Let me start by saying, I am going to try being informative here and offer my opinions, experiences and personal conclusions based on my experiences and pretty extensive research. I will do some ranting, but please, remember the rants I will make are not meant to create any ideological debates.....
Meadowlark's posts are what inspired me to get interested in Tilapia in my pond as a "natural", no labor involved algae control. Bad thing was, ML insisted, often not at all politely, that only his way worked. ML, like Bob said of his own early tilapia logic... was wrong. What worked in ML's ponds, didn't do much in most other's ponds. Still, I will have to credit the man with posting some of his experiences that began changing my life and career dramatically!
Once I got interested in Tilapia as a possible solution for my personal pond's issues, it didn't take much research to understand Mozambique just didn't make economic sense to use outside of Texas. In fact, more research showed me Mozambique were not a wise choice anywhere north of the 30th parallel. As most here know though, in Texas, ONLY Mozambique are legal, but I ain't in Texas.
I was so engrossed with researching Tilapia! I was reading every spare moment I had! (I almost hate reading) I posted my excitement here often, shared my new-found knowledge and more every time something made sense to me. I asked tons of questions and for other's inputs. It was ewest that asked me on simple question that nearly stopped me in my tracks. Eric asked in a thread, if Tilapia were legal to stock in Missouri....my eventual answer after reading my state's wildlife code....uhhh, well, uhm, hmmm....nope!
By this time, I had spent hundreds of hours reading and comparing research papers. Every word I could find on "Tilapia" I digested, mulled over, and asked myself questions about. I consciously decided that there was no way in hell I was going to now know so much and NOT find a way to put all I'd learned to work....Tilapia were a perfect answer to a lot of pond issues, FAR more effective and FAR less harmful than many repeatedly used chemicals that would only recycle original problems while creating new, bigger problems! People deserved the chance to use a Tilapia that would work for them!
I brainstormed, asked endless what if's and learned what many pond owners never think of...my epiphany?...changing even one bacteria in a pond will change that ponds dynamics forever. It was then that I started piecing together how Tilapia in a pond would NOT be a threat as so many so called research studies claimed. I started making sense of the misleading and confusing research....I saw most were manipulated to produce pre-determined conclusions.
My what-ifs began to challenge conventional logic...it no longer mattered what tilapia ate according to some theory in a bureaucrats paper, what mattered was what Tilapia did...IN THE PONDS. What REALLY happens??? Tilapia eat, digest and extract nutrient from things in a pond NOTHING else can, from damn near anything (that's why the perpetual readers in power decided tilapia are such a danger). They reproduce like crazy too!! Normally, that is a very scary thing in a pond, (another huge red flag for the readers in charge of us), but not with Tilapia...They DIE each year where we want to use them! That death and their eating what almost nothing else can is what makes them so VERY special and powerful as a management tool. Tilapia are like a missing link in the Pond's ecosystem that truly supercharges it's potential to support life. Take THAT, Darwin!
Tilapia take hundreds, even thousands of pounds of inedible bottom waste that can actually poison a pond, and they eat it! You can say, Tilapia actually reverse the ponds aging process! Better yet, THEY EAT ALGAE!!!
Dudes, freaks, fellow pondmiesters...I was ON to something!
I told anyone that would listen, I asked tons of real world experience questions. what answers were not known, I put fish in water, or others did, and we started getting answers...Answers we could replicate, over and over and over.
Was it scientific?? WHO CARES?!?!? Letters after a name do NOT mean you have any claim on knowledge, fact or accuracy. This Degreed, High School Dropout, was proving a lot of names with PHD, MS and others should have been F's...cause, they were VERY wrong! Suddenly, this dummy had a passion...a passion to learn everything I possibly could about Blue Tilapia and way more than I wanted about many other Tilapia!
By this time, maybe after a year or more of near constant research, I had ended my successful 26 year career in the Auto Parts industry...I knew I'd get blackballed for reporting my CEO for Ken Lay, Enron style fraud and stock manipulation, but hey, I slept better at night knowing my integrity was back intact! AND I could study more about tilapia with the extra, good nights of sleep!
I then completely dove into researching all I could about the different species of Tilapia, a genre of the cichlidae family (African Cichlid) and I quickly realized 3 things.
First, virtually all published research on the species was for use in the food fish industry.
Second, ALL the research I found pertaining to Tilapia being invasive was blatantly ideologically biased, and based on purely hypothetical, theory, isolated short term observations and non-relevant data (such as describing what one species does by observing an entirely different species), Using multiple species to make claims on one species, or even when actually based on another species (ie a study on T. Nilotica [Niles[ using facts about T, Aurea [Blues]). Most "studies and claimed "research" I read was pretty obvious to a reasonable person, that it manipulated or ignored facts, used hypotheticals and theorized to create a desired conclusion. When read fully, it can be difficult to agree with the conclusions made even with the "facts" they'd print.
