I bought 45 lbs of tilapia from Rex around 6-9-12 and virtually all of the floating FA is gone already!! I am very, very happy!!

seantOH

Great to hear Sean!

Sounds like you're going to have a really big fish fry this fall. Those tilapia are amazing! How big is your pond?

Have you caught any of them yet, just wondering how big the tilapia are now and if you have any pics?

No I have not caught any yet. I do see them from time to time. Some of them are tan with bars down their sides and some of them are solid white. The white ones are very easy to see. Also I have seen a few that obviously had eggs or fry in their mouths but I have not seen any babies yet. I am sure the babies are in there somewhere I just can't id them yet.

I have never tasted tilapia so I will definitely fry some up this fall. The pond is 1.5 acres.

seantOH

Here are before and after pictures of my pond.

seantOH

Very nice info + pictures seanOH!!!

Tilapia taste great. Now if they were only legal to stock in MO...

I love my lil blue buddies!!! Thanks for the props sean...it was great to meet you!!

You are very welcome! It was GREAT to meet you as well. Take care!!

will tilapia eat duckweed?

garnetts, yes, tilapia devour duckweed, BUT, if there are predators in the pond, none but the largest tilapia will browse on the DW or watermeal out of predation fear.....the massive numbers of fry produced are what make noticable impacts on algae and then other plants.

A combination of chemical control and tilapia can quickly control DW.

SeantOH - how large is your pond and what part of the state are you in? I am in NE Ohio and looking for some resolution on FA, etc.

Also, what did you experience this Fall when the temps fell below 45F? What it an ugly and smelly crime scene? LOL.

Appreciate your input here - JCal

Tilapia DO work, they just have to be stocked at the correct amount to do the work. How many might depend on the amount of FA that you have in the pond.

In my pond, I caught a lot out when the water dropped to the mid to low 50's via snagging.

I'll let Rex come up with the numbers that he recommends to stock.

I can tell you that in my pond, I didn't see FA control with stocking rates of up to 20#/surface acre. I DID see them control FA when stocked at the rate of 40#/surface acre. I didn't weigh the fish that I pulled out, but the fish were between 1 and 3 pounds, and I filled five 5 gallon buckets with them, and there were some still swimming around. I stocked Tilapia that were 6"-8" long to avoid predation by the LMB in the pond.

I can't speak for the Blue's, as we stock Mozambique Tilapia, but I've never had a huge die off. A buddy of mine stocked heavily for years, and only had it happen one time. But that was only after a very rapid major temperature drop.

Like esshup, most years, they just start slow cruising, and are easy to catch by both man and fish.

Is snagging the best/most productive way to harvest? How do you see them, do the tilapia swim near the surface at this time for snagging. Do you do it by boat or shore? I assume it is with a big treble hook. I'm just curious for future reference, sounds like a nice change of routine. Thanks.

A YouTube video of snagging tilapia during next year's fall harvest would be helpful for those that use tilapia. I have a PM question request into seantOH for input.

I used a #2/0 or so treble hook on 12# test line. They were cruising near the surface and I sight fished (snagged) them.

To make the hook sink a bit faster, I wrapped some thin solder around the shank.

Hey all sorry I have not been on here for a while. Thanks Bill for the PM.

Jeff I am between Dayton and Columbus. My pond is 1.5 acres and I stocked it with LMB, BG, CC and red eared sunfish. The tilapia varied in size quite a bit but most of them were 6-12" and stocked at 30 lbs/ac. I did see significant numbers of very small babies in the pond and several adults that had babies in their mouths (these fish are mouth brooding cichlids). However, I never did see any juveniles in the pond this summer but having said that, I did not see many adults either. Some of the adults are tan in color with faint vertical stripes and some are solid white. The white ones stick out like a sore thumb but the tan ones are much harder to see. The largest adults I saw were probably 4lbs. I only was able to catch one fish on a red worm but tried raisins, dried cherries and grapes... nothing really worked. Some of them did start hitting the pellets that I feed so Stubby's might be an option. I will be trying to snag them next year. BTW, I only saw one dead tilapia this Fall and it was a large adult that was drug out of the pond. I suspect that a raccoon took an interest in it. I expected to see many dead floating fish but fortunately that did not happen.

