Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait tilapia are in

just got the tilapia today. about 30 lbs and my pond is about 3/4 acre. what should i expect? some of the fish were at least half lb..delivery guy said their off spring will be larger than that by fall.

i hope they clean up the green stuff.

I agree the stockers will be 3 lbs or bigger if doing a feeding program. Glad you got them finally. It may not be an overnight success but expect you to see a major reduction in FA with that stocking.

i dont have a huge fa problem, just would like to have no fa or other undesirable plant at all. the blue green algae that you (greg)commented on the other day pretty much went away in 2 days. it was bright and green for a day or so though.

thanks greg for the tilapia connection.

Cool beans Scott! I hope you take some before and after pictures.

day 2 with the tilapia and i see some in groups, counted 13 together all hanging out where the bg beds are.. then there are some swimming along all alone and others in pairs.. each time i feed my bg i see a few tilapia swimming in with them but never surfacing. dont you think they are raised on pellets?

Give it a week and I bet the tilapia are knocking around everythig else at feeding time. But those that are displaced will be feasting on tilapia fry!

i have some pretty large boulders in my pond and some of the tilapia seem to be chasing others round and around the rocks. is that a spawning ritual? there sure is a large color difference in the tilapia.. there are lots of white ones that all seem to stay together swimming in schools while the ones with different colors seem to be the ones doing the love dance. maybe coincidence?

Scott, do you know what type of tilapia you put in? Here is a link to a video of Blue tilapia. The light ones are males and the dark ones are female.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLk8xhzgdZQ

neat video. looks like the female got in a fight with a boat prop. no eye and a broken jaw..

the pair are trying o spawn on tank with all the others?

no idea as the type of tilapia.

greg, do you know what type they are?

they are really starting to eat the pellets.

They'll spawn anywhere! She was a great spawner till her size got too big and she couldn't hold all her eggs. I think she was trap/smashed with a dip net when she was very small and still survived. Blaine has her now!

She is enjoying her retirement and final summer in my pond. The algae buffett is plentiful and always available. Bingo on Thursday nights.

the tilapia are tearing the pellets up. there are some good size ones in there also, i would guess pushing a pound. when should i expect to see the babies? they have beenin one week now. will the babies be in schools near the shore?

The babies will stay in momma's mouth for a week or two after hatching. If there is enough algae/plant cover around, they will leave mom at about a half inch then hide in the food till about one to one and a half inches. when they get to biig or eat all thier cover about 99.5% will go into the YOY's and others bellies! The ones that survive that are too scared to show themselves till they get 8-10" long in another 3-5 months. Then it starts to get cold and they swim too slow so the bigger kids eat them all. the original stockers will get eaten by turtles, big catfish and other wildlife within a week of slowing/dieing.

There's the T lifecycle in a very abbreviated form!

i hope i am the biggest part of the food chain when they start slowing down. i hear they are wonderful..

are the babies easy to identify? my pond is full of all sorts of frye right now..