16/11/2023
I just dropped off the last of the fish I have been keeping for my home aquaponics system. I am closing it down for a little while while I try out some hydroponics systems I have created. The fish in the video is the last of the generation born in the system's aquarium when the parents bred in the tank. Originally there were six fish added to the system when it started, they grew and were quite happy for a few years until a male decided to breed. Suddenly there were only two left, a large male and a female. Once that occurred, a spawn happened. The parents were quite devoted as the eggs turned into fry and then small juveniles.
It is quite true that the Heterotilapia buttikofferi are very aggressive. As the fry began to grow out, the female was eliminated I took somewhere over a 100 of this one's siblings in the course of a couple culls to the local pet store as they grew from fry to juveniles. This was the last one remaining after everything settled. He was the engine for quite a number of harvests over the years.