep trimmed to let some sun in. I mention this becuase I found this video somewhat on the discouraging side as if its difficult to raise fish in a backyard setting and again it maybe becuase of the type of fish I raise but its not hard at least with koi.

[@JohnDoe-np3zk]

I have an outdoor pond in WA state and last year all of the tilapia were in there with eventually various insulation sheets, tarps, heaters, and added air. Temperature was at 63 F minimum. The pond did get a lot of algae but the worst thing is to overfeed and if the ammonia gets high enough that's the worst killer. Would suggest the blue ones for maximum colder water tolerance. They are a lot more difficult than koi that's for sure.

[@SustainableCraig]

Byron it sounds like you have a great Koi setup in your pond. If you do try it with Tilapia I'd be interested to hear about your results. My intent wasn't to make a negative video, it was merely to share the results of my experience... which in this case were negative 🤷‍♂️ Aquaponics as a whole I think is an awesome concept, but this design needs some reworking in my climate. Thanks for the comment.

[@thomaswolf6507]

Ever get tendonitis from massive amounts of water swaps by hand? I did after a couple of years. lol - not a healthy workout for the tendons.

[@SustainableCraig]

That sounds awful. I only ran the experiment for about 18 months so I didn't get to that point. Hopefully you healed up

[@thomaswolf6507]

​​ @Craig Ebersole Sadly it didn't heal. I can only preach "work smarter, not harder" which I well knew when I got injured being foolish to do more in less time. Python or similar water swapping kits are my next thing to test out but I worry about chlorinated water. I know people add sodium thiosulfate and then chlorinated water and it -almost- instantly breaks the chlorine bond, but that almost may be painful and damaging to the fish; it's not like we can ask for a show of hands. Until then I'm stuck moving 5g buckets with my left arm and using a water pump to move the bulk of the water-weight into the tanks. Families that don't help with homesteading SUCK. Mine is one of those... would rather watch me do it injured. Oh, and when you do go back to it. The sexxing technique with food coloring is a myth. That can only be done with special equipment (I fell for it and tried it as well), the best method for sexxing your fish is to isolate holding females one at a time. It's the only sure way to know it's a female. I run mine in a basement in Wisconsin which is also not conducive to sub-tropical fish temperature parameters, but it isn't stopping me, either. I've had several harvests and my largest tilapia was over 14" Never use clove oil to kill these fish, they soak in the flavor. A man with Lakeway Tilapia said his wife will actually stuff some rosemary in their fish filter during the purging process to enhance the fishes flavor - I will be trying that, but clove oil totally ruined the fish - and ice water is the way to go now that I've tried them all. I recommend sourcing your information from the biologists at Lakeway Tilapia, there are many reasons they are #1 - also the most prominent and affordable supplier of proven-pure genetic blue tilapia... they even sell the best fish food in bulk to accommodate customers. They debunk myths routinely.

[@CreepyMonkeyHeadGame]

Lol the pluco please tell me you're not using that to keep your tank clean 4:10

[@SustainableCraig]

With that many big fish in the system I needed as many ways to clean the tank as possible. The pleco helped. I had a pretty heavy duty traditional filtration system on that tank. I even experimented with a secondary filter that I filled with some hydroton and some plants to try an aquaponics style filter.

[@JohnDoe-np3zk]

@@SustainableCraig the square tanks are horrible, the only time I really killed fish other than overheating the tank or ammonia death was in that IBC type tote. They swim into the walls. Have had way better results with stock tanks and perhaps the best a white water round tank the light entering does help. Anyway got a bunch in the garage. Also closed system? No you need a lot of water changes one a week and I go 2/3 down on each tank. Hurts the heating bill but save a fish. My water temp is like 61 F and keeping the tanks at 67 F. Some I have pretty well covered they seem at least OK with it being pretty dark but I can't afford to heat 2500 gallons of water without at least trying to trap the heat. Aquaponics never happened I can grow in proper nutrients but fish crap from pellet food ain't it. Also did the duckweed for a while that was a lot of work and the fish loved it and I wish I could feed them that. The earthworms in the yard given the dead dry soil where I am doesn't make me want to dig holes to feed them worms but they will eat them like crazy not a problem there. The red wriggler ones though not as much as a nice healthy fat earthworm. I did try growing compost worms there are probably a few still there.

[@leonv4648]

You knew that fish were sick. You are fish doctor

[@SustainableCraig]

Haha maybe if I had healed them. Unfortunately they had some discoloration on their scales so it was easy to tell they were sick.

[@CatholicK5357]

some fish are vegetarian. I'm not sure if these ones are. But if they are, that is why they would not eat the larvae.

[@SustainableCraig]

That is true. I had read online that other people were using the larvae to feed their tilapia in order to create a sustainable food source, which is why I attempted it.

[@CatholicK5357]

@@SustainableCraig Oh okay. I looked it up just now. They are apparently omnivores but eat mostly plants, such as duckweed, algae, etc... They do eat mosquito larvae as well. So in theory, mealworms should work. I couldn't tell you why they didn't. Good luck with your next attempt.

[@nick9nyce787]

How can I buy Tilapia from you

[@TC-yx1qt]

2 years later... did you ever figure this out?

[@SustainableCraig]

I'm in the process of putting up a new greenhouse at my homestead property that will incorporate the lessons learned here into the design. Stay tuned. I think you'll like what we've come up with.

[@farmerjhemp]

​@@SustainableCraigconsider sandponics in the new design. Sand in the ultimate media you can grow root vegetables and water stays clean for the fish.

[@Manic_Mitch.official]

What did your tilapia get sick with?

[@SustainableCraig]

Unfortunately I don't remember exactly what it was called. It was like this pinkish white growth on their skin. I'm still trying to figure out if I have some photos of it or not. I couldn't find them when I made this video. I did this aquaponics experiment about 10 years ago and just had saved the footage for when I was finally releasing my KZbin channel.

[@djkike323]

Where can i buy live tilappia?

[@SustainableCraig]

There are some suppliers online that will ship it to you, but because they have to overnight them it gets pretty expensive really quick. I think I got 25 fingerlings initially and that was over $100. Try searching for fish suppliers near you online. My area has a list of local suppliers posted on the government website now. If I were to do this again I would find a local place and drive down there.

[@rodneyhudspeth968]

Try trout next time

[@SustainableCraig]

That's a good idea. I'm hoping to have a new set-up within the next year. Thanks for the comment:)

[@Rinkyu]

Nah if I’m going to grow fish for eating I’m keeping them on a large lake/pond . It’s so much easier and basically cares for itself. If you’re going to keep large fish a pond/lake is the way to go!

[@SustainableCraig]

If you have the space for a pond that would definitely be more ideal. I think aquaponics is geared more towards people that don't have that much space. My intent is to make a big pond on my property here in the near future. Won't be growing any tilapia in that though. :)