Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Are these young talapia?

I went out to the pond this morning and saw a lot of small fish around 3-4" dead and some swimming along the banks slow and sluggish. I know that my talapia are going to die off and the temps are now in the low 50 and high 40, but they look like small BG. When I put the talapia in they were around 1/4# and some were black ,some white, and some a white pinkish color. These are light colored with dark bars running from top to bottom on their sides. Some of the larger ones are a darker color, and I have seen no adult size dead or dying. My pond is about 4-5 feet low, with about 3-4 feet of water left in it. I can just reach in the water and catch this fish, some will just sit there and some try to swim away but are too slow.

A photo would probably be helpful or perhaps someone else could post a photo of a juvenile talapia. Do talapia have vertical bars on them?

I have no way of providing a photo, so if someone else could, that would be a big help.

Young tilapia can look similar to young BG; I find one good differentiating characteristic is the dorsal fin. It is larger and frillier at the back end on tilapia than on BG, and the Tilapia anal and dorsal fins are very symmetrically sized and shaped.
Not so with Bluggill.
Tilapia (note larger and pointier anal/dorsal fins):


Bluegill (fins rounded off):


Does that help any?

They are so small I might not be able to tell, but I will go back and catch the biggest one I can and see if I can tell the difference.

Went back and checked the fins on around a dozen dead and almost dead. The top fin was exactly as in Theo 1st picture, so I am pretty sure they are Tilapia. They were easily caught with a swimming pool net.But, I wonder why their are no adults dead or dying? Thanks for the photo Theo.