Tilapia Fingerlings
I then went to San Diego Pet Supply and Feed which is possibly the most impressive feed store I've ever been in (they had monkey food of all things...like, to feed your pet monkey). I bought a little over 8 pounds each of flax and hemp seed, and a little over 6 pounds of trout chow. The total came to about $40. She says she feeds her fish almost exclusively ground flax and duckweed, but recommended the hemp and trout chow as other options.
Tilapia Mama recommended using a coffee grinder to grind up the flax, so I stopped at Walmart and bought a $15 electric coffee grinder. I mixed about 1/2 a cup each of flax and hemp seed and 1/4 or 1/3 cup of trout chow in batches in the coffee grinder. Right now the fish are still too small it seems to eat a whole duckweed plant, so even though there's duckweed in their tank they are eating mostly this flax/hemp/trout chow mix and seem to love it.
Right now I've got them in a 30 gallon next to our discus tanks, my plan being to hold them in there until they're a little larger and more robust. The tank temp is at around 84 F, a temperature which I can't maintain outside until it gets a bit warmer. They are growing really fast and there are now many that are over an inch in size and are looking nice and pudgy. I lost three the first day, probably due to travel trauma...and I lost three more today probaby due to the water being too concentrated with waste. I'll have to do water changes pretty regularly since they're pretty dirty eaters and it's a small tank, though if they keep growing quickly I suspect they'll be out in the aquaponics garden before too long.
A complete ecosystem...or it will be once the Tilapia move in!
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