Midsouth, sounds like you may not have much faith in the tilapia you've stocked. Tilapia are one of the best, most beneficial and versatile tools any manager can offer their clients if used properly to reach many goals with minimal expense and effort on their part. I only stock pure strain Blue Tilapia that are stocked when water temps reach 62 degrees...they also live to 45 degrees. It has been my experience that most tilapia fry are eaten by the yoy BG and LMB and those fish's growth is accelerated. Few tilapia reaching the 2 inch length get eaten by predators because they are simply too evasive for the predators until the temps drop in the fall and the tilapia become lethargic.

As for overwintering and year round survival, it is more expensive to raise enough tilapia for stocking than it is to purchase them annually and due to how prolific the tilapia are, if they survived year round, they would overrun a pond in two seasons.

Tilapia in cooler waters are a tool just like feed, chemicals and aeration in any pond...and Blue Tilapia get similar results to those three tools at far less annual cost. The death of the tilapia in the fall is arguably the best thing for most ponds since they pass all the otherwise wasted nutrients consumed in the pond up the food chain. Tilapia are not a silver bullet, but Tilapia are as close as anything gets to being a silver bullet that a pond meister can use.

Tilapia species are vastly different yet are often lumped together in the ideas of what they can do...Tilapia are definitely NOT all the same.

Any tilapia available in NC will be hybrids and likely mostly male, sex reversed fish...in a pond, that is a huge waste of effort and money.

Bluegill Fever, Tilapia do not need to be trained to eat pellets when kept in a cage, they will eat it. Use Purina Aquamax 5D04 (400) for fish from 2-5 inches and Purina Aquamax 5D09 (Dense 4000) for cage cultured tilapia....Both are COMPLETE diet feeds.