All in all I am very happy with using Rainman's tilapia for FA control!

sean

Thanks much seantOH. Really good info.

Maybe I am missing the point, but I now have 4" of ice on the pond here in NE OH, and the water is obviously in the sub 30F range. From hearing what some guys are saying, the Tilapia will all die because they can't live in water temps sub 40F. I think I am hearing from you, in an area in OH that doesn't get quite as cold as NE Ohio, you have basically full survival. I remain a little perplexed.

Comments? Thanks very much once again - Jeff

I am far from knowledgeable regarding Tilapia, but I cannot imagine that they would survive a typical Ohio winter. And, it's my understanding that that is a good thing.

Jeff Calvin, If your tilpia survive the winters where you are You should harvest and sell them as they are more cold tolerant than normal. Might be a mutation of genetics who knows?

Do you have a spring or well the flows that might provided a warmer water refuge the could be hovering in?

Jeff, You put in talapia knowing that they will not survive the winter here. They are used for FA instead of chemicals, but you have to buy them every year. Just a different way to approach the problem.

Jeff,

I never said they survived... only that I did not see tons of floating fish. My pond is also ice covered.

The tilapia are cichlids from Africa... I believe the Rift Lakes region. I am very confident that they did die and that their biomass will release nutrients back into the pond. If you use chemicals then the excess nutrients that fueled the FA growth also gets released back into the pond when the FA dies. The thing I like about the tilapia is that at least some of the excess nutrients get converted to tilapia that are eaten by my other fish. Ideally I need to find a consistent way to capture the tilapia at the end of the season so that I can actually remove the excess nutrients in my pond.

If you think about it, your pond is nothing more than a really large planted aquarium. The key is to achieve a balanced ecosystem, i.e nutrients introduced = nutrients removed. My plan is to remove / keep out the plants that I don't want and add the plants I do want in the pond. Once the "good" plants get established they will consume the nutrients and if I manage the fish population correctly there shouldn't excess nutrients to feed the "bad" plants. Achieving a balanced ecosystem will ultimately control/ eliminate the FA in the long term.

I will let everyone know in the Spring if I have SUPER tilapia that have adapted to our Ohio winters, LOL! Take care and God bless!!

sean

The easiest way for me to remove the Tilapia before they die is to wait until they get a bit sluggish, and snag them via sight fishing. I know I won't get them all, but I sure get a high % of them.

Thanks Essup I will break out the treble hooks next Fall. How do you see the tan ones?

sean

Polarized glasses!

FYI for J.Calvin and maybe a few others. Water is heaviest at 39.2F (4C). Water gets lighter as it gets colder and warmer than 39F. On cold nights water next to the surface gets colder than 39F and tends to stay on top until it freezes. Thus pond or lake water a few feet below the ice is 39F all the way to the pond bottom. Rarely does the deep water get colder than 39F. Although there are some exceptions to this rule.

Back to tilapia. All tilapia depending on the species or subspecies will die when water gets below 50 to 45F. No species of tilapia are known to survive very long in water below 44-45F.

Essup your'e funny! Even with my polarized glasses I have problems seeing them! Lol! I will see if I can do better next fall!

Bill I actually have a BS in Chemistry and I do not recall that factoid! I know it has been a long time since I was in college. I guess I must of killed those brain cells! Lol! Thanks for the knowledge.

sean

Someone would be a Pond Boss hero if they developed a dependable and fairly easy way to remove tilapia before they die. The method could even be a money maker.

If you had a well or or any source of flowing water that is warmer or slightly warmer than the pond water. As the pond chills they will seek out the warm watrer source and congigate around it making for easy cast netting. During our cold spells I have seen them piled around a outflow pipe of the artisian well flowing warmer water.

Got it - thanks for the clarity and all the great posts!

I have laid down black plastic under a hoist net set up on a tripod...on sunny, cool days, Tilapia will hover densely ove the warm area...

Jeff, if the pond has predators in it, virtually every tilapia is eaten, passing all the nutrient up into the food chain...Death is what makes tilapia such an amazing management tool!! What few tilapia not eaten before death are quickly consumed by turtles and other scavengers, both aquatic and terrestrial. There has been no reported smell issues in any pond stocked due to the fact the fish die when it's cool and slowing decomp, along with scavenging...

