Feeding Tilapia

Looking down from above the rain barrel and through the glass

Many of you know we are currently raising Tilapia in two aquariums in our house. What you may not know is that we produce the majority of the largest ones' feed. And get this, it is much closer to their natural diet of plants. Duckweed and fairy moss are two of the fastest growing, yet smallest plants in the world. They have all kinds of benefits amongst being very easy to grow. The picture below shows the glass we placed on top of a rain barrel in an effort to grow through the "winter." I use that term loosely because admittedly, GA has a very very mild winter. Either way, the glass magnifies the suns rays as well as helps to keep heat in at night; it isn't air tight by any means, but it gets the job done.

A close up of the fair moss right after taking a scoop

Growing duckweed and fairy moss to feed the fish has dozens of benefits both for the fish and the farmer.

• The plants have roots that reach down about 1" at most. Those roots filter the water taking up excess nutrients. 
• Excess nutrients being removed means there is less decay in the water which means more oxygen is available. 
• They can be grown in very little amount of space. 
• They grow/multiple amazingly fast. 
• They are very nutritious for the fish.
•  They help regulate the temperature of the water by acting as a layer of insulation. 
• If left uncovered in the open or atop a pond, these tiny plants offer the perfect place for small creatures of flight such as honeybees (another very important farm creature) a place to land in order to drink safely. The same could be said about flies and mosquitoes but that is why I am very pro-dragonfly: the number one predator of mosquitoes. And so far, we only have seen dragonflies on the plants anyway.

 Each day I take one small aquarium net full of the plants and put them in with the fish.This gives the remaining plants a bit of room to spread out.

Close up right before taking a scoop to feed the fish

And in less than 24 hours... voila!  The rain barrel is jam-packed full of nutrient rich food! Yes, we have a rain barrel instead of something more volume efficient. The plants only need water 2" deep at most but the extra volume of water means the water temp will fluctuate less dramatically which is a concern of ours with this being outdoors. The tilapia, because of how much they eat, poop a lot. I use a gravel vacuum to get the majority of the big hunks out and dump it into a small surface opening. Those extra nutrients keep the plants growing. Note: Have stale, pure water is not a good growing environment for these tiny floating plants. While it isn't one big connected system, this is basically going to be our aquaponics set up minus the extra vegetables and salad greens. Man I can't wait to do this on a larger scale and teach other people this stuff!