Your money is much better spent if you buy the brood stock. You could easily spend that much money on algacides. You want them to spawn as soon as possible to start producing the baby tilapia. Remember it is the babies that are your algae eating army. The adults will work on the larger forms of existing algae and some Chara. The babies consume lots of the new fresh tiny string algae that is trying to grow and would cause you problems later in the summer. When you get the tilapia try to get at least 3 largest ones which will be males and 5 medium sizes ones that will most likely be females. They should spawn at least 3 times during the summer. It helps if you 3-4 times per week toss in a small handful of fish food or cat/dog food for the adults. This keeps them conditioned to eat pelleted food and makes the them much easier to catch in August. Just use the artificial pellets or pet food as bait under a small bobber in the shallow beach area to fish for the adults. Pond raised tilapia are very good eating and often better flavor than store bought tilapia.
Try to come back here to your thread later this year and let others know how well they worked in your swimming pond with just tilapia. I think you will find that using tilapia is a better way to control your algae than what you used last year.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 03/28/17 08:09 PM.
