Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Stocking Tilapia - please weigh in

I saw that link. A good read. What I would actually like to see in such a study is ponds in the same location, studied for the exact same time period, with ponds with the same initial water quality and chemistry and using the same size and genetics in the fish. This way you could really compare results side by side and get some tangible and meaningfull comparison data. Even slight differences in the above variables make comparison difficult to impossible and cause the end results to be somewhat meaningless.

Sure, I'd be glad to talk about my current setup. It's really not all that interesting though. You'd probably be more interested in my RAS plans. What you might find interesting is that I kept 100 3-4 inch Tilapia in 30 gallons of water for 2 months without any issues. Water quality would go from excellent to quite terrible and the Tilapia didn't seem to care either way. I recently bought a 45 gallon sterilite tub/tote and have roughly 80 3-5 inch Tilapia in that using a cheap canister filter, and the water quality has remained quite high with no water changes, just water replacement as needed.

CP = Chain Pickerel (like a mini Northern Pike basically)

I can reccommend a heck of a 12 acre pond about 30 minutes north of KC with some concrete growing/sorting runs very close by that would be perfect for experimentation!

Weissguy,

If youre serious about your design study, I've got 10 "pits" (8'x 25'X 2') that each hold 2250 gallons. We could easily pull a few LMB out of the lake and I would assume you have a few Tilapia to experiment with. My only concern is the fact that the pits are covered and would have very little productivity (but would also isolate any outside variable-predation). My other concern is the issue of getting LMB to take to pelleted feed. We always had a hard time at the hatchery.

Moryan -

I think it would be a great study. I worry that the indoor pits would cause issues though, due to lack of a bloom. The pits with no supplemental feeding would not give "outdoor pond" results. Plankton/zooplankton would be lacking in them which I assume would drastically reduce the value of the tilapia as forage.

I think the study would have to be done outside over the summer months with small side by side earthen raceway ponds with protective netting covering them. I suspect though that it would require about 8 or 9 months of operation to obtain any significant data. Can't get that here in MO without going the heated greenhouse route. That would get pretty costly, but it could possibly be a valuable study for a university with the facilities in place to do such a thing.

On the other hand, I could see those pits being a great place to grow some pellet fed trout from fall to spring.

Actually, shawn was by the other day and I think I can flood the lower barn (without a roof) and even pump water from the lagoon (nutrient loaded and an instant bloom). There are about 40 pens and each could be used to isolate a unique variable as well as being subject to the same environmental conditions (WQ, light...). I'm not sure why you would want to provide "supplental feed".
Let me know the next time you'll be at the lake and we can take a look at it.