Wonder if I could stash them in the forage pond & feed them. Sounds crazy, but they'd be ideal to fatten up LMB if they could reproduce & thrive in a protected environment.
If you do the status quo, you should expect the status quo.
Raising reptiles for forage could be very cool. I've had good luck at my hatchery pond by stocking RBT in the winter, and then doing the tilapia deal in the summer. Reptiles could fill the late Feb to May down time. That would be a heck of a forage rotation.
Just an afterthought, but it hasn't been that many years since tilapia and HSB were verboten in private ponds, but now they're a mainstay. Somebody had to be first.
