SK,
I'm probably not far from you and used tilapia the last 2 years. They worked awesome and are very fun to have in the pond. They are bold, cruise around in packs, and don't care if you watch them all summer long. They like the warm water and 'sunbathe' in groups in the afternoons with segregation by age. You will want blue tilapia if possible to allow them to live longer.

If you click on my name you can get a shortcut to my posts. There is a post in there sometime last fall that tells when the tilapia died last winter, by my recall it was perhaps in early Nov?

EDIT: Found the post and will save you the time:
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It was a record mild fall/winter for us, shirtsleeves well through Dec and 50 degrees on Christmas Day. My tilapia I think made it till about Nov 19. I only saw the mature adults floating or struggling at the shore line. I have to believe the smaller ones sunk or were attacked by aggressive crayfish and turtles. I never saw a dead one that was say 3" or less. The large ones were coated with green slime and floated into the shallows. It is funny that the raccoons didn't seem to want to eat them either with that mold on them.

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But usually late october or nov they die. I only saw a few floaters, the large ones. They would come to shore on the sunny side of the pond and on those fall days where there was a little sun they would be at the surface trying to warm up. The smaller ones must have sank and become turtle food.

Someone from the forum here sells blue tilapia on ebay. I don't recall who but I know you can find them or that person can private message you.

I bought my first batch from a aquaponics store locally (message me and i can give you more details) But I got very small ones and not enough for my sized pond the first year. The second year I found another aquaponics enthusiast and he got me about 50 fish in the 4-5" range and they did the trick.

If you connect with a aquaponics place they may even be willing to overwinter them for you (or I know some pond owners in SE MI who used to come to the forum from time to time set up a holding tank in their garage or basement for the winter and then back in the pond in the spring) or save some of their larger fish for you for the next spring as they grow out their tilapia.

The MI DEQ (DNR) makes it tough on fish haulers to haul tilapia in from out of state else Rex (RAINMAN) would certainly try to help us out.


Last edited by canyoncreek; 06/14/16 01:59 PM.