Originally Posted By: PaPond
This year I added 250 tilapia fry to my pond to do battle with filamentous algae and duckweed. 2 months in and it looks like all I did was provide take out dinner to the established fish population in the pond. The LMB and Channel cats probably loved me for it.

The fry were between 1" and 1 1/2" long going in and I released them in an area with American Pondweed growing so they had some cover.

So now, having no evidence that the tilapia did anything but feed my grateful pond occupants, I am planning for next season. I was wondering if I make a fish cage and anchor it in the shallows right over some floating American Pondweed and use a 3/4" mesh so the fry could get out and back in, if they would use it as a safe predator free zone. If I can somehow keep them away from predation until they get bigger than the mouth's of most of the predators, maybe they will have a fighting chance. The thought is maybe they will be able to come and go, eating algae as they go until they are more acquainted with their habitat and can avoid predation or even go back inside to avoid it.

Question is are tilapia, or for that matter any fish, smart enough to use a cage for a safe harbor?


I think people stock much larger tilapia for algae control. See if you can get Rex (Rainman) to answer here.

Last edited by Bocomo; 08/29/18 10:52 AM.
Our old pond project (updated 4/11/17)
+Donate ('17)