This method of spawning and harvesting tilapia has proven to be successful

Permintaan ikan nila masih terbilang cukup tinggi sehingga wajar saja bila banyak Sahabat Pembudidaya ikan melirik budidaya ini dan mencari tahu cara pemijahan ikan nila. During their productive period, tilapia can mate every month, naturally or artificially.

Even once spawning, tilapia can produce eggs ranging from 100 to 300 eggs depending on the size of the brood fish. Even though the selling price of tilapia is still low, the number of eggs that can be harvested is quite promising.

This article will provide information on how to spawn tilapia, tilapia spawning techniques, how to breed male and female tilapia, and how to harvest tilapia. Let's see!

Tilapia Parameters

There are many factors that affect the success of tilapia spawning. Among them are the selection of healthy female and male brooders, tilapia in ponds with a water temperature of 20 to 30 degrees Celsius, providing healthy food, to environmental conditions. In addition, make sure the pH level of the water is between 6 and 8.5 and the oxygen level is above number 4.

Meanwhile, how to marry male and female tilapia is quite easy. In its natural process, usually the male sires will make a hole at the bottom of the pond with a diameter of 3 to 5 cm. 

The hole will be used by the female for spawning and fertilized by the male. Later, the eggs that are successfully fertilized will be incubated in the fish's mouth for approximately 3 to 5 days.

As for the artificial tilapia spawning method, then you need to prepare several ponds, including:

1. Breeder rearing ponds, which serves to store male and female tilapia. Nevertheless, separate the two brood fish. The size of the breeding pond does not need to be too large, just 100 to 140 cm in size.
2. Spawning pool, serves as a vessel for male sires and female sires to mate. The basic structure of this pond must have a dirt floor and several puddles or kemalir.
3. Larval rearing pond, serves to maintain the newly hatched fish larvae. You can use cement tubs, earthen ponds, or hapa to build this pool. The hapa pond is a fine-netted container like an lembu which is left floating on the pond.
4. Seed nursery ponds, serves as a place to raise the seeds of fish until the size of the fish reaches 10 to 12 cm, or until the fish looks strong enough to be combined with other fish in the enlargement cultivation pond.

Differences between Male and Female Tilapia

The main factor for successful tilapia spawning is to prepare female and male tilapia broodstock. However, it is not that easy for Friends of Cultivators to find these two sires. 

Moreover, the differences between these two fish are hard to find, so many Friends of Farmers are mistaken in determining whether the broodstock is a female or male broodstock.

Generally, male tilapia brooders have one genital opening which is elongated in shape and a reddish color on the fins which is clearly visible when the genitals of the fish are ripe for mating. 

Meanwhile, female breeders have a slightly pale body color with two genital openings. One of the openings is adjacent to the anus and is shaped like a crescent moon.

Selection and Maintenance of Parent Tilapia

Tilapia circulating in the community is of low quality, while the breeders needed must use pure lines and have superior genetic characteristics.

Therefore, you should look for tilapia brooders in special places such as the local fishery center or BBPBAT. 

The selling price of the best quality tilapia breeders is quite expensive. To anticipate this, you can use potential tilapia broodstock with the following criteria:

1. Pure strain tilapia from different breeds.
2. The physical condition of the fish is healthy, as seen from the absence of defects in the body shape of the tilapia.
3. Tilapia has large scales and neatly arranged.
4. The head size is smaller than the body.
5. The body of the tilapia is shiny and thick.
6. Prospective sires are active and responsive, especially when feeding.

Tilapia enters the maturity age of the gonads after 5 to 6 months with the required body weight for female brooders of 200 to 250 grams while male brooders range from 250 to 300 grams. 

Generally, the productive period of tilapia is 1.5 to 2 years. If your tilapia is entering a productive age of more than 2 years, it is advisable to replace the broodstock with new ones to produce the best quality seeds.

The following are things that must be considered in rearing tilapia before spawning:

1. Male and female brooders are kept in different ponds with separate exhaust systems
2. Pay attention to the flow of male pond water, don't let the flow enter the female pool, and vice versa in the female pool waste
3. The water sources for male and female ponds must also be separated so that the concept of breeding ponds is made radiant
4. In order for tilapia to grow quickly, the protein content needed is only 2 percent
5. In order for gonad development to be maximized, provide feed with a high protein content of more than 35 percent
6. The frequency in one feeding follows a ratio of 3 percent of fish weight per day

Tilapia Fish Spawning Method

Enter the main part of how tilapia spawn naturally. The first step, Mr / Ms prepare a sloping pond with a slope of 2 or 5 percent. 

At the bottom of the pond, puddles or kemalir are also made which will be used as spawning grounds by broodstock as deep as 20 to 30 cm.

If you want to do mass spawning of tilapia, then the ratio of the number of male and female brooders is 1 : 3, meaning 1 male and 3 female brooders, with a stocking density of 1 broodstock per square meter.

The spawning process will occur on the seventh day from the sires are put into the spawning pond. During this process, provide high protein fish feed with a protein content of more than 35 percent.

The next tilapia spawning method, the female broodstock will release and store the eggs in a puddle to be fertilized by the male broodstock. 

After the fertilization process is complete, the eggs will be incubated in the female parent's oral cavity for approximately one week. During the incubation process the female breeders will fast.

Before the eggs hatch, you need to prepare a larva rearing pond. In the pond rearing the larvae must be given basic fertilizer so that natural food can grow. 

After one week, the eggs will hatch simultaneously and become larvae. The female fish will expel the larvae from her mouth after confirming that there is natural food in the larval rearing pond.

To move these larvae to a special pond, you can filter the larvae swimming around the edge of the pool using a fine sieve.

There are two ways of tilapia spawning, the previous method was natural tilapia spawning. As for how to spawn other tilapia using intensive techniques. 

However, this tilapia spawning technique is used if you are going to produce large quantities of tilapia fry.

Apart from that, this intensive tilapia spawning method also requires quite a large amount of capital because it is necessary to build pond infrastructure that is more proper than the natural tilapia spawning method.

Larvae Care

After the larvae are transferred to a special pond, you need to pay attention to how to care for the larvae so they are ready to be harvested. Give fish feed in the form of fine flour which has a high protein content of 0.2 mm to 0.5 mm.

Feed tilapia larvae 4 to 5 times a day at a rate of 1 teaspoon for each feeding.

You can also provide larvae feed in the form of a mixture of egg yolks that have been boiled and crushed with water. This feed mixture can be given by spraying.

Observe the growth and development of tilapia larvae. When the size reaches 2 to 3 cm, the larvae are ready to be transferred to the nursery pond which is wider than the larval rearing pond.

This nursery pond has a seed stocking density of 30 to 50 fish per square meter with a length of time needed for nursery ranging from 1 to 1.5 months or seeds measuring 10 cm to 12 cm.

Harvesting Tilapia

The final process of tilapia spawning is harvesting tilapia. It is recommended to harvest tilapia in the morning or evening. The size of the fish harvested also depends on consumer and market demand. 

If the consumer wants the seed size to be 10 to 12 cm, you can harvest faster than usual. The opposite happens, if the consumer wants a larger size then the tilapia harvesting time will be delayed.

If the fish are to be resold, you need to pack the tilapia properly so that the tilapia does not die quickly during the shipping trip. If the potential tilapia buyer is quite close to where you are, use an open package.

However, if the delivery of tilapia is quite far and requires a long time, then pack the tilapia in a closed container and provide aeration containing high levels of water oxygen. The comparison ratio is that the container is filled with ⅓ of water and the rest is oxygen.