No tilapia this year

Well, I've given up on the tilapia. No word from Foster Pond and Lake, and another blogger sent me an email advising me that I'd never be able to find large tilapia this late that people would be willing to part with. So, we went to Petsmart and bought 30 goldfish. At $0.28/fish, the price was right! Obviously, we don't plan on eating them, so unfortunately, our system will not be a fully functional aquaponics system - more like a water garden/hydroponic veggie garden. Oh well, maybe next year...

Here are some photos. One thing that seems certain - yellow squash seem to like the set up, and so do tomatoes.

The residents - one koi, one comet, and 30 goldfish

Yellow squash raging

Tomatoes doing well

Flowers from a water plaintain, planted in the pond gravel

Still no tilapia!!!

Well, it's been at least a month now since I expected to have tilapia in the pond, and we still don't have any. At least now I know why. The nice folks at Foster Lake and Pond Management get their tilapia from a supplier in southern NC. That guy had an equipment failure this spring and moved his tilapia from the nice, protected shelter of his indoor operation into an outdoor pond on his property. That was great until a hungry otter came in and ate ALL of the fish! Of course, the farmer didn't tell Foster Lake and Pond, but tried to find an alternate supply to meet his delivery. He could not, and that screwed FLP, which, in turn, screws us. FLP was trying to find an alternate supplier late last week, but they haven't called, and I'm beginning to wonder if it is even worth it at this point. We're seriously considering just getting some cheap fish - the cheapest we can find - to stock the pond with for the veggies, so at least we'll know how the veggie part of the aquaponics system works. I must say, though, that the veggies seem to be doing OK despite only two fish. Photo of the main bucket is from June 1. We harvested a yellow squash yesterday.