I am on my 3rd year of stocking Tilapia and I have noticed a steady decline in the quality of fish year over year. The first year I only had 4-5 floaters out of 70lbs total. 35lbs on two separate occasions. The 2nd year I had 30 floaters out of 75lbs stocked at one time. I felt this number was a little excessive considering the claimed typical failure rate of 2%. This year I purchased 75lbs again (I intended on buying 100lbs but the growers prices have jumped to $13 dollars a pound!) and had 60+ floaters and several more fish barely alive missing eyes and other serious issues. I called the grower immediately and was refunded for 15lbs. Call me a glutton for punishment but I later purchased an additional 5lbs a month later with 25 fish in the bag 6 dead and 3-5 more I'm positive didn't make it very long.
Ultimately this has left me quite a bit short of my stocking goals this year and I am currently looking for another grower.
Is this a excessive failure rate or did I have exceptional luck the 1st year and it spoiled me to have to high of expectations? Also has anyone else seen prices jump 3 dollars a pound on Tilapia this year?
I'm in Deep East Texas for reference.
I can't give you a solid answer on this, BUT, in the food fish industry, a 20% loss is anticipated in intensive culture plantings over a span of 1" fingerlings to 1.5 pound adults. That rate would be totally unacceptable for pond stocking! Personally, I expect between 1-5% depending on the density and time in a tank for the fish. I also supply more fish than I estimate will have issues and TELL my customers this is a possibility, and why! Tilapia have wickedly sharp dorsal spines and are very evasive fish! Hauling, seining and any handling causes them to go crazy trying to escape, and in the chaos, they cause damage to each other. Now as a testament to the toughness of Tilapia, they recover from some pretty serious injuries as quickly as those same injuries would kill most other fish species.
While there are certainly some suppliers out there that could not care less about what they sell, or their customers, I have to think most long standing suppliers DO care, very much!
Personally, I had to use chlorinated "city" water last year to refresh haul water. I carry the chemicals that are safe for this to dechlorinate, but the extra high chlorine content and sheer volume of a water tower's Bulk supply hose blinded over 1000 pounds of Tilapia I was hauling. I was well into the run, informed my clients scheduled of what had happened, and every one chose to accept the fish as a "free", extra forage till I could return with replacements. Life as a fish hauler would be MUCH easier if fish, weather, heat and an almost infinite number of variables would cooperate, but they refuse. The better suppliers minimize every risk and will try to find a cause for ANY reported loss of fish, but AFTER, immediately, taking care of their customer, and regardless of any fault or cause! I also follow up throughout the year with my clients progress.
