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#412497 05/24/15 08:18 AM
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Good morning everyone, my neighbor and I stocked 30lbs of tilapia in our 2.5 acre pond May 1. Got the fish from Boatcycle in Henderson and all looked to be in pretty good shape. We saw a few at the shoreline early on but haven't seen any since.

With all this rain we have stayed very full and I'm sure have had a ton of water over the spillway. Two questions - should we be seeing our original stockers anywhere, and any chance we would've lost tilapia over the spillway? I seem to recall somewhere that they will seek out a current in a body of water, but I may very well be confused.

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jaymac, you have not said how large your pond is so I am not sure if u would see them or not. But in my case, I added only 5 lbs of tilapia to a new 3.5 acre pond. I had no predators so I added them to reduce the FA and after introducing the lmb in the future, I would take some of the pressure of the CNBG by using the tilapia fry for the new lmb. So I tell u this as only to let u know where I am coming from when I say, I have only seen 1 tilapia since introduced and he came to the feeder one time. But I have little to no FA that I can see and so I am guessing they are still there. And I will also say that I have added a lot of fish I have not seen since stocking. An example would be, I added 120lbs of fatheads and I used to see them come to the feeder but now I just see thousands of FH fry and never see any of the original stockers. I have never seen a Redear and I put in 1850 of them. I added thousands of CNBG but I only see a maybe a hundred or so at the feeders. And I have only seen one dead floater cnbg and only maybe 20 fhm floaters out of thousands added. Haha, I have no idea where they all go, but I am sure they are all there.

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Originally Posted By: TGW1
jaymac, you have not said how large your pond is so I am not sure if u would see them or not. But in my case, I added only 5 lbs of tilapia to a new 3.5 acre pond. I had no predators so I added them to reduce the FA and after introducing the lmb in the future, I would take some of the pressure of the CNBG by using the tilapia fry for the new lmb. So I tell u this as only to let u know where I am coming from when I say, I have only seen 1 tilapia since introduced and he came to the feeder one time. But I have little to no FA that I can see and so I am guessing they are still there. And I will also say that I have added a lot of fish I have not seen since stocking. An example would be, I added 120lbs of fatheads and I used to see them come to the feeder but now I just see thousands of FH fry and never see any of the original stockers. I have never seen a Redear and I put in 1850 of them. I added thousands of CNBG but I only see a maybe a hundred or so at the feeders. And I have only seen one dead floater cnbg and only maybe 20 fhm floaters out of thousands added. Haha, I have no idea where they all go, but I am sure they are all there.

Tracy


Same here. I think FHM only live a little over a year or so which means stockers wouldn't have much lifespan left. Thankfully they reproduce a lot.

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Originally Posted By: JMac0912
Good morning everyone, my neighbor and I stocked 30lbs of tilapia in our 2.5 acre pond May 1. Got the fish from Boatcycle in Henderson and all looked to be in pretty good shape. We saw a few at the shoreline early on but haven't seen any since.

With all this rain we have stayed very full and I'm sure have had a ton of water over the spillway. Two questions - should we be seeing our original stockers anywhere, and any chance we would've lost tilapia over the spillway? I seem to recall somewhere that they will seek out a current in a body of water, but I may very well be confused.


Jmac,
I would not be too concerned. When I first stocked my forage base last August, I performed supplemental feeding immediately. The fish would not come to the feed for at least 3 weeks. I don't know if they were adjusting to their new environment, or what. But, they slowly came to feed. When the weather cooled in the fall, they backed away from the feed, so I discontinued feeding until this late March. Again, it took the fish a particular amount of time to feed again. Meanwhile, this whole time I never physically saw any fish. Not until this past April when I caught one, did I see any since August. I believe your fish are fine. Give them some time. My pond is 12' deep in some areas. I feel there are many areas for them to hide.
Charlie

Last edited by stickem'; 05/25/15 01:05 PM.

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Sorry for taking so long to get back on here! Got out on the water this morning and saw some beds shallow, but I think they belong to some BG. Starting to see pretty good algae buildup in the shallows on leaves and cattail stumps, I just knew for sure I'd be seeing a bunch of fry chowing down on that stuff by now. I think I read that my stockers should spawn about every 18 days, so I'm thinking I should've had 4 spawns since I stocked Easter weekend?

I'm probably getting a little high strung on this. I just want to see some results on the $$ we invested!

Last edited by JMac0912; 07/04/15 01:40 PM. Reason: duplicate info
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TGW, we have about 2.5 acres with most of our end being 4-5 ft in the center dropping to 10 or more at the dam. Layer of scum was drifting with the wind this morning but it was pretty faint, otherwise main water is clear. Starting to see some algae build up in the shallows and lots of small BG/RES swimming around. Where are you in Harrison County? We are about 6 miles north of Longview.

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One thing fish are very good at are staying hidden. I scuba dive and fresh water fish in water that is not very clear have an uncanny ability to stay just far enough in the murk to remain hidden. Under water a fish can see a diver before the diver can make out a fish (unless the water is really clear). Been diving a number of times when a novice diver will exclaim "there are'nt any fish in this lake!". His mistake was he swam constantly and the fish being able to see him stayed just far enough away to be out of his vision. A diver in murky water has to sit still and let the fish get curious and come to him. When looking from a dock or the shore, the fish can stay juuuussssst deep enough so it can see you but you can't see it.

