That's a heckuva load of critters. Any concern about a DO crash?
Dave, especially in monoculture I think this should be a concern. I doubt it would be a problem in a pond filled with predators like BG and LMB.
To attain these standing weights PK must be harvesting primary production to some degree. I would think they might harvest decaying phytoplankton in addition to the periphyton they are known to harvest. One poster describes the water boiling with them, so maybe they harvest live phytoplankton too while free swimming. If so they would have an effect similar to tilapia in that they can reduce nighttime respiration O2 drawdowns. Don't know because there is little research on them. If they feed on phytoplankton, PK would compete directly with Nile and Blue tilapia and when in combination would reduce tilapia benefits to large LMB but would benefit LMB recruitment and BG.
The predators were limited in Swingle's trials and so one shouldn't expect the same standing weights. There was little difference between fertilized and fertilized and brush in the production of BG. At the rate he stocked, the BG were getting all they could eat without the brush. This tells me that PK were limited by habitat not by BG or fertility (in his trial).
There is a lot to glean from this paper. I find myself going back to read it or portions of it frequently.
