Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Mozambique tilapia

I would like some pro's & cons on this idea. I'm currently setting up an aquarium (55 gallons) to give a nice home to approx. 50 baby tilapia arriving in about a week. By the time water temps hit 55 degrees, they should be well grown, who knows. Has anyone done this, what advice can they lend, and what do tilapia eat as fish food ? I love ponds, and this SITE ! It gives me a reason to go to work Mon-Fri

Keep the water clean with a good filter, feed the fish a good tropical fish food (avoid pond type fish food), and your tilapia should do well. They will grow proportionately to feeding, and somewhat by space. It will be fun, no matter what. It shouldn't be too tough to do. Clean water + good food + oxygen = success.

Eastland,

Let us know how this goes. I have read that the Tilapia can be cannibalistic...in the form of one sex against the other. Also, I don't think you will have any problem with water quality....there won't be any algae in your tank nor anything else plant related left after a time. They are the great vacuum cleaners. I'm looking forward to 55 degrees when I can re-stock these great fish.

Can anyone tell me where I can buy these tilapia?

Call Boatcycle Mfg in Henderson, Texas. They are an advertiser of Pond Boss. Plus, take a look at our resource guide. I expect there are others near you.

Todd Overton, owner operator of Overton Fisheries in Buffalo has tilapia available.
They are also an advertiser of Pond Boss.

I remeber seeing some others posting about trying to "save" some of their tilapia by overwintering them in a tank. Has anyone had success on this yet?

Fyi update. Talipia are growing like crazy, It wouldn't suprise me if they tried to spawn in a month or two. I'm hoping to release them in 45 days, shouldn't the shallow water be 60 degrees + or - by April 15th in N. Texas ? I will first try to barricade a smaller slew with cedars to give them cover. This is all very cool, Hopefully the 20 Adult bass existing in my 3.5 acre pond will spawn and have a feeding frenzy all year long. Bgill should be thick for alternative snacks. Golden shiners are there too...now, if only I can get my hands on a small volume of threadfins !

p.s. I will be adding 10 adult bass early April, and ideas on if they will spawn in the 2005 season ?

Thanks to all...Eastland.

Eastland:

Your newly added adult LBM will spawn as long as you add them before their spawn times in your geographical area with some time to adjust to their new environment. Ensure that your pond has some aggregate substrate for the LMB to spawn in and make their spawning beds. Best of luck.........

Rowly

Eastland , Where did you get your adult Bass ? . when you say adult , just how big are they ? . are they pellet trained ? . and if you don't mind what did you pay for them . Thanks Harvey

Rowly & Harvey, I'm lucky enough to be blessed with history, I'm a 3rd generation pond builder, I just wish Lusk & Otto's "Building Trophy Lakes" was written 2 years ago I love to one up my Pop ! I have a ton of structure for fish, and the spawn where they the live now is early April, just when they will be caught and relocated. My area is 4 hours north and I'm guessing spawns occur mid April thru May. The bass being relocated are awesome Florida/F1 varieties originating out of the Fayette County Power Plant (TX)...year round warm water, and HUGE bass. The "Lunkers" have been added to my fathers pond consistently each year, maybe 2-3 fish per year. We catch and release the monsters, removing a 5lb. every now and then. The bass are free, I only transport in the Fall & Spring...adults making the trip are 2-4 lbs. We often catch 12 to 24 bass in a 2 hour session, 3 times a year we harvest, I will try to post a pick of the stringers of fish.

Bob or Eastland ,

or Meadolark , your from East Tx. also. I called Boatcycle in Henderson,Tx. and they have Tilapia , but you get a mixed bag of 3" to 6 incher's to a pound .

Will the 3 inchers grow fast enough in one season to spawn ?

At what age or size do they become sexually active?

I can pick them up the first of April .

20 lbs. for $ 200.00 . My pond is 2 acres . with very little salad , but I have a Sweeney feeder set to feed twice a day .

Stocked with , Bluegill , Bass , C-Cat & Grass Carp .

Thanks for any info. Thanks Harvey

Harvey,

Your questions are answered in this article:

http://srac.tamu.edu/283fs.pdf

My Tilapia last year were stocked at those same sizes as I reported in the recent Pond Boss article. They are baby producing factories and I wouldn't worry about 3 inchers. Those guys will be approaching 2 pounders by this fall and in the meantime will have produced incredible forage for your predators.

Meadowlark... Thanks,That is a great article,your right,don't know what else you would need to know about those buggers except how to catch them easily!

Buy the way,did you ever write your article about them? I would like to read it if you did . fisher8384@aol.com- Fax 972-217-1322.

Did you lose your Tilapia this winter?

