Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Thousands of Tilapia

My pond is located in Hartland Michigan. In June I stocked it with 13 lbs of Blue Tilapia. I did not stock other fish. They had a wonderful summer, I did not have any algae and now I have thousands of them. I would love to give them away free to anyone interested in them before they die due to the water getting too cold. I believe the only way to effectively catch them is to net them.
Anyone out there interested?
Thanks

Hi Sue,

First thing that popped to my mind is that might be a great project for a local church, scout troop, etc. to get involved and maybe fill the larders of local homeless shelters, food pantries, etc or maybe just have a big fish fry for charity...there might even be a benefit to you as a tax deduction for donating the fish

Sue,
A big Michigander welcome to you from GR, MI. We would all love to know more about your pond! How did it come into existence? How old is it? What features do you like and not like about it? What fish are in it?

I had tilapia in my pond a couple of years and enjoyed them. They are fun to watch, and great at cleaning up any undesirables. I have found that blue tilapia are hard to source in MI. How did you obtain 13 pounds?

I had to get them from a hobbyist who was learning about aquaculture and could grow and save some blue tilapia for me by overwintering in his heated garage. That might also be a good way for you to keep them and reuse them in your pond next year. If you could advertise at a local aquaculture supply store, or in a forum, or on CL, you could see if someone could come and help you net them, overwinter them inside, and reuse next spring. You could try to keep them yourself if you had someone who would teach you the basics of keeping them in a IBC tote in a heated basement, garage, adjacent business, farm, etc.

Send pictures, we all love pictures

I very much agree with Bill D, if you can figure out a way to catch them with hook/line, or net, a fishing derby or donation to charity or food pantry would be splendid.

When weather got cold and my tilapia were getting sluggish I was dreaming about putting a IBC tote or 55 gallon barrel in the shallows, then cutting out a small flap in the side or a small opening that fish could get in but not easily get out (like the cone on a minnow trap). I was going to drop in one of those waterproof bird bath heaters that keep the water like 45-50 degrees and shut off automatically. I wondered if the warm water coming out around that tote would be enough to persuade the TP to go in and stay in. You could then net them out easily I assumed that some leak of hot water out would be a plus to bring the fish into the warm stream of water, but hopefully the heater could still keep the water in the tote a bit warmer than the surrounding water.


Just a crazy idea.

Thank you for your suggestion. I would like to do that and will contact the groups you have suggested. So far I have not been able to catch many fish by line and hook. So I was hoping someone would respond to my post with knowledge of how to successfully catch a lot of them, or better yet come and get them! So far I have only found one person who had Tilapia in his Michigan pond and he believes that as the water gets colder the fish will come to the edges and top of the pond so we can easily net them.

Thank you for your response and clever idea on how to trap them! I have a very able Brother-in-law that I will pass this on to and hope he concocts something! If so and it works, I will let you know. I believe my approx 1/3- 1/2 ac pond was dug in 1980 and stocked with large mouth bass and bluegill and sunfish. I bought the property in 2004 and the fish were still there until we had that super cold winter a couple years ago and I believe they all died. I then had an excavator dig the pond deeper and create 2 deep areas that were approx 20 feet deep while the rest of the pond gets about 10' in depth. Before I dug, the water level varied by about a foot but no more than that. After I dug the water level dropped significantly so I added a make up well. I think the well is turning on less often over time.
I also seeded the perimeter of the pond with a wildflower/short grass mix to reduce the amount of geese using the pond - that really works.
This year I stocked it with the 13 lbs of Blue Tilapia that I bought from Inspired By Nature in Weston Ohio. I checked to make sure Michigan allowed me to bring them from Ohio and my understanding is it is. Thanks for the suggestion to contact an aquaculture supply store. I will do that. I am new to posting so am not sure how to attach a photo of the pond. If you can coach me, I will.
Thanks again!

