Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations tilapia and algea

I know this propably gets asked a lot but after searching and reading I'm still confused.

I just killed off all of the duckweed and watermeal with fluridone in my 3/4 acre pond. Just after it was killed off i notice there are clumps of algea floating on top. Besides some grass carp the pond is basically fishsless but I do plan on stocking some fish this fall catfish included.

Should I use copper sulfate to treat the algea? Should I go the tilapia route? And how much? Will the tilapia winter over?

Thanks
Adam

The tilapia die in the winter in almost all states. Some in Florida have reported them surviving a winter. Mine died last year in Texas. I think it may be a bit late in the year to still be adding tilapia.

Tilapia seems to be working in my pond for algea. I had tons in the spring, put Tilapia in and all clear. The bottom seems cleaner too.

The tilapia will not over winter. That does make it a more expensive route to go than chemicals, but there are benefits to tilapia. I will defer you to a recent post that Bill Cody commented on the benefits of tilapia. His referral is about 2/3 down the page.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=344050#Post344050

Copied from that post:
08TR - Blue tilapia and all species of tilapia will not overwinter in Ohio. They are sort of expensive but so are the algaecides that are used to kill algae problems. Four big benefits to tilapia for algae control are: 1. No chemicals, 2. You can eat your algae control agents at the end of the year; try that with algacides. 3. Young tilapia are a food source for the predators in the pond, although lots of predators eating the army of small tilapia is not all that good until the young tilapia are struggling, dying and easy prey in late fall. 4. Algae getting consumed is getting some nutrients bound into fish biomass; some nutrients are extruded in manure. 'Free' or dissolved nutrients grow algae. If the tilapia are harvested, eaten, or removed nutrients are leaving the pond - a good thing. None of those 4 things occur when using algacides so maybe a little extra cost is beneficial.

If you go the chemical route be sure to defer to the pros here on what to use. Some of the stuff is not good to use as it builds up in your pond's system.

I think he also has said there is a good blue tilapia dealer out in northwest Ohio. Possibly that is near you.


Jim

So when I see recommendations for so many pounds per acre...what size would the tilapia be?

It depends a lot on how big the predators are in the pond. The bigger mouths the predators have the larger the tilapia should be so they are less likely to become lunch for bass, etc. Stocking small tilapia of 4"-6" in a pond with larger bass of 15"-17" is not wise unless your pockets are deep. Plus you want larger stocker size so they spawn ASAP after stocking. Some females will be ready to spawn or will be brooding fry when stocked. Large stocker tilapia can be 12"-13" long and weigh 1.3 to 1.6 lbs each for waters with 20" bass. Common wise stocker size is 6"-9" (0.2-0.65 lb). Often tilapia weigh slightly more than a BG-RES for the same length.

Tilapia are stocked at the smallest size that will evade predators in that particular pond. Look into a Chelated Copper Product instead of the Copper Sulfate if you go the chemical route. It works for a longer time in the water than copper sulfate.

The more I think about it I just want to get rid of it now. I just killed all the duckweed and only had clear water for a few days... I want that back. I can get copper sulfate through my business fairly cheap... if I treat with that how long do u think i should wait to stock catfish?

Thanks for your help
adam

I don't know the answer to that. You'll have to do some research, or maybe someone else on here knows. Did you read this thread?

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=326526

i see that cs is bad for catfish but i do not have any in the pond. the only fish i'm aware of is grass carp and i dont care about them. i want to hit it with copper sulfate and maybe next year go the tilapia route if the proplem persits.

thanks for everyone's help.