Aquaponics With Cichlids

Hi!
Right now I'm thinking of starting a tropical aquaculture setup. It will most likley contain 3 100L half barrels filled with different sized fish and I'm hoping to fill the top half barrel with some sort of cichlid. The system will be heated but kept outdoors. I'm hoping for a kind of cichlid that is easy to breed, hardy and can live in 100L (26.5 Gallon) drum.
Any help would be great. Thanks!

 

African or American cichlids?

 

Jason93 I was thinking American cichlids.

 

Heard convicts breed like guppies in good enough water although not sure they will fill the top half of the barrel my angels used to stay mid to top. Sorry I couldn't be of more help Sure someone will weigh in with a better answer

 

The standard Aquaponics Cichlid, when food is being grown, is a mouthbrooding African Saratherodon/Tilapia. But barrels don't work for Cichlids like convicts, which stake out territory on the bottom. I would say no open spawners.

 

Yea I don't want sad/dead fish and plus where I live tilapia are illegal .

 

Ah. My understanding of the average aquaponics set up is that it needs waste producing fish. I'm assuming that's what you mean by aquaculture - not breeding fish but raising plants?
I know the big Basil growing ones in Michigan use Tilapia type fish. I think you are going to need one of the larger herbivores. Little livebearers will keep the mosquito larvae from developing, but not much else.
I think the farming aquaponics people wanted to eat the fish too, so Tilapia was a choice. In something you heat, you don't want an Anabantoid, because they air breath and the temperature differential is dangerous. I would have suggested kissing gouramis, a huge waste producer.
I can't think of any hardy New World Cichlid that eats plant matter and produces aquaponics level wastes. One very nasty polluter of tank water might be the common pleco. The Trinidad ones take cooler water - I have seen illegally (and unethically) released giant plecos in Florida in water I measured at 10 celsius. They have destroyed many a tank with their volume of wastes.

 

I'm not that interested in the thought of eating what fish I grow and am perfectly happy with having to feed the fish regular feed. I'm more looking for any kind of fish that is hardy, easy breeding and can live in a 200-400L space. I'm not to flustered about what amount of wast they produce!
Do you have any suggestions of other kinds of fish from anywhere in the world that are any of those? Any fish that isn't rare or huge (I live in New Zealand and you can't get the huge variety of fish there is in the US) would be great!