I was all set to stock 10lbs of Tilapia until I went to my pond store ...They were totally against it. They told me a horror story about a customer of theirs that stocked them but was unable to harvest in time and they all sank at the end of the year and the Tilapia rotted on the bottom and ruined the pond.
This will be my 3rd year of stocking tilapia and I feel like they are at least a "2-fer" and in some cases a "3-fer". They help control algae, they are a high producing forage fish to fatten up the bass and take some pressure off the bluegill, and you can eat them.
I also heard the stories of mass die-off problems, but it has not happened to me. In Dec I usually see a hand-full of dead tilapia, but assume the catfish/turtles get the ones that die to the bottom and the coons and critters get the dead ones along the shore. I stock between 100-150 lbs of tilapia in a 4 acre pond and have had zero problems. I always ask for extra albino tilapia because you can watch them easier throughout the summer and fall.
They did recommend Cutrine
Cutrine Plus granules have worked great for me and I use that too.
