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george1 Offline OP
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We first stocked Tilapia in our N.E. Texas 2 acre pond for Filamentous Algae control in 2003 at the rate of 5 pounds per acre, with marginal results.

In 2004 we had an extremely bad case of wind driven FA onto a substrate of bushy pond week and chara, that baked into a film by endless record breaking 100+ degree days.

Todd Overton of Overton Fisheries recommended stocking 10 pounds of Tilapia per acre and three Grass Carp per acre and the results were dramatic.
Within three weeks there was a reduction of both FA and aquatic vegetation and soon after completely cleared.

I believe this is the first time I have posted these photos because I was too embarrassed to show them

Ten pounds of Tilapia per acre per year to date has been a successful program.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...9bae#Post183742







N.E. Texas 2 acre and 1/4 acre ponds
Original george #173 (22 June 2002)




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Nothing to be embarrassed about George. Man made ponds require man made intervention. You consulted with Todd and took his excellent advice and made your pond pretty. IMO that an example of excellent pond management.

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George1, that isn't anything that I haven't seen before. The route that you took to clear it up is great! If I would have found PB earlier, and known about Tilapia's penchant for eating FA, then I would have NOT put the 100# of Copper Sulphate in the pond that I did over the past few years. My only savior is that the water gets exchanged in the pond due to ground water saturation. I even had the well tested for any copper traces and that was negetative. 125 3"-4" Blues went in this Summer and the FA problem was minimized. I think I wouldn't have any problems at all if I put in 10#/ac!


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3/4 to 1 1/4 ac pond LMB, SMB, PS, BG, RES, CC, YP, Bardello BG, (RBT & Blue Tilapia - seasonal).
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If 10 pounds has worked, I wouldn't suggest changing a thing!

Stocking rates of 10-50 pounds is considered the standard recommendation but as always, it all depends......



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george1 Offline OP
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 Originally Posted By: Rainman
Stocking rates of 10-50 pounds is considered the standard recommendation but as always, it all depends......
IMO 50 lbs tilapia is overkill unless extreme circumstance.
Grass carp should play a role in your equation.

I regret I didn't have the opportunity of hearing your presentation at the PB conference so I do not know your credentials of managing your personal ponds.
I am aware of your marketing efforts and start-up of your new venture.

We have six years experience of successful tilapia management of our N.E. Texas ponds and a strong supporter of their usage.

My position in this discussion is from point of view of the customer, and have absolutely no commercial interest in the marketing of tilapia.

Yes “it all depends” – perhaps there are different stocking requirements for northern ponds.

I wish you the very best of luck in your tilapia venture.



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You lost me on that one George.

I had no presentation at the conference---I arranged the outdoor activities. the closest thing I was to being a speaker is the ribbon on my name badge that said "Speaker"---and that scared the dickens out of me! \:\)

I personally don't care for using grass carp as a plant control tool, the results are often very inconsistant. The presence, or absense, of White Amur should naturally play a role in a suggested stocking rate of tilapia if only plant control is desired. Tilapia will consume much of what GC won't. Tilpaia are not for FA control only. From all I have witnessed, Blue Tilapia at least, tend to create their own niche in a pond by consuming organics that are not being utilized by any other species first, then moving on to the next most abundant food source and so on. FA and detritus just happen to normally be the first major food sources in most ponds. Other ponds it may be duckweed, watermeal, milfoils, lillies, chara, coontail etc. I have seen very little evidence of competition between GC, or any other common sport fish pond species for that matter and tilapia.

A stocking range of 10 to 50 pounds appears to apply in both northern and southern waters as far as I can determine so far. At the max rate, I agree, 50 pounds or perhaps even more would indeed be for an extreme circumstance.

I don't have any "credentials". Is there some one that does have credentials in sportfish stocking of tilapia? Are any required to know about tilapia?

I'm not really sure what you mean by my "marketing efforts with my new venture". I have a real passion for touting the benefits of tilapia and apologize if that comes across as aggressive marketing. Because I raise/sell tilapia, am I somehow automatically disqualified from making a well educated stocking suggestion based on the stated desired goals of a customer or promoting what I passionately believe in? There wouldn't be many businesses if the benefits of any given product were not marketed or that a company's existance remained a secret. While I most certainly do have a "commercial" interest in tilapia now, that interest began as my being a customer. The general lack of pertinant knowledge on tilapia in a wide range of pond conditions is very reason I learned all I can about the species I wanted and is why it became a business. Is that wrong?

From the very few scientific studies of tilapia in sportfishing waters and the few relevant polyculture studies ever done, along with a fair amount of personal experiance, 40 pounds per acre seems to be the best all-around rate for the most effective plant control, detritus reduction, water quality improvement, and as an abundant forage in the "typical", established, non-aerated, non-fed, fertile pond.

If 10 pounds per acre works well for you, I would never suggest anything different unless other factors changed. I don't agree that what works well in one pond will work out as well for others though, that's wht I try to glean as much info on a pond as possible.

Thanks for sharing your years of experiance using tilapia. The fact that 10 pounds works well for you in your pond is all that matters!



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My apologies if my “Tilapia Case History of a N.E. Texas Pond” took a negative turn, since the topic reflected our successful experience with FA control - NOT FORAGE RECRUITMENT.
Forage recruitment is the subject of another topic for discussion, and dependent upon the pondmeister’s goals.

If maximum tilapia forage recruitment is desired to achieve pond owner’s goals, consideration of high stocking numbers may be in order.

I was pleased with my report since it reflected positive results to achieve successful results that may help new pond owners attain their GOALS.
A combination of tilapia and grass carp produces amazing results to control FA and aquatic vegetation.

