any one have a tilapia?

[Hunter]

Any one here have a Tilapia Butterforkeri? if so how are they as solo fish ?

Personality ?

Feeding habbits?

[scott]

I don't own one but I hear they are viscious. I believe Aikido Guy, a member here has a very large one, about sixteen inches (I think don't quote me on that). You will need a 75 gallon tank for a solo specimen. And quite a solo specimen it would make!

[peifc]

Yes, AikidaGuy and MoJo have Buttikoferi. I don't know how big their Buttis are, but I'm sure they can give you some information.

For me, I will keep them solo. They are aggressive and gets very big.

Here is some information about them.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/species/db.cgi?db=fresh&uid=default&ID=0349&view_records=1

[paradigmcubed]

My friend has a Tilapia around 8 inches in one of his tanks. Its companions include 1 12" bichir, 1 6" bichir, 1 6" JD, 1 5" Pike and a small Sleeper Goby. The Tilapia basically rules the tank and will nip at the JD, but it doesn't bother any of the other fish. Its a pretty interesting fish, though it likes to dig up a lot of his bubblers and mess around with the rest of his decorations. Oddly it has never ever eaten a live fish, even though all the others do. Both of the previous replies were right, he is pretty aggressive and my friend was considering giving his away because it was confining the JD to a minimal space of territory. This has been partially solved by adding caves and territory, so he has settled on keeping it.

Hope these tidbits help!

[Nippy]

I've got a pink tilapia who lives with one of my oscars and 2 pictus catfish. They get along quite well together and even hang out.

[AikidoGuy]

My current Tilapia buttikoferi, is a adult female she is 14" (she is longer than a 55gal tank is wide from front to back!) very tall and extremely thick and bulky. The parents to this fish are still alive and the male from mouth to the base of his tail is 16" and her mother is just a tad shorter than the father. The only way to sex these fish are by venting. males and females look exaclty the same. From the time this fish was a fry until she was between 6"-8" she was housed with a large adult carpinte, a large male midas, and a nasty mayan cichlid. After the 8" mark forget ANY tankmates! This fish tries to eat its way throught the glass to get anyone or anything that passes near the tank. I grew mine out in a 220gallon tank untill she was removed and placed in 75gal tank that has only gravel in it. They tolerate NO mates or decor in the tank. a 75gal with minimal decor will work but a 90 might be better with the added height since the fish is extremely active and will use all the space that it can get to. For feeding they naturally eat algea and small freshwater shell fish in the wild so Lots of spirulina is good. Mine also loves raw jumbo shrimp. my feeding schedule for this fish is 2-3 days of HBH Soft and Moist with spirulina blended pellet, 1 or 2 days of regular cichlid pellets food of any kind, and one day a week she gets the raw jumbo shrimp which she eats 3 of at one feeding. then i usually let her fast for a day and do a major water change. I ocassionally feed it large mealworms has a treat since she enjoys them very much but they tend to be messy for me. FWIW My fiance is so attached to this fish because of its personality and vivid color that she cried the 2 or 3 times i tried to get rid of it. So now it ( along with a darn pair a convicts) will forever be part of my collection.

oh yeah and to really **** off this fish i place a mirror at one end of the tank and watch her go completely ape sh_t! its histerical (for me anyway)

[peifc]

Say...woman wears the pants, huh? :D J/K

Just like me. I said I want another tank...my bf said, ok! :)

[Matak]

If your tilapia gets too big for the tank, I can tell you that it is the best tasting fish going. Even better than halibut or orange ruffy.

[Glenstorm]

Not sure if this is the same fish since everyone is talking about it's dislike of community but apparently tilapia is raising quite a buzz in terms of hydroponic symbiosis. . .
Just recently my parents were telling me about a project in Philadelphia that is growing Basil and Tilapia together with exciting results.

Here is a link regarding that project:

http://www.whitedog.com/05042002.html

and a more scientific explanantion of the process:

http://overton.tamu.edu/htmsub/tilapia.html

[peifc]

Tilapia they are talking about is this fish.

http://www.cichlidfish.com/images/cichlids/tilapiabuttikoferi/19_04_buttiko.jpg

[Glenstorm]

I think it is the same fish then. The pictures I have seem regarding these projects have had similar shaped fish. They were Black and White so color wasn't available. . .