Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations YEAR 2 SUGGESTIONS?

Beech5 asked in a PM (please excuse me taking public, but these are all good questions and I can't answer them alone):

B5, let me tackle these and pass the harder ones on for more information from others.

(1) [NOTE: Most of us here are "guilty" of using a lot of short hand for commonly discussed terms. Please forgive us as we explain what they mean.] Yes, "BG" is bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus), also known as brim in FLA ("Freakin' Lower Alabama", a friend of mine from Coral Gables calls it) or bream elsewhere. "RES" is Redear Sunfish (Lepomis microlophus), which can grow larger than BG, are fond of eating snails (with the side effect of reducing fish parasites in your pond), and don't spawn as much as BG. "CNBG" are Copper-Nose Bluegill, a sub-species native to FLA which are usually considered superior to "regular" BG in warm waters. Since your BG were caught locally, they may be CNBG. One identifying characteristic of CNBG is a copper-colored band across the snout area.

(2) Tilapia (wrt pond management) are several related species from the Cichlid family (roughly the tropical equivalent of the Centrarchidae family we know best due to BG, Largemouth Bass ("LMB"), Crappies, and other common North American fish). Tilapia grow fast, spawn heavily, and are perhaps the most ferocious eater of Filamentous Algae ("FA") known to Pondmeisters. But since they are tropical, they can't live in cooler waters. Mozambique Tilapia (perhaps the most commonly discussed and utilized here) die off when water temperatures cool down to about 55 degrees F. Other Tilapia species may be available in some locations , and each has their own limiting lower water temperature. "The other guy" (aka my good friend Meadowlark) has been described as "The Patron Saint of Tilapia" (he even used that as his signature for a while, but the SOB who coined the phrase was making him pay a royalty on it so he stopped. I really miss the extra money.) and there are many threads with much info on Tilapia which you can search for using ML's name as one parameter.

Since Tilapia are so prolific, DD and I would both recommend them IF your Winter water temps will kill them. I personally do not have enough info on long term warm water Tilapia interaction and effects in a BG/LMB pond to endorse them if they would live year round in your water (not saying they would be bad, saying I just don't know). Many of us would be really interested in finding out what those long-term results are, if you want to be a Guinea Pig (with only one pond, I wouldn't do it). I can easily see a Pond Boss Magazine article coming out of such an experiment.

(3) I would guess that any diseases that could be introduced by bringing BG from that particular body of water are already in your pond. Whether to stock wild fish or not (due to the possibility of disease and parasites) has been discussed many times. I think the consensus answer here would probably be "don't transfer any fish that look or act sick, and be aware that you COULD bring in problems this way." But there are certainly benefits to this approach (lower cost, genetic diversity, fish adapted to your local climate) which are in it's favor.

Like I said, I think these are all good intermediate questions which deserve open discussion, so I hope you don't mind me posting them openly.

-Theo