Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Out-Year Tilapia Pond Management

Let me set the stage. I live near the southern shore of Lake Texoma, north of Big Mineral Creek, east of Gordonville, Texas, on 12 acre of land. We have 8 small ponds on the 12 acres. The land falls 90 feet from top to bottom. Those 8 ponds cover slightly less than 5 acres. The two .10 acre ponds at the top are rectangular and designed to be hatchery ponds. Both are filled with well water. They are two years old. Last year, we raised some fathead minnows in one, and coppernose bluegill in the other. This year, I carried over both ponds with the same fish. Each pond became choked with filamentous algae, and my biologist, Chad Fikes, struggled to keep the algae in check. Since those ponds are designed to produce revenue, we have to pay attention to how much money we spend on herbicides. Chad worked hard to manage the plankton bloom with small amounts of fertilizer and the occasional microbe treatment.
I decided to stock 5 pounds of tilapia in the northernmost pond, the one with fathead minnows. Within two weeks, all algae was gone, and there were hundreds of babies seen around the shoreline. There hasn't been an algae issue since. The southern pond, the one with bluegill, developed a planktonic algae bloom. Chad chose to treat it with a small amount of chelated copper. Two days later, fish were dying. He turned on the well and began to exchange water. We lost 15 large adult bluegill and probably 150 young of the year. But, there are still several thousand 2-3" bluegill and several more thousand of the next smaller size class of bluegill. But, the pond still ebbs and flows with filamentous algae. With excessively hot temps, we have avoided any treatments other than microbes, and we limit that. We just exchange water. (Water from that pond flows into our main fishing pond)
The northern pond is steady, water looks great, all we do is make up water lost to evaporation. We have harvested 20 pounds of small tilapia for two anxious customers, but the rest of the fish are still there. When the water cools, we'll sample and prepare to harvest.
We also stocked two of the fishing ponds with 5 pounds of tilapia each. Those ponds are deep and not overcrowded with bass. Each has a Sweeney Feeder, too. Will check those out this fall.
My conclusion? Just like everyone else...those beasts have not only eaten some algae, they have controlled it. But, my stocking rate was the equivalent of 50 pounds per acre in the beginning.
I am becoming a bigger fan of tilapia. But, I am still tentative about declaring them anything other than a peripheral fish with a specific purpose or two. That is, until Cody comes up with a new line of tilapia lures.