Thanks Rainman....

If I stock 3"-4" fish in Mid-May, any idea how large they will be at the end of September when they begin to die off?

I have new and very fertile 1-1/2 acre pond. Plenty of predators including LMB, CC, and Walleye (+ turtles, etc.)

Jeff

Jeff If you stock 3"-4" tilapia consider that a good number of them will be fish food for the larger LMB, CC and maybe WE. If your predators are still small (less than 13"-15") in your new pond then 3"-4" tilapia stockers should have good survivability.

Jeff, the fish I deliver to Ohio in spring are a wide range of sizes (6-11") to ensure minimal predation...3-4" tilapia would get annihilated upon stocking with only 10-12" LMB

I think water temperature plays in to this equation too. If your tilapia are slugish, yes, larger predators can be an issue. If the pond temp is warm enough, tilapia can escape many preditors pretty easily.

2track, lethargy is only a minor factor in a fresh stocking of tilapia. The small tilapia, freshly stocked in a new enviornment and after a haul are EASY prey for anything that can open it's mouth wide enough. LMB can eat a tilapia close to half it's own body length in size.

In Bill's scenario with 3-4" tilapia and 13-15" predators, I'd expect 80% or more loss to predation at any temp inside of 30 minutes of stocking...just an educated estimate....

Maybe after a long haul that could be the case.

I put 50 tilapia in one of my ponds last year and those suckers were lightning fast! I caught 27 with the rod in September, and found 11 in Octomber and November. I’m not sure what happened to the remaining 12 but I wrote it off to predators and/or raccoons when they died.

Rainman has good information about lethargy of freshly stocked fish. Those fish are disoriented and almost always very stressed and vulnerable to predation when released into a unfamiliar pond. If they survive they can quickly adjust to surroundings and then have a much better chance of surviving. This was verified in a study summarized by ewest in his article about walleye stocking in the Jan-Feb PondBoss magazine pg 58. The study found that when walleye fingerlings are stocked, predation on them by largemout bass was greatest in the first 24 hrs and no predation of the fingerlings was observed after 14 days.

I have always wondered if a holding pen to let them stabilize would help. Maybe have a removable a panel or door and let them swim out naturally, maybe facing some sort of structure for them to run too.

Bobby...it may help reduce some, butthe fish will still spread throughout the pond, and I believe many will still get hammered while trying, until some reach safe havens.

What sizes caught? What sizes when stocked? What times of the year? In a fertile pond, 50 mixed sex tilapia will have a small percentage of their 1000's of offspring that will survive and could grow to 2 pounds+ in just 4-6 months. My educated guess if T were stocked in a small, 2-6" size, the majority were eaten and what you caught were mostly offspring. The tilapia in northern ponds are highly prolific, yet those reaching adult size remains limited. Also, in the 4 years of widespread pond stocking, I have yet to get a single report of a die-off that that was more than "a few" large fish being seen.

The blue tilapia are African cichlids (Oreocromis aureus). This means that typically they are a very aggressive family of fish. If you have ever raised African cichlids in an aquarium you will understand what I mean. I used to raise many different varieties. I have not raised the Blue Tilapia in an aquarium so that limits my first hand observations of this species however I can draw some conclusions. If you confine a lot of them in a small space (i.e. a truck) and then haul them several hours... they will fight... ALOT! They will be stressed when they arrive to your pond and will be disoriented. Add to this the stress of different water temps and pH and you should expect to lose a few fish to predation as well as simple stress. If they are half the size or less of your predators then most of them will become expensive sushi for your predators. Holding them in a pen will save them from predators but they will still be trying to kill each other. JMHO. My advice is to buy them larger than your predators can eat, release them into your pond and let them eat your FA after they recover.

seantOH

As far as aggression goes...in a pond/aquarium, the larger the male tilapia gets, the larger the nesting area it defends. When hauling, aggression is not an issue as the fish are held in darkness and they are so densely stocked, they do no fighting at all...the strssors are the constant motion, tight, confining, darkness with water qualities that can become horrible rapidly....but those are a live-haulers issues to deal with and still stock fish that will have a very low mortality rate. The rest of the reasons small, freshly stocked fish become sushi applies to any fish and is spot on....

Rainman,

Thanks for the info!

sean