Wish I still had that research article...the one about the Lake in Egypt backed up by the Aswan dam. They had a problem with muck build-up with thousands of people living on the shoreline and turned Tilapia loose on the problem. They documented an actual water depth increase of two to three inches per year due to the Tilapia consuming the bottom muck.
Applying the same logic, when I renovated an old pond recently, I pushed the muck into an "island" in the middle of the pond. The Tilapia are probably in fish heaven right now eating that stuff...in a couple of years I expect most of it will be gone, and if it isn't, I'll be surprised.
In another post, I said that I was feeding algae to my LMB and HSB...in this case, in that old pond, I'm feeding muck to fancy F1 LMB. Oh, yes there is that intermediate step where the Tilapia beget offspring which are then consumed by the LMB...food for thought? No pun intended