A possible misinterpreted tone of condescension may have been misunderstood by perceived negative statements that were made by PM, inferring my lack of knowledge and experience.

I am blessed with a couple of the best fisheries biologists and fish growers and sellers in this part of the country that are very conservative with their stocking recommendations, and I do not like aggressive high stocking numbers recommended that are not qualified as to meeting pond owners goals.








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It is important to remember that we all have different goals, different ponds, and different locations.

george is one of our most experienced tilapia utilizers, with extensive knowledge of tilapia for FA control in N.E. Texas (as indicated).

Rainman is attempting to make tilapia available to much more northerly PMs, where different conditions apply and different optimum stocking rates may well be warranted. We certainly do not have george's level of experience up here to draw upon, and are going to have to figure a lot of stuff out.


"Live like you'll die tomorrow, but manage your grass like you'll live forever."
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George, I too apologize for any misunderstanding.

Your accounts of your tilapia experiances on PondBoss were some of the first I ever read. They piqued a strong interest in tilapia for me. Your experiances along with others from the forum have been invaluable to me in forming many of the conclusions I have come to regarding tilapia.

Your points remind me again to consider all possible angles on stocking.

Books can never truly replace first-hand experiance.



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george1 Offline OP
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Thanks guys, I have to remember the shorter growing season of northern ponds and the challenge it presents, but continue to believe that a conservative approach is best and increase stocking rates as experience dictates.

Our first year tilapia stocking of 5 lbs./acre that Meadowlark recommended, and as I recall was not supported by Bob Lusk, was adequate for FA control.
We learned quickly that grass carp would have to be used in conjunction because of rapid bushy pondweed growth.

The following spring we had record breaking hot weather conditions and FA exploded as documented by above photos.

We stocked 7 grass carp in 2-acre pond and 20 lbs of tilapia and the results were astounding.

Within a week or so I observed "holes" appearing in FA and pond weed substrate, completely clearing within 3 or 4 weeks - excepting the slimy nasty stuff in photo.
It took a following hard rain to eliminate this condition.

My goal has been to manage a HSB/CNBG pond with an aggressive feeding program. Forage recruitment has not been a priority since LMB is not my favorite species, but necessary for BG control.

As mentioned in post above, we stock annually same sex tilapia in 1/4 pond to control FA without overcrowding.

If I were managing a northern pond I would approach tilapia stocking as a conservative experiment with minimal stocking of 20#'s/acre first year and observe results, and adjust numbers as results indicated.

At some point in time with high stocking rates, economics will play a feasability role.
I shudder at the cost of stocking 40-50lbs/ of tilapia/acre in our area but do not know costs of northern tilapia.

It is obvious that I am an advocate of tilapia stocking in private ponds and believe with conservative experimental approaches will be successful in northern ponds.

We went through the same learning process in our area before tilapia was accepted as a standard.

Good luck.



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George1 - I totally agree and support what you have found to work for you. I have a two acre pond in NE Texas and have been stocking Tilapia for 4 years now and plan on the same next year. I put 30 pounds in my two acres but no GC. Works great for me and the past few weeks we have been catching the Tilapia like crazy on night crawlers. Just had another hatch a few weeks ago as well. Most of what we catch are in the 2-3 pound range.

What I have been buying are Mozambic Tilapia. What is a Blue Tilapia? Are they better to eat?

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Blues are illegal in TX as I recall so they may not be an option for you...

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 Originally Posted By: Pondrookie
George1 - I totally agree and support what you have found to work for you. I have a two acre pond in NE Texas and have been stocking Tilapia for 4 years now and plan on the same next year. I put 30 pounds in my two acres but no GC. Works great for me and the past few weeks we have been catching the Tilapia like crazy on night crawlers. Just had another hatch a few weeks ago as well. Most of what we catch are in the 2-3 pound range.

What I have been buying are Mozambic Tilapia. What is a Blue Tilapia? Are they better to eat?
Pondrookie, I caught about half a dozen of these 2-3# tilapia this morning on Stubby flies.
AQMX 600 "chum" - always thought the only time they ate pellets were when they were "overstocked" ...

Fun to catch aren't they?





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Yes the are fun to catch. Put up a good fight on light spinning tackle. They do a great job at keeping the FA under control but not very good to eat. They are hard to fillet and not much meat on them. I heard that the tilapia farmed for commercial sales are different than the Mosambique tilapia.

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 Originally Posted By: Pondrookie
I heard that the tilapia farmed for commercial sales are different than the Mosambique tilapia.


Usually hybrids and all males...

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 Originally Posted By: Pondrookie
Yes the are fun to catch. Put up a good fight on light spinning tackle. They do a great job at keeping the FA under control but not very good to eat. They are hard to fillet and not much meat on them. I heard that the tilapia farmed for commercial sales are different than the Mosambique tilapia.
I've never eaten a tilapia from our ponds - the filets from the fish market are my favorite.
I hate to clean fish anyway ...



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Purge them for a few days in clean water prior to cleaning, and they'll taste a lot better. This goes for any fish though. It does make a huge difference in my experience. Tilapia are fantastic to eat.


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They do tend to take on the flavor of what they eat, algae alone will make them pretty bad. Our pellet feed fish are pretty good, on the other hand.


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I've been looking forward to eating some tilapia from my pond and this thread had me wondering if they would taste good. I filleted about a dozen 1-2 pounders. Grilled half and fried the other half.... and I can say they were great. They were a bunch of 'muts' to. Some red, some white and some looked like the pic george posted. I do feed by hand almost everyday.


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