Update on my Tilapia die off. As I mentioned before it finally got cold enough for Tilapia to die. The good news is that the ones that I have seen dead are of the larger sizes only, between 17" - 25". I still have seen plenty of smaller ones in the shallow warm water near the well and now that the weather has warmed backup, temps lately have been in the mid 70's and tomorrow is supposed to be in the low 80's (gotta luv Texas), schools have been seen in the shallows near cover.
The smell of the dead fish was starting to get bad that I had to go out and pick up the ones near the dock. In a 50 yard shoreline I picked up 175 of them. This filled up the front loader on my tractor but was able to relocate them to a remote corner of my property for the buzzards to feast. I must have the entire population of buzzards in Texas stopping here to eat.
I did manage to weigh and measure most of the none eaten ones and the sizes are amazing. Remember I only stocked 100 of them just over 18 months ago. Biggest one so far comes in at 25" and 6.75lbs. I don't know if death and bloating are any factor but I was supprised how large they can get. Besides the buzzards I do believe it was a good thing in the long run. A LMB couldn't eat these that I have seen so I look at it as natures way of controlling my population. There are survivors so I won't have to be restocking.
