Talking with a buddy of mine at our daughters softball practice the other day and he brought up a recent episode of DDP where the family not only stored ammo, grew a garden, had a goat or 2, but also had a small pool of tilapia.

He was telling me how easy it is to get the "chicken of the sea" to breed and basically become self-sustaining for the family to live off of. We are big fish eaters and now I'm curious to know what all goes into doing all this here at home. I would sell off whatever excess we do not freeze, but that's later down the road. I wanted to ask the OB before I did anything as far as running out and purchasing anything or building anything from scratch.

I've seen videos so far from farmers as small as a single 55 gal drum, all the way to green houses with multiple tanks.

Thanks fellers.

I was under the impression that it is illegal to possess live Tilapia in TX, as it is an invasive species. Most Tilapia found in grocery stores are farm raised in Asia. Finally, they are pretty cold sensitive, thus they will die in small ponds when water temp drops.

Fiesta groceries sells live tilapia

You can catch them by the icechestfull with a cast net in several of our local lakes if you know where to go.

I think Lake Fairfiled is full of them.

All the information you need here:
srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/event/CategoryDetails/whichcategory/11/

Texags hates https, so just click on tilapia production.

[This message has been edited by mneisch (edited 9/25/2012 10:19a).]

overtonfisheries.com/StockerFish/ForageFish/MozambiqueTilapia/tabid/74/Default.aspx

Never stocked them in my pond, but have bought other fish from here.

Per the site:

Be aware that the Mozambique tilapia is the only species of tilapia that is legal to stock without a permit in the state of Texas because of their low tolerance to cold temperatures.

[This message has been edited by roynonroy (edited 9/25/2012 10:47a).]

I doubt that it is illegal. I've seen tilapia for sale at local markets. A friend had a pretty elaborate tilapia set up. I'm guessing that he harvested 500 lbs. per year for just he and his wife.

The main tank was made of concrete with walls about 4 feet tall and probably 15 feet in diameter. The bottom was “V” shaped with a drain so that the waste would accumulate and be discharged out to his chicken yard. He harvested in the fall every year and completely emptied the tank. He trapped the fry so they could over winter in a 55 gallon heated tank. The whole fish operation was inside a greenhouse.

It was just one component of his organic farm. He had an amazing garden, an incredible goat dairy, several dozen chickens, meat goats and an bacon donor. All pretty sustainable

He had a fascinating operation but but it was definitely 24/7.

I also toured a commercial grower in Castroville last fall that you might want to check out. All of their tanks were in greenhouses and the effluent went to their hydroponic vegetables and herbs. I'll see if I can dig up some info for you.

Friends setup:


Processing table:


Averaged size tilapia:


The offal went into trenches in the garden. Think Pilgrims fertilizing their corn:


Pix from commercial farm:








Solids separator and filters:


Hydroponic garden:

Great, thanks guys! This is a fantastic starting place. I like all the pics to go with it.


I've been reading all morning and bookmarking every site I can see to get info from.

Keep'em coming.

I have a 20 acre stock tank near Greenville and have Tilapia stocked every year. They are supposed to die each winter but some must live bc I caught a 3 lb Tilapia this weekend. I decided to keep it bc I've seen grilled Tilapia on the menu on occasion, and I figured he was too big for a bass to eat. Cleaning him was so difficult due to large bones, (carp like) that I threw him in the creek rather than eat him.

I know some folks that raise tilapia. Seems like a hassle due to the cold weather issue mentioned above.

After reading this and playing on the internet I have now purchased a aquaponic system.

quote:

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No thanks. IMO tilapia is about the worst fish you can get your hands on.

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This

We had an aquaculture lab in high school and grew tilapia. Those little bastages can be pretty hardy. One of the guys forgot to put the cover on the tank and one of the fish jumped out. The next morning we come in to find a fish stuck, dried to the ground. Quietly cussing so the Ag teacher didn't hear, we got about 30 minutes worth of stuff done in the morning to get the day prepped for welding before cleaning the fish up. It was still alive. No idea how long it had been laying there, but we scooped it off the floor with a shovel and shoved that sucker back in the tank. It survived until the end of year fish fry.

