i agree about the grass carp, not from personal experience, just what i have read. but the the fish sellers don't make money if they don't sell fish. that's the only reason i can figure they are pushing them so hard, surely they know what the carp eat.
about tilapia. yes they are legal here and i stocked them twice in my old 3/4 acre pond. i am about as sold on them as i am carp. i had an auto feeder running there also, they seemed to have liked the pellets way more than the fa. also, pretty much never saw any young tilapia. they ones i did see were in a school about the size of a basketball or smaller. the fry looked less than 1/2". they also told me that when it got cold i could just go out there and scoop them up and have a great big fish fry. it didn't exactly work that way.
back to the pond carrying capacity. i understand the bass will whittle away at some of the bg, but my bg had several months jump on the bass when stocked. the bass were just fingerlings. they are 12"s now which i think is great growth since may, but the bg are 8"s so the bg are safe from bass predation for now i think. it just seems that a pond could get too heavy very quick without some type predation at the rates some of us are stocking.
