George was speaking about his small 1/4 acre pond, and I'm absolutely positive that we would not have a pond that didn't have at least HSBs. Anyway, this 1/4 acre pond has been thoroughly discussed on the forum. The pond has been stocked with HSBs, redear, and large coppernose males and females. He would like to achieve good growth on tilapia in this pond and avoid overpopulation. The pond is muddy and not likely to grow algae anyway. So I think, with his goals in mind, that it is a very good idea for him to stock all male tilapia at a conservative rate of 3-5 lbs.
With the goal of growing large tilapia, one must either have large predators OR stock all male fish. By the way, we are unsure of the HSB population status and average size for now. Bluegill and redear aren't a serious predator unless in very high numbers...which they aren't. If mozambique tilapia overpopulate, they won't grow to decent food size by fall.
So the premise is more like...if algae control is not an issue, large predators aren't present, and the goal is to grow large tilapia....STOCK ALL MALE TILAPIA! Same concept as the stocking of all male bluegill for trophy production.
When George mentioned "algae control without potential overpopulation problem" he was simply suggesting this idea in theory and not referring to his own pond.
