Since my name has been mentioned a couple of times in this thread, let me offer these thoughts about tilapia.
As I recall, my "heated debate" with Meadowlark was about the merits of using tilapia in bass-crowded lakes. My logic, at that time, was, "Why stock a fish that breeds a lot, and then dies en masse, into a crowded bass lake?" My logic was that we have a lake where the forage fish can't possibly keep up with those 12-13" gangsta bass as it is. So, we artificially prop up the forage fish population with tilapia, grow those bass into 14" overcrowded bass, the tilapia die that fall, the food chain immediately collapses and we are worse off than before we started. Now, we have more pounds of bass per unit of water and there's an immediate collapse of the food chain. That was my logic. Heck, it made sense...
I was wrong.
Here's what really happens. Stocked at least ten pounds per surface acre, Mozambique tilapia, in Texas, begin reproducing at heavy rates. As they spawn and spit out the babies, those young fish feed in a slightly different niche than other species of babies being hatched. Over a few months, the fishery accepts these young fish and they, in fact, become a key part of the food chain for largemouth bass. (We are working on a very cool research project which will help prove up this truth) As the summer wears on into early fall, what I didn't think about was the statistical odds of higher survival rates of young of the year "native" forage fish.
Here's what I've documented through electrofishing surveys for the last few years. In overcrowded bass lakes where we've stocked tilapia, we're seeing marked survival of young of the year bluegills where they ordinarily would have disappeared much earlier in the year.
Another unfounded fear I had was that each fall we'd see thousands of dead fish and my clients would be upset at that sight.
I was wrong.
What actually happens is that, as the water cools, tilapia become sluggish. When that happens, bass gorge themselves and get another growth spurt. While we often see some of the originally stocked fish full grown die each fall, it's not nearly the numbers to cause a client any angst.
While all this is happening, young of the year bluegill are enjoying higher survival rates and growing into sizes that our bass can use throughout late fall and winter.
Bottom line, from experience...bass grow and bluegill have better survival rates.
Oh, and tilapia eat algae, too.
Not sure where the reference to Dave Davidson and I came from regarding the stocking rates for tilapia to eat algae, but I've bought into the general rates of 20 pounds per acre for algae control. I've seen it over and over for the last 10 years or so.
I am now a big believer in tilapia to help renovate a forage fish population and to control algae. I've not really experimented with stocking rates for forage fish compared to algae control but I know, for ponds with moderate amounts of algae, 10 pounds per acre is often not enough. 20 pounds seems to be the magic number in these parts. I'm in no position to debate beyond what I know works.
Guess I wasn't wanting to take anyone's word for it...until I tried it myself.
Lots of people have lots of theories...and sometimes a person has to do it himself to be sold.
Oh...and it should go without saying that overcrowded bass must be culled along the way.