Tilapia are all over the place around Houston. Not sure about Lake Conroe or Lake Livingston but Lake Houston has a pretty big population. In the freeze a couple years ago they had a huge kill and washed up all over shore but evidently lots more survived because they're caught frequently. They're also in most of the bayou systems too.

They fight hard and will smash a fly pretty readily.

As for table fare, I've never eaten a wild caught but the store bought is really mild and quality depends on preparation. I like to really heavily rub them with Tony Chachere's and blacken then in the skillet. The crispy edges are delicious.

Those farming operations are pretty cool.

As to how it tastes... not as common now, but in the 90s... a very large chunk of the place serving catfish were actually serving tilapia... just fyi.

I grew up bowfishing for tilapia. IMO, they're trash fish and not fit to eat; we just gave the fish away after tournaments.

They seem to thrive in East Texas lakes; I'll bet you could do pretty good at raising them.

Why would they be unfit to eat? Other than the quality of water they come from.

For example, I don't care if I caught a bluefin tuna out of Buffalo Bayou I ain't touching that. But if you'd eat catfish or crappie out of Lake Houston, why not tilapia?

[This message has been edited by Finn Maccumhail (edited 9/25/2012 11:00p).]

With a freezer full of trout, flounder and redfish, tilapia is just a notch above a hardhead. Muddy taste.

tx4guns- if you're ranking then I'd agree with you in part. To me tilapia is about like catfish.

The point I was driving at is that a lot of what people consider offal or unfit for consumption is a psychological rather than actual taste. For example, on a deer the heart, liver, and kidneys are fantastic and do best with a simple preparation.

Heart- salt & pepper, skewer on rosemary sprigs & roast rare to medium-rare
Liver & kidneys- salt & pepper, pan sear in clarified butter

You'll wanna slap yo mama.

Mud tastes like mud no matter how it's prepared. You want to go fix a plate of Tilapia with a side of Canvasback then be my guest

After reading this and playing on the internet I have now purchased a aquaponic system.

gonna use fish too?

Importing non native fish, and risking them adapting and escaping.....yeah, brilliant plan.

Don't they eat the waste of other fish?

This set up would be purely used based upon our family needs and maybe make a few extra $$ off the top...no way would I introduce these guys to any type of waterways or anything else.

As far as the muddy taste, I watch a video earlier and will post it if I can ever find it again about this very thing. There is a small time time farmer in Florida who uses a modified hot tub as his purge tank. When his fish are ready to be eaten or taken to market, he places into the purge pool a week prior so all the mud and any impurities are flushed out. Apparently this makes a huge difference in the taste. Sounds logical to me.

Here in Belton I saw a fella getting rid of some old blue water troughs yesterday on hwy 317 and may swing back by to see what he wants for them. Maybe even do a little trading, who knows.

I have a aquaponics system set up for my high school students to use and tilapia are fine. You might want to consider either white bass or hybrids if you don't like the taste of tilapia. They take a little longer to grow and don't breed as regularly but they will work. Hybrids do better in a smaller closed tank.

is the set up for your class all outside or is it in an enclosed environment? what breed do the kids prefer, fish wise?

wont tilapia make a great forage fish and bait for bass?

If I was rich I would pay someone full time to raise meat and vegetables for me year round, that would be awesome! But alas, I do not have time for this type of stuff. if the S ever H's the F, well then, I'm screwed..

But you do have people that raise meat and vegetables for you.

This is true, unless electricity fails or transportation breaks down or society falls apart in general..

Just got home with the system once i get it set up i will post photos. They guy that i bought it from showed me his operation and i have to say pretty impressive:.

anybody have experience about putting tilapia in west texas windmill stock tanks? I'd think that the well water being around 70 degrees would keep it warm enough to keep the cold weather die off and be some pretty fun fishing/real easy cast netting. would make some good eating too since concrete stock tanks with well water inflow arent going to give a muddy taste