Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Out-Year Tilapia Pond Management

Originally posted by Bob Lusk:
ML,
I appreciate your comments and your results. Here's my thinking, or the "rest of the story." At some point, your bass relative weights will begin to decline. They have to. At that point, how will you support the bass population? There's not a practical way, other than full time, surviving forage fish which can consistently reproduce. Tilapia add forage fish and prop up a bass population while helping bluegill survival rates. But, without harvesting selected size classes of bass, you can only prop up a fish population for so long, then it declines. With tilapia, that bass population will reach a point, then decline much more rapidly than with bluegill. When that finally happens, harvest of bass will be mandatory, and replacing a missing forage fish population will be tough. That's all I'm saying.
Changing direction, I will post some observations I have made this year in my own ponds with tilapia. It's been interesting. I have used tilapia to prop up a bass population, I have raised them to sell before. But, this year, I did something totally different, and it has been interesting. I'll post it on the blog in a few minutes.
I am a fan of tilapia....

Originally posted by Meadowlark:

 Quote:

Originally posted by Bob Lusk:
ML,
Here's my thinking, or the "rest of the story." At some point, your bass relative weights will begin to decline. They have to. At that point, how will you support the bass population?

Bob,

I'd sure like to discuss this further, but maybe it is off topic for this thread.


Here is my answer. Tilapia, for me, have substantially, substantially, increased my BG population in every pond they are stocked in with predators. This spike in the population of BG provides a carry over winter forage of small BG for the LMB. I do not see any evidence of relative weight declines after 4 years, only increasing relative weights and increasing numbers of small BG which become winter forage. Perhaps I will see decreases in the future, perhaps not. Right now, in all my ponds(except the TGG pond) I have an abundance of very small BG. Recently spawned BG. I see no evidence of a prop-up at all. I go into this winter with substantial numbers of very small BG for forage. Forage, I would not otherwise have without Tilapia, IMO.

When would you expect to see the relative weights begin to decline? As I mentioned, I'm only into 4 years with Tilapia.

Another observation I have that I have not seen written about by anyone is the cumulative effect of Tilapia. This cumulative effect manifests itself in two ways: 1) sustained increases in BG population and 2) less evidence of algae in early season.

Because of this cumulative effect, which I believe is real, I have reduced stocking rates in one pond this year to 2 to 3 pounds per acre. I have also completely eliminated the need for early season algae control chemicals.

My logic is that the BG have reached a virtual upper limit in numbers and algae can be controlled now with much less numbers of Tilapia (a cumulative effect of a clean pond bottom).

Thus far, this is working out perfectly...no algae and lots of BG. By reducing the stocking rate, if this cumulative effect holds, I can easily overwinter a sufficient number of Tilapia each year, making this a sustaining fishery. Two to three pounds per acre is much easier than 20 or 50 pound per acre! That's what I'm after...a completely self-sustaining program that requires zero chemicals.

Imagine, complete algae control, superior forage through BG and Tilapia, all at virtually no cost. Time will tell if this works or not. Maybe it will be a total failure. Maybe I'll see LMB starving to death....or maybe I'll find a way to achieve what I'm after.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Let me set the stage. I live near the southern shore of Lake Texoma, north of Big Mineral Creek, east of Gordonville, Texas, on 12 acre of land. We have 8 small ponds on the 12 acres. The land falls 90 feet from top to bottom. Those 8 ponds cover slightly less than 5 acres. The two .10 acre ponds at the top are rectangular and designed to be hatchery ponds. Both are filled with well water. They are two years old. Last year, we raised some fathead minnows in one, and coppernose bluegill in the other. This year, I carried over both ponds with the same fish. Each pond became choked with filamentous algae, and my biologist, Chad Fikes, struggled to keep the algae in check. Since those ponds are designed to produce revenue, we have to pay attention to how much money we spend on herbicides. Chad worked hard to manage the plankton bloom with small amounts of fertilizer and the occasional microbe treatment.
I decided to stock 5 pounds of tilapia in the northernmost pond, the one with fathead minnows. Within two weeks, all algae was gone, and there were hundreds of babies seen around the shoreline. There hasn't been an algae issue since. The southern pond, the one with bluegill, developed a planktonic algae bloom. Chad chose to treat it with a small amount of chelated copper. Two days later, fish were dying. He turned on the well and began to exchange water. We lost 15 large adult bluegill and probably 150 young of the year. But, there are still several thousand 2-3" bluegill and several more thousand of the next smaller size class of bluegill. But, the pond still ebbs and flows with filamentous algae. With excessively hot temps, we have avoided any treatments other than microbes, and we limit that. We just exchange water. (Water from that pond flows into our main fishing pond)
The northern pond is steady, water looks great, all we do is make up water lost to evaporation. We have harvested 20 pounds of small tilapia for two anxious customers, but the rest of the fish are still there. When the water cools, we'll sample and prepare to harvest.
We also stocked two of the fishing ponds with 5 pounds of tilapia each. Those ponds are deep and not overcrowded with bass. Each has a Sweeney Feeder, too. Will check those out this fall.
My conclusion? Just like everyone else...those beasts have not only eaten some algae, they have controlled it. But, my stocking rate was the equivalent of 50 pounds per acre in the beginning.
I am becoming a bigger fan of tilapia. But, I am still tentative about declaring them anything other than a peripheral fish with a specific purpose or two. That is, until Cody comes up with a new line of tilapia lures.

Originally posted by Theo Gallus:
Now we need someone to stop using Tilapia after several years' stocking to see what the removal effects would be. Any volunteers?

Originally posted by Meadowlark:

As I've mentioned previously, I'm running an experiment this year in one pond with a significantly reduced stocking rate...stocking at 2 to 3 pounds per acre vs 10 to 15 pounds per acre in other ponds.

Originally posted by Bob Lusk:
At some point, the mass of predator fish (unless they are properly harvested) has to overeat the existing food chain... That principle holds true whether we use tilapia, threadfin shad or Kibbles and Bits.

Originally posted by PondsForFun:
I caught 25 6 - 10" tilapia on tiny piece of night crawler and perch hook in one hour yesterday. Mine are extra aggressive with no real predators in the pond yet.