This past June, Solar welcomed our around 150 baby tilapia or fry, after one of our fish gave birth. Now the fry have grown into two month old fingerlings. The fingerlings are a part of our aquaponic system that was implemented in 2015. To continue to help the fingerlings grow and mature, our greenhouse experts feed them high protein fish food five times a day. The fingerlings are currently separated from the grow tank and the rest of the tilapia. They are sharing the floating bed tank with our shrimp, for two more months until they are large enough to be integrated with the rest of the school. The fingerlings and shrimp are separated by multiple layers of nets and are kept in water that is around 80°F to keep both groups safe.
Our grow tank hosts both male and femal tilapia. This allows for breeding to repopulate the tank with as little interference as possible.
The shrimp and tilapia work together to help our experts produce a multitude of crops such as tomatoes, beans, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, carrots, basil, and other herbs. The crops growing in the aquaponic system are harvested every 60 days. An aquaponics system uses byproducts of fresh water shrimp and tilapia as fertilizer for the plants in the greenhouse.
As they grow and mature both the shrimp and tilapia will be harvested, after this process is completed our experts will check the pH, ammonia, and other compound levels in the tanks to make sure they are stable for the next group of tilapia and shrimp.
We are very excited to see these fingerlings grow and develop and will continue to monitor all of the tilapia and shrimp. This includes conducting regular evaluations and water tests to ensure the health of the school. Be sure to check back for more updates on our aquaponic system.