I have stocked as low as 15 lbs. per acre to as high as 45 lb. per acre. I would suggest a minimum of 10 lbs. If you can. I also would buy mature 6" or better size so they spawn right away. Remember they don't survive once the water drops into the mid 50's, so take advantage of them and their spawning for as many months as you have them. They are great at controlling filament algae and I have seen my pond bottom sludge clean up with them. They also are rabbits at producing bass forage! The tilapia I have stocked are going into ponds with mature / large Florida LMB in them, so the tilapia weigh 3/4 lb. each and are gravid at time of stocking. I stock them once my water temperature reaches 70 degrees so that they will start spawning soon and that is about the time I want them to start cleaning up on filament algae. I really don't observe and spawning activity until the water temperature reaches 75 - 78 degrees. Once in the low 80's they are spawning heavily! Pretty neat seeing their bowling ball sized nest in colonies and always being patrolled by large bass on the out skirts. Big male tilapia in their bright spawning colors with fry running in and out of their mouth every time a bass or bluegill rushes in to grab the fry. The more you stock the more that are spawning and the more small 1" - 3" tilapia you will start seeing. On a rule of thumb I have had most success with at least 20 lbs. per acre. When I was stocking 15 lbs. per acre I didn't see as much volume of 2" - 3" tilapia as the bass and bluegill would consume all the 1/2" - 1" fry before it ever had a chance to mature. My best years on bass growth were with 30 - 45 lbs. stocked. Simply amazing the amount of tilapia fry and fingerlings produced and incredible growth on my bass of all sizes.

From what I have read and in talking to the hatcheries that grow Mozambique variety, they reach sexual maturity at 3" and then can spawn every 28 days. The larger the tilapia the more eggs it can produce.

In regards to the die off each year once the water drops to around 55, don't worry about it. What I see happen is that the small ones under 6" are all eaten up by the LMB and the larger ones typically go to the bottom and decompose or float to shore. I actually am happy if I see smaller ones on the shore as this means that I had offered my bass more food than they could consume - always a good thing if you want giant bass.

Dave