Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction Innovative tilapia harvest idea

I have been scheming for a while now on different unusual fish production models for my ponds. But my best idea of late was actually my lovely wife's idea, and I am excited to refine it and give it a try.

The idea of raising tilapia here in NC is appealing. The warm season lasts pretty long, and there is a lot of algae growth in our 1/2 acre pond for the fish to eat.

The problem I foresee is harvest. Tilapia are supposed to be good at burrowing under a seine. Our pond has a mucky bottom which would make burrowing even easier. Draining the pond is not an option.

Here's the idea: Build a fish cage (similar to my trout cage that I posted here last October), but with a larger diameter. It has to have one open side that can be closed quickly and easily. Then when water temp drops to the danger range for tilapia, put a stock tank de-icer (with the thermostat bypassed so it continually heats) into the middle of the cage. The tilapia cozy up into the relative warmth of the cage, and you close off the open side. Viola, the tilapia are all contained for easy harvest.

Anyone have any helpful hints, tips or suggestions? Think it sounds crazy?

We have a lake near here (Hyco) that has a permanent poplulation of blue tilapia. In winter they all hang out near a warm-water discharge. We thought we would try to replicate that just long enough (and with the right timing) to make harvesting of the fish more efficient.

What do you all think?

I say I say swampboy that there is a darn good idea. The haveahart live traps close very quickly. They are expensive but if ya could find a large one on Ebay or CL it would pretty simple to tie a heavy mono line onto the tray and every so often trip it. Now has anybody seen that that pesky Bulldog?

2 years ago we had cool weather followed by strong sunny days. I was able to snag Tilapia out of the pond very easily as they came up to bask in the sun.

With the heater idea, how would you keep Tilapia from congregating outside the cage on those 3 sides?

Essup, he could build a larger cage with a funnel entrance but that won't solve the problem of them hovering above the heat clear up to the surface.

The idea is that the cage will be large enough diameter that with the heat source in the center, everything outside the cage will be inhospitable for the tilapia sooner or later. After all, a livestock tank de-icer is not going to heat the whole pond. At some point the pond will be cold enough that they will move inside the cage to be in the warmest water possible. That is when I make my harvest.

Oh, and to clarify, the cage will stick up above the surface, so they can't hover above it.

Sounds like it may work... I'd throw feed pellets around the cage before it gets to cool (get them used to the feeding area).

Hey swampmusic. Just wondering if you made any headway on this. I'm in the same situation. This is my first year with tilapia and I'm trying to figure out how to harvest. Just a thought, what about insulating the three sides and bottom to keep more of the warmer water inside?

Cool idea.

What about some type of greenhouse solar collector for the heat source? I'm thinking running even a 1500 watt heater day and night for a few weeks is not going to be cheap.

What if a person built some sort of small greenhouse type structure on floats that could be put in shallow water.

Ok, that is as far as my brainstorm lasted, the details for construction and the trap part are lacking.

I was thinking the same thing. Using irrigation pipe to make a solar heater. They use them to heat swimming pools.If you make a double wall trap with the interior wall from cement board then have a gap to the exterior wall made from mesh that would funnel into the interior. If you pull the water from the interior to the solar heater and put it back in I think you could get a significant temp rise.

Gklop