I was all set to stock 10lbs of Tilapia until I went to my pond store for some unrelated items and asked what they thought about adding them to control the algae. They were totally against it. They told me a horror story about a customer of theirs that stocked them but was unable to harvest in time and they all sank at the end of the year and the Tilapia rotted on the bottom and ruined the pond.
Gklop
I would LOVE to hear that story from the actual pond owner!!! I can virtually guarantee it never happened! Some dead tilapia do sink, yet unless something like a turtle tears open the body, it will eventually float as decay gasses make it buoyant. Then, terrestrial critters consume the body. It is simply NOT possible for the dead tilapia to "ruin" a pond from decay since (except for the pounds of fish added in stocking) there is no ADDED nutrient. The tilapia consume what nutrient is there already in the pond and convert it to flesh....there is no "new" nutrient created.
It is as much myth as the Illinois Conservation agent that likes telling people that Tilapia were in Lake Michigan and "babies" clogged up water intake pipes. I guess he confused Zebra Mussel horror stories with Tilapia....or, more likely, he has no clue how tilapia function and just needed a horror story to make up...
