Hm... I have had this idea rolling around in my head for a bit now. I know they stocked them in a local reclaimed water pond. I imagine it was to control algea and man there was a lot of them. We were fishing with lines tied to sticks right off the edge (it was an immediate 3 foot drop) and they were hitting it every time.
What fishes then could be a good predator base for tilapia? Maybe some kind of other fish that would put a large dent in the smallest ones? GSF? HSB?
Some things that intrigue me about this idea are the high rate of birth/growth that tilapia have and my enjoyment of eating them.
Future pond plans put me at a high end of .25 acre pond with the low end at .10. I do however love to eat fish, so I was thinking with a fish that breeds that much, maybe it would be more possible to pull fish dinners out every week without wreaking havoc on the population.
I thought if I kept the water shallow, the sun would heat it better, as in So Cal we have sun most year round, even when it is colder, it is still sunny.
I wonder if there could even be a way to heat up the water in the winter if it started to get cold? Doesn't aeration the wrong way cause water to heat up? Could this be used to the advantage of the tilapia. Just spitballing here.
