Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
When some of the fish reach 11 inches in length, you can begin to harvest them. Because
the fish grow at different rates, you will have fish in the Fish Tank that are 11+ inches long,
along with their siblings that are only 5 to 6 inches long. Because of this difference, the
initial harvesting has to be spread out over about 3 months. After this first round of harvest
you will be harvesting on a schedule that works best for you. We have used three different
methods of harvesting the fish. Each is described below:
Photo 5 - Fresh Tilapia Fillets
Photo 6 - Tilapia
drawing
Method #1
If you only want to harvest one or two fish for dinner, you can actually catch them with
a hook and line. Tilapia will grab anything falling into the water so if you simply drop a
small hook on the end of a line into the water, they will grab it. Hint, they are REALLY
FAST so be prepared to have them grab the hook the instant it hits the surface. This works
especially well if the fish are hungry. We recommend this method for most small installa-
tions, when working with small children and to really show off.
However, it doesn't mean that you will 'catch' the largest fish that have grown to harvest
size if you have many fish in your tank. Some will be harvest size, and some will not be
harvest size. We don't recommend you catch and release more than one fish at a time be-
cause it will STRESS THE FISH in the tank and if they're stressed, they won't eat. If they
won't eat, they won't poop. If they don't eat/poop, you won't have enough nutrients for
your plants in your Grow Table.
Method # 2
