Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Tilapia vs Bluegill ID

This may sound like a dumb question, but I can's tell Tilapia fingerlings from Bluegill fingerlings. I threw a cast net all day and eliminated what were obviously Coppernose Bluegill fingerlings. Most of the other fish were more washed out, but they still look a lot like bluegill. I expected the pond to be loaded with finterling Tilapia.

What are these fish?

Ed - The photo or link did show up on your post. If I can see a picture of the two fish together I should be able to separate them. I think mouth size should be a good feature to use.

Bill, I updated the picture link. After I put few of these in my aquarium with 3 Bluegill, I am getting surrer that these are Tilapia and not some kind of washed out Bluegill hybrid. If they are, they sure worked as advertised. BTW, the smaller ones in the picture are 2".

Pretty sure them's purebred 'gills.

Probably early and late spawn products.

I'd never bet against Bill Cody either, and I've never seen tilapia fingerlings, but these certainly have coloration and body morphology consistent with bluegill produced in turbid waters.

I would have expected a Bluegill to have higher body. I will see if the black spot shows up after couple of days in clear water, but I am afraid that you may be right.

Bluegill aged between 14-26 wks old won't really have a black spot. More like a dark "slit" approximately 1mm wide X 5-6mm high.

Those do not look like the Tilapia I have at all...they are bluegills, in my opinion..

All fish in the picture are bgills and not hybrid bgills or tilapia. Easy visual references. Note the vertical body bars on fish in the picture. Body shape is also correct for bgills. The beginning or insertion of the dorsal fin in tilapia is slightly in front of or directly above the pectoral fin base whereas in bgill the dorsal fin insertion is behind the pectoral fin base.
At same lengths, a tilapia is narrower bodied similar to a green sunfish compared to a bgill. In the aquarium look at the back of the dorsal fin and anal fin, they will be noticably pointed on the tilapia and more rounded on the bgill. Also note back margin shape of tail (caudal) fin: bgill will be slightly indented in the middle and usually in most species of tilapia it will be very rounded like a bullhead tail (catfish tail is forked).

Do you think all those fish in the picture were this year's hatch? If yes, real good growth for the larger ones. I cannot explain why tilapia arenot more abuandant in your pond. You need someone more familiar with their habits than I am.

Thanks for your help. The pictures of Tilapia that I have seen also have vertical bars on them. I have other bluegill, that have more laterally compressed body and copper belly. I released those. Maybe that is the difference between native and coppernose.

It is very possible that these are 2004 hatch. The pond was loaded with minnows in the spring and I stocked Tilapia later on. Now I can't find the Tilapia. I got one about 2lb. They are easy to ID at that size. I would have expected the pond to be this loaded with Tilapia, not bluegill.

Finaly, the pond is old enough to do some pond managment.