Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose New Tilapia

Thanks to Rainman in making a slight detour from his Indiana delivery, I have some new Tilapia!. My aquarium is not even filled yet, so I threw them in a 150Gal pond next to my patio with 4 Koi in it. They seem happy, but are still eyeing the Koi not knowing what to make of them. I am working on a VERY Small in comparison to any of your ponds, 1200 gallon pond for Tilapia and some minor irrigation of the garden with high bacteria level pond water. I hope to provide some pics along the way and document my very small pond experiment. Thanks to everyone for all the fine info so far

Welcome to Pond Boss Hautions. It's great that Rainman could hook you up.

So tell us about your "small pond experiment."

Welcome to PB and we like pics especially of Rainman's (now your) fish.

Larry, the timing was perfect! glad to hear the little ones are getting aquainted with thier new home. They've never seen any other fish other than another tilapia-----or through glass!


BTW, Larry, welcome to the forum!

I did not really think about temperature, so I threw a floating thermometer in the pond and it is around 72. Not warm enough to make them happy, but it will do!

My small pond is currently a ditch formed by run-off from my property. A little widening and I should have a decent 6X12X2.5 deep area that will self fill. Looking at overflows now. Should not be too bad. More details later and pictures of fish. I get it.

worked on the small pond experiment this holiday week-end without a lot of success. I dug out a nice 1200-1500 gallon area, but after a lot of tamping ( thanks Rainman) it still leaks. I may just go with a cheap liner and call it good. Too many crawdad holes etc. I am not sure I would ever seal it well enough. I even poured a 6' X 2.5' retainer behind the clay dam. No luck. The tilapia look great and I did not lose a single one. Learning to eat pellets and are aggressive now.

I want the pond to be very aggressive on bacteria, and I have been reading a lot about lactose varieties that enhance fish growth etc. I want to promote that with a good bio filter in my 1000 to 1200 gallon pond. Rainman also talked about a plywood box and a heater to winter over some fish in the pond. Sounds like a fun experiment.

Hey Terre Haute,
I also got 20lb of the blues while rainman was making his rounds through the Hoosier state. I have a 2 acre strip pit just southeast of Rosedale that had not been managed for 20+ yrs. 2 years ago it looked as if you could walk across the pit due to Algae, Duckweed & Coontail. I had removed some mechanically but, I put the Blues in on the 28th of June & you would not believe how much algae/duckweed the have already consumed. It is amazing...I would highly recommend contacting rainman if you have algae/duckweed issues & you prefer not to treat with chemicals.

PICTURES MAN!!! PICTURES!!!!!!!

Me and a lot of others have to live vicariously through you guys!

ehrmandale, that sounds great! I was just up near Rosedale picking up an aquarium. I put a liner in my little pond and it is nice and full now. I'm working on a pump and a little aeration. Have to clean up all the aquarium stuff so I can fill it and move some fish inside. i'm retty excited.


Rainman i'll get some pictures today!

OK Rainman, The fish are so dark I can not pick them up in a picture but here is the start of my project anyway. 75 gallon aquarium that will house a male and 5-6 females. Up front Rainman suggests adding all the fish until the males and females are easier to tell apart. I do not know how many fish I have, but I am guessing 15-20. They range from 2 to 4 inches.



Since Rainman was coming in to town on short notice, I did not have anywhere to put the fish. I do have a 150 gallon Koi pond next to the patio, so it became a temporary home for the blue tilapia. It seems to have worked out OK and I did not lose a single fish. Here is a pic of the pond but of course the tilapia really do not show up.



The final home for the tilapia is a 1200 gallon pond I dug on our property. There was already a ditch that carries run off from our yard, so it provided the easiest place to build with minimum digging.



It is about 8' wide and a total of 14' long. It is roughly 2.5' deep, except in an area on the left. I cut this area 1' deep and covered it with slate and marble pavers I had around the yard. I also found some old 7" orange tiles in the basement that I added to the future nesting end of the pond. I will add some pea gravel on top of the pavers and it ought to work out well. Here is an overall shot.



Don't laugh at the edges of my liner, I will cover those up with some dirt and plant a little grass seed on them. I tried the no liner approach, but could not get it to work. the 14 X 20 Liner worked out very well. On the incoming end I will mix some concrete and line line the current drainage area. That way I can push the edge of the liner in the wet concrete to "seal" that area.



In this shot you can see under the floating leaves my shallow shelf and a couple of the orange tile. You can also see a few air stones to get a little oxygen in the water, I threw a couple of gold fish in to check the water befor throwing in any "real" fish.It might be easy to overpopulate this pond and it is one of my concerns. Of course the the winter cold will kill off the tilapia without some kind of heater. I'll work on that later. tomorrow's project is a pump and bio filter. Enjoy!

Fish pictures! I got my cannon back and used the flash for some better Blue tilapia pictures. The first picture is one of the Koi retreating and several Tilapia guarding the big flat rock. Rainman I assume that some of these fish are easily big enough to spawn. with all the fish and Koi, I am not sure I would ever notice.



Here is another shot with both Blue's and Red's. Rainman a filter disaster did in one of my Red's already.




The pond looks better with pump filter and some pea gravel in the shallow end. More pics later.

I did get 18 fish in the aquarium. Here is what I think is a male. Black tips and the biggest fish I have.

That aquarium and stand look exactly like the 125 gallon long that I have! Great looking tank!

Here are a couple of outdoor updates. The pump and filter do an unbelievable job keeping the water clear. You can now see every pebble on the bottom of the pond.



I have the splitter set up so roughly half the water goes through the fountain and half goes through the filter, Now that the location is set I will bury the filter up to the lid.

Here is a nice shot of the shallow area with a few tilapia cruising through. Water clarity and aeration are outstanding. I am stating to add pea gravel in the shallow area for nesting purposes. It should not be too long until a few Fry show up. Can't wait. It should be an interesting race between the outdoor bunch with all the space and the indoor aquarium group with a little more confined space and 84 degree water




I also added a concrete spillway to the pond. This seals the edge of the liner and will cath the water off a perforated drain pipe. It was tested today with a nice 3" per hour downpour, for an hour and a half. Everything is still intact, but the water is a little muddy.

I have baby fish. Pretty cool