Thanks Harvey --- am having fun with my pond-
will be limeing this week end for the second time this spring. I have a bottom overflow pipe in the dam and with all the rain weve been having the ponds been flushing like a toilet!!!

Take care, and wave goodbye to those dasterdly TURKEY'S.

Harvey,

Do you get the Pond Boss magazine? That's me in the Tilapia article in March/April issue.

Yes, they all died around Christmas time.

Well, folks here on the board already say I'm obsessed with water turkeys (WT) and I guess they are right, but the best time of year is when I see those fowl creatures heading north.

I'll e-mail you the uncut version of my paper...Bob kind of reformatted it into a more entertaining article....I'm just a boring engineer.

Meadowlark ,

Yes i do get the Pond Boss Magazine , great article.

Well i bought my Tilapie from Boatcycle , stocked them early April .

Saw a few in the shallows for a couple of days , but have not seen any since .

guess their OK ? Time will tell .

Your posts are great ! Harvey

Harvey,

Yes they are okay. Haven't seen hide or hair of mine either since April 3 when I re-stocked again but I know they are there because my algae is disappearing right before my eyes.

Ken is a nice fellow. I had the pleasure of meeting him at the recent Bass 102 conference.

If you figure out a way to catch those fish let all know the secret. Man, they are fun on a light fly rod, when you can catch them.

Update on my Tilapia experiment. I grew them about 2 1/2 inches feeding them non-stop. They are now in my pond and were doing well after the transport from my aquarium. The should be breeding in about 3-4 weeks. I now have 2 different "species" of mozambique tilapia in my pond. (is that and oxy moron ?) The tropical hybrids I raised were orange, the ones I stocked from the hatchery were gray/blue (and big). I can hardly wait to see what happens...

Eastland,

That's really interesting...I've read about those "orange" Tilapia. Seems like they actually should be better forage providers in that they will be easily seen by the predators. It will be interesting if you can observe any differences between the colors in terms of their value to the pond.

Eastland ,

It would be neat to have orange fish swimming around , fun for all to see .

In fact I have one , just one KOI , a big one that is white with some orange spots around it's head . Got it from a friend who was moving . Myself, wife , sister and brother in law hauld it from Dallas Tx. We don't see it to often but it's fun for all when we do , we call it whitey .

When we holler Whitey everone comes a runni'n .

Take care all , Harvey

Sboverts,

Ten years ago... I saw a green house in Phoenix raising Tilapia in 55 gallon drums. The oxygen in the green house provided enough oxygen to overcome the low oxygen carring capability of the very warm water in the drums. He sells the adults to a local ethnic fish market. Of course, Phoenix rarely gets cloudy and the drums are in the very warm green houses.

Catching Talapia !

I'm sure most of you have seen this on another thread .

Some say Corn ? if true , I guess it's canned corn ?

Mine are just 3"es now , will have to wait for them to grow a bit before trying to catch.

Would love to thin out the huge Grass Carp .

Got some bad advice and stocked to many at $12.50 each . I had just started with my pond in 2001 .

Old and DUMB ! But still learning from all of ya'll .

Harvey

Harvey, I remember reading somewhere that you could catch grass carp by fishing with... "grass". Just take some fresh lawn clippings and strew them onto the pond surface. The grass carp, if overabundant and without food, will flock to the area. Thread a hook with a few blades of grass and fish it near the top with a cork. Don't know it that's gospel, but sounded good.

I read once (read a lot) about a greenhouse that raised plants by having wire screens suspended above large tanks of water. Plants in pots were placed on the screens to grow. The screen was an inch or so below the surface of the water in order that the plant be continually watered via the small holes near the bottom of the pots. Tilapia were raised in the water. They ate roots that grew out of the pots, and any leaves that fell into the water. The greenhouse made more money selling the tilapia than selling the plants.

Harvey,

I've hooked grass carp on plain old worms while trying for Tilapia in shallow water. I also believe they will hit the PomPom fly perfected by George and Bruce here on the forum...but landing one is a different story. They are some kind of powerful fish...don't let their gentle nature fool you...when hooked they go crazy.

Guys, I'm looking for the feeding answer now. I held back several tilapia in an aquarium to see what they eat compared to those in the pond. My limited observations are : When I cut the yard, I won't mulch...I'll bag it and use it for food, they eat like monsters and grow as you watch them eat ! Nick is onto something with the grass clippings. The aquarium fish like yellow squash, cut in very small pieces. My next step is to dump yard clippings into the pond, and fish with the higher visibility yellow squash in the area they are feeding at. This will probably take several months to get the Tilapia well bred and feeding in the lawn clipping area. More updates to follow. Suggestions are appreciated as always.