Sue,
If you get your tilapia young from someone who trained them with pellets then you could continue to pellet feed them in the same place and you might have a better chance of getting them to congregate in one area. If they get used to that you might even be able to net them at the end of the season. Or, if they are avid takers of pellets you can put pellets in a small bit of nylon (nude pantyhose remnant) on a small hook and catch them that way. I've not read of much success on hook/line unless they are used to pellets and caught on a 'pellet'.

You may be able to set up a long seine net across a shallow portion of the pond in the summer and make sure one end is all the way to shore and the other end allows a 5-6 foot opening. You could throw pellets between the net and shore and teach the fish to do an end run around the open side of the net until they are comfortable. Then while they are actively feeding you can quickly close off the net and seine them in. Could be worth a try next year.

Outside of that, once they get sluggish and water is really cold (like now) they don't move far and they will seek the South or SW corner of the pond and bask in the shallows trying to get the last bit of warm water. This is where I thought any type of 55 gallon drum, tank, etc with warm water might bring them in.

It sounds like you did a great thing after the fish kill, deepening the pond, creating different structure and depths on the bottom. Was the fish kill due to heavy snow and thick ice on the pond all winter? It sounds deep enough that a fish kill didn't have to happen. Did you have a lot of muck or vegetation at the time?

It also sounds like while digging the deeper part, the excavator went through clay (is there clay?) and into the ground water table or into a water vein. I too have a ground water pond and had to use my house well to try to keep the pond full which got frustrating and expensive. I've sealed my pond with a polymer that I learned about on this forum. If you knew the 'leak' was in the deep section it might be worthwhile to learn about possibly sealing your pond so your make up well doesn't run so much.

To post pictures, you need some type of online web page that will hold your pictures in place for you. Most people use photobucket because the account is free. There are other image hosting services. Some people use facebook as the holding place for the pictures but many filters block facebook content so then your pictures show up as empty frames on the forum.

Once you know where your pictures reside, you then go to post on this forum but use the button that says 'switch to full reply screen' (right below this line of text as you type). On that screen there are little buttons that help you post videos, pictures, or a webpage link. You click the button that says add picture, then pick 'floating' or any other one, I just pick the top one, then a dialogue box comes up asking you to paste the location of that picture. You then navigate to photobucket and pull up the picture you want, on the right of the picture are little shortcuts for 'email', 'direct', etc. If you click on direct it will automatically copy the web address for that picture and you can return to your posting and paste it into the box. Then I usually hit the button to 'preview' the post before posting to be sure the pictures came in correctly.

Hopefully that little tutorial will help.

What temp is your well water when it comes out?

If it is warmer than the pond water they will congregate around the well for the warmth. Place it in a very shallow area, when they gather up toss a cast net over the top of them.

Welcome to the forum! If my hunch is correct, those fish were supplied to the place you got them by a forum member here, Rainman.

While snagging and cast netting will work, the fastest way to get the most out at one time is with a seine. Note I didn't say easiest..... Seining isn't easy work, but when it's done correctly it is the most effective.

Thanks I will look up Rainman and yes I am going to try to catch them with a seine net this weekend and will let you know my success.

I don't know how warm it is as it comes out a distance from the shore, but that is a good idea to check and see if they congregate near it. The make up well only operates about 1x every 8-9 days and most of the time I am not around to see it in operation. But next time I do, I will place my thermometer near the outlet. Right now the fish migrate to a shallow sand beach entry area for the warmth on sunny days.

I'm going to give you a SWAG at 52°F-54°F.

ground water this time of year is probably COLDER than the water in the shallows, especially if you have some darker color bottom pigments or dark leaves to absorb the sun. They will still stay in the shallows trying to grab that remaining warmth.

I planted only about 10 pounds (50 fish, most in 4-6 range so I'm guessing) and I only witnessed a few dead ones and they were the largest ones. I have no predators who can eat a 4" fish so the majority of my tilapia must have died and sank. I truly don't know where they went.

I know turtles like to scavenge on them, but my turtles in the pond have been buried in mud for at least 3 weeks (right now) and last year at this time my tilapia were still alive so not sure where the dead ones went.