If I was to stock some Tilapia in my pond, it is possible that some may could make it through the winter. Because, I know we have some living in the river just down from my house. I am not sure what type they are but I know they make it through the winter.

So if my Tilapia were to make through the winter, and since they spawn so good. Could I be in for trouble trying to keep there numbers down? What do you Pond Bossers think. I would like to get some to help keep alge down. Besides I hear they taste good. Thanks, John

There are a couple-three forum members (South TX and maybe FL) with year-round tilapia. So there's some direct experience with that here.

Meadowlark has fished some LMB lakes in Mexico with tilapia. He reported that the ones that have a lot of tilapia netting/trapping by the locals have pretty good bass fishing. Ones which don't have additional tilapia removal can have problems hanging on to a good bass population - like with many species, a huge number of hungry tilapia ca interfere with the spawning of less numerous fish (e.g. LMB).

Stock male only tilapia. I would be careful about having over-wintering tilapia in a pond without removal.

As some of you may know, I've been trying to use tilapia in my pond for a while, and have had some difficulty in finding them, plus getting permission to use them.

It looks like I'm finally going to get to stock them next spring. The fisheries biologist from our state extension service is recommending female tilapia or triploid tilapia, at rates higher than suggested by those using males and females. Besides the reproduction issue, he says that the male tilapia will dig a lot of big spawning holes in the bottom of my pond, but the females won't. He said he'd help sex them for me. Obviously they won't provide bass forage, but they may take care of my muck and algae.

No offense to your biologist but I think his concern with reproduction where you are at is not warranted.

What can I say? Here in Indiana you have to have a permit when anyone with a brain knows they won't make it through the winter.

Unfortunately, there is some merit to this. It was first brought up to me by the DNR biologist. We have a number of big power plants in the WV/VA/MD area that use rivers and lakes for cooling. [Edit: ... and the water temperatures in these areas stay well above 60 degrees even during the coldest winters.] We have two large lakes near us that were built just for that purpose (Lake Anna in Virginia, and Mt. Storm Lake right near me). The Potomac also has some very large power plants. The streams that form on my property make their way into the Potomac via the Cacapon River.

[2nd Edit: Because of the problems we've had with other exotics, like the snakeheads that are now wildly reproducing in the Potomac, the authorities are very concerned about "dumping" of non-native fish.]

This is from a Mt. Lake Storm website Mt. Storm Lake, WV . Mt. Lake Storm is next to one of our best ski areas of the state.

I haven't been up there this year, but a game warden says the striper fishing has been fantastic.

Didn't we once have a report on year-round tilapia in a power plant lake in Texas? IIRC it did not have the problems that might likely occur if the whole body of water stayed warm all Winter, probably because the tilapia had a limited volume refuge where it was easier for LMB to hammer them all Winter long.

This is only from limited experience.
Before I built my pond I fished many of the local public lakes and ponds. In none were the tilapia dominant, in an afternoon’s catch of 15 or so fish, 1 or 2 would be tilapia, most would be barbs. In all of the fishing we did we caught one predator, a cat fish. In most of the ponds/lakes catfish is the only predator, if there is one.
In a one acre pond in which I fished a lot we seldom caught any tilapia, they had been stocked and were present, we could see them at feeding time. Visiting ponds at temples where there is no fishing and people are allowed to put any animal in the water, there was never an abundance of tilapia. People feed these fish all day long and you can see big carp, catfish and tilapia.
I think that there are two factors at work, one is predation the other is a natural monitoring.
Before I stocked the predators I would see maybe one batch of fry a week, some times there would be 2 weeks in between. The predators have put a lot of pressure on the tilapia and now I see new fry almost daily. The spawning beds in my pond are shallow, 3 or 4 inches deep at the center and 4 to 6 feet wide, they seem to use the same ones over and over.

As an aside, there was an attempt to stock snakeheads in a Singapore lake and while they were successful they were difficult to catch, so they added peacock bass. They didn't know it ahead of time, but the bass eradicated the snakehead.

Yep, Theo; Lake Fairfield has had a self sustaining tilapia population for years. They also have redfish.

Thanks for all the responses. I think I need to get a temp. gauge and see just how cold my water will get this winter. I hope I will be able to use mixed sexes. So I can provide some forage for the bass.
Do any of you guys using Tilapia now, harvest any of them in the winter when they start to die off? I would think they would be safe to eat as long as you picked them up before they were dead. Then you could stock up the freezer for the winter.

John G.,

Yes, every fall I catch a bunch of them before the die-off. The good eating ones from my ponds are those that have access to artificial feed. They taste great, but the ones I've taken from ponds without artificial feeders and hence which offer only algae and such as natural food for the Tilapia are virtually not suitable for eating.

Right now, I'm catching small Tilapia for overwintering and have about 70 such fish in my tanks so far.

San Antonio power plant has a lake with tilapia and also redfish that survive year round. Tilapia also survive year round in my lake. Has made a big difference in the bass wieghts and populations. I don't do any supplemental feeding in my lake but I have caught and eaten some of them and they didn't have any offensive taste to them.

I have found dead tilapia weighing over 5lbs. So, there does need to be some removal plan in place when they get established.

Here is what the Washington Post recently had to say about them. It seems people love 'em. Chefs hate them!

Two Sides to Every Tilapia

For the record,

Tilapia are kicking major tail on anything green, that looks unsightly in my Pond.

I haven't seen any since the first few days, when they were eating at the feeder, so I guess they found their Feed Bag!