Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Stocking Tilapia - please weigh in

I just spoke with my Tilapia supplier, who is a fisheries biologist, and he informed me that Tilapia in the 4-6" range actually reproduce more off spring than older, larger ones due to spawning much more often.

Also FWIW smaller Tilapia will eat a much more varied diet of zooplankton other fry, and phytoplankton. Once a size of around 10" is reached growth and spawns are dramatically reduced and they start to feed primarily on detritus and algae.

So for forage AND algae control it is best to stock several 5-7" fish. For forage only stock 3-5" and for algae control stock 8" plus sizes.

He also assured me that the fish he sent me are pure strin Oreochromis Aurea, Blue tilapia.

On the negative side of tilapia, has anyone ever had a fish kill that they thought they could relate directly to the extra biomass tilapia adds. Im sure it would be hard to relate it to one factor. But a hot dry summer with all those extra fish is my biggest worry. Perhaps different stocking rates/times could help to ease this problem, and still get the benefits from this fish.

George thanks and that makes sense, however the main reason I am attracted to tilapia is the forage potential and not control of algae. I want to have my cake and eat it too

Correction I want to have tilapia and me and my bass eat them too.

3. Growth rate for YOY TP - if they don't grow quickly they won't serve as much of a meal - no matter how many exist in a pond.

Jakeb - thats a really good point - I also want benefits of algae control and for TP to serve as forage. I'm wondering if one stocked the mid sized 5-7 inchers they would control the algae and their offspring could serve as the forage. Guess I need to figure out:

1. How many spawns I could count upon during a season
2. If aeration would affect getting water temps to the 80's which appears the temp they need to acheive for spawn - so one might need to be mindful of shutting down aeration a few times a season to achieve the desired temps?
3. Growth rate for YOY TP - if they don't grow quickly they won't serve as much of a meal - no matter how many exist in a pond.

Rainman? George? Ryan? Anyone?

Here are some facts I've learned about tilapia in ponds:

Don't stock them until water temps stabilize in the 70s. For us in east/central Texas this is late April/early May. Two years ago it snowed on Easter and I know of several pondmeisters who had already stocked tilapia in the area. Doesn't make much sense to me to stock them before spawning temps. Higher temps = higher metabolism = faster tilapia, and so tilapia stocking success may hinge on a high temp advantage when being stocked in a predator-heavy pond.

Stocking tilapia for algae control is most effective if you control the vegetation first before stocking tilapia, then stock tilapia at a rate of 30lbs per acre.

The ideal stocking size for existing ponds with predator pressure is 1/4lb fish, give or take, but not size graded. Grading the small fish off a batch of tilapia likely results in a male-heavy stock, when in fact, you'll get better reproduction out of female-heavy stocks.

The existence of a plankton bloom when stocking tilapia will greatly improve your probability of success.

In my experience the small 1"-3" tilapia eat more detritus than adults. You can watch them along the shoreline, flashing as they munch plankton and detritus from a pond bottom.

The daily Dissolved Oxygen curve for tilapia production ponds seems to be more stable, with less severe spikes and depletions than other productive ponds.

We raised 4000+ lbs of tilapia in a 1/2 acre production pond, starting with 20 lbs of broodstock, without having to aerate a single time during the 2008 season. Please note that we do check our oxygen daily and we don't advise this biomass load for rec ponds.

Tilapia are the most efficient agent available (possible 1-1 feed conversion ratio in ponds plus planktonic in nature) for channeling nutrients from their basic form all the way to the top of the food chain, almost guaranteed (due to low cold tolerance), within a single season.

I've had 2 bald eagles and an osprey for the past 3 years on my farm for winter tilapia clean-up.

TJ, I'll respond to what I know and have researched on the Blues.

You can safely add the T at 60 degrees--(spawning rarely occurs below 70) and if a few cold nights occur the T will most likely find warm pockets of refuge even in aerated ponds and survive. They will even dig into the substrate to survive. I watched this when I lowered the temp in a tank with ice to 40 degrees for 30 minutes and all 8 3 inch "test" fish survived.

Blues (and Niles) sexually mature at 4 inches and/or 2-4 months. Assuming you have at least a 4 month spawning season (water above 70) AND you stock 2 month old 4"+ fish you will get 2-4 spawns from each originally stocked female producing an average of 200 surviving offspring. Of the first YOY spawn, you will get at least one spawn from each of those females and a possible spawn from the second YOY.

Assume you have a 4 month growing season (water temp above 70) and stock 100 three month 4" fish, 50 male, 50 female. Let's use an example of only 10 females spawning within a week of stocking and each producing the average 200 (50% male/female ratio) surviving fry and all other spawn from all other females falling to predation. Those original 10 will produce at least 4000 offspring (2 spawns)and the fist spawned females will produce another 200,000 fish that will be an average size of 3" by the end of your 4 month season.

Please check my math.---I'm old!

Hey Weissguy - long time - good to hear from you. Thanks for your two cents...sounds like Rainman has purebed Blues tho?

I like the thought of having my algae controlled in each of my three little ponds and a stronger population going in the bigger watershed...but the jury is still out on this for sure. Ryan's thread 2-3 years ago has guys really ga-ga over the potential but not sure if the results really supported their hopes.

BTW-what's keeping you from adding HSB, WE, SMB, CP, RES? That would be one heckuva fishery!

Hey teehjaeh57! I've been around, but lurking mostly. I'm quite busy this time of year due to end of year stuff for my business. ICK! Rainman has some quality fish in my opinion. If he says they are purebred Blues, that's enough for me. His work with T has already added a lot of valuable info to this site on the subject, and it has helped me a great deal. My tilapia are mostly a blue/nile mix. They have proven extremely cold tolerant so far. I had a holding tank sitting on my basement floor with no backup heat dip down to 59 degrees for 3 days. The fish slowed a bit but still ate well. I also recently received a shipment of 2 inch fish via UPS and when they arrived (two days late!) the water was ICE cold and absolutely filthy. You could hardly see the fish in the poop/water mud mixture they were in. The fish were lively, and I haven't had a single one die. They are about 4 inches now after a month and a half. I have kept aquariums for most of my life, and I have never encountered a tropical that is so hardy! It's amazing.



We are really just starting to touch on the subject. I would really like to see Missouri change their stance on the subject of Tilapia in ponds here as I would like to use them and study them in a pond environment as well, but I don't hold out a great deal of hope on that. I do intend to setup a fairly large RAS for them when we complete our new house at the pond. I already have about 320 gallons dedicated to them now, but no more room to grow in my current house (I'm worried it might freak out people looking to buy the house... hehe). I've seen some excellent info added to this thread since this post of yours, and it goes right along with everything I've read and researched. This is going to get fun I think.



Time has really been the only thing preventing me from adding them. This year I'm hoping to add a lot of these, in small quantity. It will be done in conjunction with removing a large number of 12-14 inch LMB. I would like to keep the predator/prey ratio to a reasonable level. I can't wait though. I have had an extremely difficult time finding GP, and they are really the fish I'm most anxious to add. Imagine fishing for those in the shallows during the early morning with a fly rod. I used to do this up in MN for NP, and it was a blast!