Here is a representative GOVERNMENTAL sample of what I found in the way of misleading, confusing and flat out false information. This is the "study most prohibitive state biologist use to ban Tilapia in their states...It is rife with citing "personal communications", saying "perhaps", "may" and "possibly" have established populations.
http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=463What I find most interesting about Blue Tilapia in the USGS report is near the end under the heading of "Impact of Introduction". It states, "It has invaded the Taylor Slough portion of Everglades National Park where it is considered a major management problem for the National Park Service (Courtenay 1989; Courtenay and Williams 1992).". Yet after the extended cold snap of 2010, I KNOW the National Park Service restocked over $75,000 worth of Blue Tilapia fry and fingerlings after they were all but eradicated that year ( saw the check!)...(Perhaps they just didn't want to lose the annual $750,000 for Tilapia eradication budgeted for the glades, or perhaps they saw the explosion of aquatic plants choking the glades return that once tilapia established, Tilapia had been controlling said aquatic vegetation, and the NPS had previously spent millions losing the plant control battle that was filling in the glades)
Here's another representative sample. This is a publically funded "study" on Blue Tilapia
http://www.tsusinvasives.org/database/blue-tilapia.html again combines a report on one species, with other species, plus contains outright lies in it. Here is an excerpt that does both in a single sentence..."If two species from the genus hybridize, that can increase their survivability and expand their invasive range - See more at:
http://www.tsusinvasives.org/database/blue-tilapia.html#sthash.2eyyFj7R.dpuf "...First it adds other undisclosed species that could hybridize...second, since this pertains to Blue Tilapia in the "study", ANY hybrid of a Pure Blue, RAISES the minimum cold water tolerance and would REDUCE it's potential establishment range.
There are almost endless examples of these biases being regurgitated to promote PITA-like agenda's. Does the ends justify the means...you can decide that.
The numerous research examples were mind boggling to me!
Thirdly, of the several dozens, if not hundreds of studies I'd read, I can NOT recall more than 2 or three that did any ACTUAL observation OR forensic causal study when claiming Tilapia displaced native species of aquatic life. To the contrary, virtually every study based its "facts" on unsupported "facts" contained in cited studies or the myriad of "maybe's" exampled earlier.
No offense to the small bit of GOOD science I could find out there, but clearly personal, ideologically motivated mis-statements of "facts" are pervasive, at least when it comes to native versus non-native species. IF the motivations are not ideologically driven, the authors are at a minimum, misrepresenting claims of fact and conclusion, basing their claims on, provably or proven inaccurate, data.
Meadowlark had some insight with his playing with Tilapia in his pond. George1 has possibly fallen in love with his Mozzie's and how they help him manage his pond for years now. George was also an inspiration for me, though I admit, I enjoy our occasional "debates" too! Todd Overton has been a leader in finding what that magic "suggested stocking rate" was for various goals, in Texas. Todd has also helped steer my path, when, and in ways I needed. Bill Cody has recorded a myriad of observations on what Tilapia eat and create in sport fish ponds. It was Bill that mentioned some of my Tilapia theories to someone that was my first, and remains my major purchaser.
I, with the help of each of those just mentioned, along with many others, and THIS website, took using Tilapia WAY beyond Texas and not only created and expanded an entirely new market for a much more cold tolerant species in northern waters, we are continually discovering new facts and still disproving long held "invasives" research all the time!
I can say that "technically", Tilapia DOES displace at least one genre of a "native aquatic species". In REALITY, contrary to the PAPER studies, when stocked properly, in the right sizes, species and numbers, Blue Tilapia north of the 30th parallel and Mozambique Tilapia south of that line and in all of Texas, WILL, simply stated, knock the holy crap out of most algae's and detritus, and increase the health, size and numbers of nearly every other species that "science', for years, has claimed the T will displace!!!
Tilapia are NOT a magic bullet in a pond, but I know of no other management tool that can do more good, be more versatile on goal attainment and produce more, larger fish for less money, NO labor or long term risk in a sport fish or trophy management pond. Supplemental feed alone can't do what tilapia can, aeration alone can't do what tilapia do, adding additional forage fish can't, beneficial bacteria alone can't do it!
Tilapia are a simply amazing tool! It is sad that so many states are controlled by backward, ideological, uninformed, unwilling, and/or authoritarian regulators that prevent the private pond owners of their individual states from having Tilapia in their management arsenal when wanted and needed.
The topic of this thread began asking "Tilapia Cost Questions". The answer depends! Actual dollar costs vary based on species, availability, order volume, transport and production expenses. those cost can be as low as $2.00/lb for a wholesale, 1000 pound order of food fish hybrid Niles that are virtually useless in a pond for algae control and/or forage production, to $40/lb for pure strain Blues that are custom stocked based on an on site survey, goal assessment and guarantee of annual goal attainment.
A better answer to this particular question would consider your particular pond, available sourcing, location and desired goals, then compare the cost of an annual Tilapia stocking to the seasonal costs of aeration, feed, chemicals, labor, etc.....you will almost certainly discover that at even the highest price I know of, $40/lb, you will spend less on tilapia that you would on "traditional" controls to attain your individual goals.
I wish I could name all those involved that pushed, challenged, questioned, doubted, supported, and helped me in countless ways...God, my partner Cathy, my daughters and grandkids, Bill Cody, Bob Lusk, Dave Davidson, Meadowlark, George, Scott (esshup), Eric (ewest), Dave Willis (amazing man!), Sunil, Todd Overton and Todd3138, Theo, Jhap, Dwight, TJ AaronM, Nate and Justin, Shawn Banks, Cecil...and every single member on this forum still with us or looking down from heaven now...Each one here, named or not has made a huge difference, for the better in pond management...the list will never stop growing...
In no way did I do this alone! I may have put a lot of it together and created a lot of infectious excitement, but every member here that helped me in some way, either directly, or even telling a friend..."try tilapia for that!".
My "Company Logo" is a cowboy, riding a Bucking Blue Tilapia. It reflected my Cowboy attitude and the rough ride I knew the fish business would be.
That ride continues....Thank God the new ride has air suspension to cushion my butt a little more now!
As for the Cowboy attitude? Well, it's still here, I don't get bucked off easily, but that will become another story for another time.......