I often have looked down over my dock edge to see no fish. Then drop in a sinking fish food pellet and as it sinks will see a shadow out of the deep and the white pellet suddenly disappear. The fish is there just out of sight.

Once the fish get used to you, especially if you frequent the pond a lot, they will get more friendly especially if you hand feed the some. If the water gets really clear so it is not so easy for them to hide you will see them easier.

Fish have to know how to hide from predators. Fish hawks, eagles, herons, etc are all dangers from above. The fish know to be wary of any movement from above the water line.

Give it time. If your pond is like mine, you will eventually see lots of fish. I also saw few except for FHM's feeding on pellets for a number of months after stocking. I still rarely see a LMB or RES, even after a couple years.

Edit: Tip: take a comfortable chair and sit it near the water on the bank. Sit there and think deep thoughts without moving a muscle. Sometimes it takes 5 minutes, sometimes more, but eventually you will look like a permanent object to the fish and you will first start to see shadows, then the fish. Toss in some food in 6-12" of water will help. Just sit there-------- completely still. The fish will come. Fish are curious by nature. One of the reasons we can catch them with artificial bait.

Last edited by snrub; 07/04/15 02:10 PM.

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JMac my place is about 15 miles N. of Marshall and about a mile west of Caddo lake. Built the 3.5 acre pond and did the first stocking in late Nov. I thought I knew about fish from being a lifetime fisherman, but I have learned I only knew about 1/2 of it. smile Where are u in Upshur?

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Originally Posted By: JMac0912
my neighbor and I stocked 30lbs of tilapia in our 2.5 acre pond May 1. Got the fish from Boatcycle in Henderson and all looked to be in pretty good shape. We saw a few at the shoreline early on but haven't seen any since.


were any of the tilapia you stocked the albino or lighter colored variety?

I saw tilapia in my pond yesterday, but as is the case every year I mainly just see the light colored ones.

speaking of tilapia i saw this article the other day about
tilapia we are eating from restaurants and grocery stores.

The Truth About Tilapia


Fishing has never been about the fish....

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If stocked true Mozzambique, they are VERY well camouflaged! I think you mistakenly recall Grass Carp as seeking flowing water and swimming downstream. While many fish will get caught in outflow current and go over the spill way, all your other fish, but the GC, will swim UP stream when forced.

Tilapia spawn every 3-6 weeks depending on many conditions. You rarely see fry in FA bottom growth. The fry will eat it from inside and as the T grow, other fingerlings hover and pick off the T as the FA disappears.



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Polarized sunglasses seem to help me see them. I have one or two light colored ones. When I see one swimming around, it is normally in a school of fish I can't see, or can barely see.

On a side note, I am Not sure if the light colored fish is some sort of albino, or if it has something to do with their breeding cycle. I say this because, even though I saw it during hand feeding yesterday, it would not eat...so wondering if it had a mouth full of eggs.

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I was convinced that my tilapia had winter killed this year because I was not seeing any in 12-18 inch vis. I was 100% wrong. They have spawned at least twice and the fry are everywhere along with the bg and fhm. I need to add predators before things get out of control.

To try to catch some bigger bg I used some ~1 inch tilapia fry for bait. It worked as you would expect, but I also caught several of my original tilapia stock that are now around 2-3 pounds. I have transferred those to an aerated cooler to purge for a few days and then we'll invite them in for dinner. I've also caught several on fly rod using immitation fish pellets as we do have feeders set up.

My fish are lighter in color I believe because of the genetics and the color of the pond. My bg are also light in color

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Originally Posted By: Boburk
Polarized sunglasses seem to help me see them. I have one or two light colored ones. When I see one swimming around, it is normally in a school of fish I can't see, or can barely see.

On a side note, I am Not sure if the light colored fish is some sort of albino, or if it has something to do with their breeding cycle. I say this because, even though I saw it during hand feeding yesterday, it would not eat...so wondering if it had a mouth full of eggs.

Sean


They are not albino. It is from recessive genes. Mozzambique can be morphed into red, gold, white and all the prior colors mixed like a Koi. State of dominance and breeding cycle often make the fin/tail margins get darker as well as gill plates and the throat area.



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Thanks for the education rainman.

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TGW we are about 6 miles north of Longview, just north of Glenwood on Hwy 300. Pond is an old family farm pond, about 60 years old best any of the neighbors can recall.

Zep and Rainman I think all of the fish we got were "standard" colored (some shade of grey all over). Smallest stocked were 6 inches or so, largest were over 12".

Snrub you are absolutely right! And polarized sunglasses definitely help. No scuba diving for me though - if I can't see it from above then it's gonna stay hidden!

I guess I have a case of over-expectation after seeing all of these miracle clean-up stories from around our area. I didn't think I would see as much algae growth as I am because I figured it would all be eaten!

The summer is still young, if we stay as clean as we are right now and still wind up with several for the dinner table later in the fall I can't really complain!

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Tilapia, as well as most species of fish, will exit ponds during high flows. In fact, on two separate lakes we stocked in Kansas this year with tilapia, we have observed tilapia in the plunge pools which are fed by the emergency spillways. On some of the smaller ponds we stocked in the city that have huge watersheds, they are all but gone. We've had near record rainfalls so it is what it is.

Over the years, I've personally witnessed bass, bluegill, shiners, etc strewn across pastures after heavy rainfalls.



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Wow, a confirmed Shawn Banks sighting! Becoming more rare than Sasquatches or UFOs.


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