Lou :

Very interesting. There are various types of tilapia in the US including Oreochromis aureus - Blue tilapia , Oreochromis mossambicus - Mozambique tilapia , Oreochromis niloticus niloticus - Nile tilapia , Tilapia rendalli - Redbreast tilapia and others. The names and species are confused at least to me. You are the first here that I recall that has niloticus as most info here is on mossambicus.

The sooner you start to break the FA cycle the more effective the control so start early if the tilapia will handle the water temps. In our ponds it seems the FA gets its head start by growing over winter and early spring on the bottom. Also I agree with ML on year to year suppression. Even though it looked like lots of FA on the bottom in 06 the 05 suppression helped reduce the amount of 05 that was there to reproduce. The tilapia eating FA in 05 plus your reduced visibilities shading it out on the bottom helped reduce the 06 crop. Send old Mudcat Joe down for a look-see at the FA so he can provide a cats-eye report.