Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Tilapia and Bluegills - Friends or Foes

Tilapia stocking has been reported here to be a good thing for BG size and condition. I'm not sure we ever got an in-depth, scientific explanation as to why. Some possible mechanisms I can remember being considered were:

1) BG eating tilapia fry (& eggs?)
2) Tilapia predation on BG fry and eggs, reducing BG numbers and resulting in more food/BG
3) Increase in Bass forage from Tilapia resulting in higher Bass biomass in pond, which increases predation on BG during the off-season and lowers BG numbers (re #2).

Previous results were all from Texas, IIRC, and certainly all from down South, so YMMV in Hoosierland.