LakeL,

I think I was the one who gave you the Tilapia advice and I'm glad they are working for you. They are a great fish.

My 2 cents on gizzard shad:

First, recognize that "conventional" thinking says do not stock gizzard shad in a pond. Reference a very good previous discussion between Bill Cody, the estemed expert herein and myself, the not so estemed regular guy who loves ponds and often challenges conventional thinking, e.g. Tilapia. Read that exchange and you will see the pros and cons...it is a very good discussion. It also mentions several additional studies that you can read about including one reported in Pond Boss.

Having said that, yes, I believe gizzard shad has a place in our ponds...but you need to let your predators attain a good size before stocking the gizzards. That will help prevent the main concern about them which is large gizzards taking over your pond.

I stocked them a year ago. There has been absolutely no problems thus far. I have LMB and a growing population of HSB. They clearly feed on the gizzards. My experiment is ongoing, one year isn't enough data to say definitively that gizzards are good for me or not...but so far so good.

I encourage you to read the discussion I mentioned and make an informed decision.