Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Want Some Tilapia?

I am getting ready to place a large order for some Blue Tilapia. If anyone would like to share this order with me, send me a private message to let me know how many you'd like.

I am getting several hundred 3-5" fish and don't have room for a lot of extras but can hold them for a little while. If enough people are interested, I can place additional orders. At 3+ inches they can avoid most predation and will spawn 3-4 times this year.

The Blues are the tilapia that can survive in water to 45 degrees giving us a couple extra months overall in the water.

Would be a shame Rainman if some GSF got mixed in with that order.

A real shame.

Muhaa, Muhaaaa, Muhaaaaaaaaa.

Not a shame Jeff! Two inch Tilapia LOVE 10 inch greenies for a light snack! Greenies lower my food bill.

Hey bidder, bidder, bidder!

The order total is up to 1200. Do I hear 1500?

My experience w/ blue tilapia has shown they don't last long in water under 55 degrees

That would make me wonder if they were truly Pure strain Blue's or more likely a hybrid form. The 45 temps are pretty well documented on the pure strains and range from 45-55 for the majority blue hybrids. True pure strains are pretty rare. I have put Ice in a 10 gallon tank with 30 10 day old fry to lower the temp to 48 and had no morts after 6 hours.

This is probably the best link I have found on blue tilapia and tilapia in general Tilapia.

Here is an excerpt from it:

The intolerance of tilapia to low temperatures is a serious constraint for commercial culture in temperate regions. The lower lethal temperature for most species is 50 to 52o F for a few days, but the Blue tilapia tolerates temperatures to about 48o F.

Tilapia generally stop feeding when water temperature falls below 63o F. Disease-induced mortality after handling seriously constrains sampling, harvest and transport below 65o F. Reproduction is best at water temperatures higher than 80o F and does not occur below 68o F. In subtropical regions with a cool season, the number of fry produced will decrease when daily water temperature averages less than 75o F. After 16- to 20- day spawning cycles with 1/2-pound Nile tilapia, fry recovery was about 600 fry per female brooder at a water temperature of 82o F, but only 250 fry per female at 75o F. Optimal water temperature for tilapia growth is about 85 to 88o F. Growth at this optimal temperature is typically three times greater than at 72o F.

Seems to me from my reading Rainman is right about blue tilapia being more cold hardy and able to do a bit better in northern ponds. 48 degrees is their lowest survivable temperature but once they hit 45 its over.

Excellent site. I've had it bookmarked for a long time.

This jives with pretty much everything I've read.

I am ordering several hundred extra Tilapia and opened a new UPS account that cut shipping considerably in case some need them later

I saw your post in my Overnight thread, is UPS cheaper than FedEx for shipping fish now?

Yes, about $40 less. I already lowered the shipping in my ebay ad on tilapia too.

Can't beat that...