My thoughts have not changed from this prior thread. A better use in the initial first year stocking would be a few brood tilapia and not yoy tilapia. Then use your preferred stocking of other fingerling fish (LMB , CC , BG/CNBG , RES , HSB , SMB , FH , Gams or whatever)


Tilapia as initial forage

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=000459;p=1


Subsequent to this thread I found this study.

Comparative Evaluation of Two Tilapias as Pond fishes in Alabama
H. S. SWlNGLE

"Excerpts" :

PRODUCTION IN PONDS STOCKED WITH BROOD TILAPIAS AND LARGEMOUTH BASS

The earliest broods of tilapias were usually

small, and consequently these individuals

rapidly grew too large for small fingerling

bass to eat. When largemouth bass were

stocked in excess of 100 per acre, few were

able to grow large enough to feed upon 3-

and 4-inch tilapias. The maximum production

of bass in such combinations was 73 pounds

per acre. Low production was due to the very

short period during which the young tilapia

were available to bass and to the small size

(1 to 2 inches) of the bass stocked.

When 100 bass of the 1-inch group per acre

were stocked with brood tilapia April 15 to

20, they were able to attain an average size

of 0.3 to 0.5 pound by the following August 1,

when the ponds were open to fishing. This

growth was much faster than that obtained in

bluegill-bass populations.

When brood tilapias were stocked in estab-

lished bluegill-bass populations in May, they

were found to reproduce in May or June,

but the young subsequently disappeared, ap-

parently victims of bass predation. Hofstede

and Botke (1950) also have reported that the

Java tilapia became abundant in Indonesian

waters only where predation was absent.

The most effective use of bass predation

was in Pond S-1157, where bass were not

added until August. At this time many young-

of-the-year tilapia were too large to be eaten,

but the addition of bass reduced the survival

of tilapias which hatched subsequently. The

rate of feeding was then doubled, causing

many of the larger fingerling tilapias to grow

to harvestable size. This procedure resulted in

a production of 2,453 pounds harvestable

fish per acre (Table 1).


PRODUCTION OF TILAPIAS WITH FINGERLING STOCKING


A second possibility remained with finger-

ling stock -- the use of the repressive factor to

control reproduction (Swingle, 1957a). This

procedure involves stocking at such a rate

that fish grow readily, but by the time they

are sexually mature, they have excreted or

secreted into the water sufficient amounts of

a repressive factor to reduce materially or

prevent reproduction. This practice is used

in carp culture and was used to develop a

system of commercial culture of the speckled

bullhead (Swingle, 1957b). Results of ex-

periments with various rates of stocking fin-

gerling tilapias are given in Table 3.


This study is full of info but it was written from the perspective of Tilapia as an aquaculture food program (how to get food size tilapia for humans) as efficiently as possible. My understanding is that the LMB did better during their first year if brood tilapia were there so the LMB could eat most of the subsequently born yoy tilapia , but where yoy tilapia were stocked along with the yoy LMB (at yoy rates) their was the potential for the yoy tilapia to grow to fast and start reproducing and end up stunting and taking up to much of the pond's carrying capacity.