Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations tilapia

I am in central Texas with a 2 acre mature pond in my back yard. I have plenty of blue gill and nice bass (native along with some Floridas. I feed several times a day during the warm months.
My question is this - is it worth the money to stock some Tilapia during the spring?? I know they probably will not survive during winter (although we typically do not get that cold here) - thanks for the input

I really like them , be sure and get breeders , not restaurant trade, 95+% males. Minimum 20 lbs per acre.

If you really like your current fishery, then I would not change it. I am a strong believer in, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

That being said, there are a lot of members that have had very good experiences with their tilapia!

1.) They will eat filamentous algae in a pond!

2.) They are a supplemental forage. Even if the LMB eat BG most of the year, gorging on sluggish tilapia as the water temps cool may be a big bonus for the bass - going into a low calorie, potentially stressful time of year.

Personally a fan of the TP even with mixed results on my first time stocking but they would have to die to due winterkill before I would recommend stocking them. Without winterkill I would fear overpopulation. With winterkill they would provide some great additional forage in the pond, weed control, and possibly some nutrient removal offset by converting plants to flesh. I don't think it's a 1:1 ratio as they add nutrients to the pond just like any other fish, but I would hope they consume more than they produce. They will also eat pellet food readily.

Winterkill is a must. If there is any question there, I wouldn't go any further unless you had a plan to remove loads of fish through seine, trap, net, or shocking.

I'm more of a purist and prefer not to stock anything that's non-native to my ponds' regions.

However, after many years of resisting, I stocked HSB, and it's been great. I guess I also stocked some blue catfish which may not be native to W. PA.

I agree with Boon about winter kill though. In Hawaii, tilapia have denuded a lot of lakes after introduction.

as always thanks guys for the info

From my experience as a manager of ponds in Texas, Tilapia often do not die every winter. I would put it at about 1 in 3 winters or so on the conservative side in central Texas. Further West and North it trends closer to every winter from what I have seen. And that still depends on the size, depth, severity of the winter, and location of your pond in the state. Smaller, shallower ponds tend to see them die more often than larger, deeper ones. I have not seen them negatively effect a bluegill population as long as there is an established bass population. Coppernose Bluegill like to eat tilapia just as much as largemouth bass do. I have heard bad things about tilapia and trophy bluegill ponds but I do not have first hand experience with that. I have a pond in South East Coastal Texas that has not had a complete tilapia kill in the last 4 years for certain. Its a big deep pond though with both aeration and a well to feed it. We saw the tilapia huddled around the well inlet one year and they somehow survived by staying close to that water which was about 65 degrees through the worst of the winter. Granted that was about three days with night time temperature barely below freezing. The tilapia are still not over populated and they have some tremendous largemouth as a result. There are a few individuals the size of dinner plates though. I'm talking about a tilapia that could feed a family of 8! I have also noticed that big tilapia prefer to hang around the feeder and not mess with filamentous while young of the year tilapia will put in some good work on any filamentous algae you may have. This is all purely anecdotal evidence based on what I have personally observed. As far as being worth the money, stocked at 10-20 pounds per acre Tilapia will quickly multiply in a pond. They spawn about every 20 or so days from what I have seen. Texas prices seem to range from about $16-20 per pound unless you can drive to a local tilapia farm and pick them up yourself. So stocking a 2 acre pond won't break the bank. I stock Mozambique tilapia, mixed sizes between 4-10 inches from a farm down around the Houston area that lets me specify that I want both males and females and I haven't had a problem with reproduction on a pond we stocked yet. Keep in mind that depending on what county you are in within Central Texas you may need a permit from Texas Parks and Wildlife to stock tilapia in the Conservation Zone which sort of runs west from I-35.

Tilapia over-wintering has been noted here for several pond owner/managers in south TX. As a general barometer the closer you are to I-10 or south of it the greater the chances of tilapia over-wintering. If you are close to or north of I-20 the chances diminish greatly (possible in the right lake/pond but unlikely in a large majority). Same can be said for LA , MS , AL, GA and FL.

Would you more experienced fellas with knowledge of the region have reservations on the add of TP?

I don't have enough experience for sure and have only one season to reference along with reading on the threads here.

4 yr old 8 acre pond, first year to stock TP. I came nowhere close to the recommended stocking rate. I will say the sago pond weed and FA took a big nose dive within 60 days of stocking. I dont know if it was the grass carp (20 new ones) that helped pound the weeds or the TP. Neither ate on my American Pond weed, so that was good.

Caught some big TP off the dock so I know some of them survived the year. I'm curious what pops up when the water temp goes down soon. I'm going to stock them again next year.

Jambi,

How deep is your pond?

It sounds like you really struck the tilapia sweet spot. Having them live 2-3 years gets you a lot more FA consumption and a lot more forage production for the initial purchase price.

And then a colder than average winter hits the re-set button.

I would rather see Threadfin Shad stocked in the Spring or Rainbow Trout in the winter if your goal is purely supplemental stocking. Things that we know aren't going to cause a potential problem by getting over populated. Obviously those are not in everyone's budget and tilapia are a cheap alternative. I only have a few ponds that I have had reservations about stocking Tilapia. Those are intensely managed Trophy Largemouth Fisheries south of that I-10 mark ewest mentioned where we are harvesting heavily to keep bass numbers low and weights high. I have always worried those ponds may have the potential for tilapia to overpopulate. If your goal is more on the quality side and you are looking to maintain good relative weights on a higher number of bass, I think they are great. Especially so if you have a lot of shallow water and you struggle with filamentous algae. Turning filamentous algae into useable fish protein is certainly a helpful tool. In Central Texas, I would have no reservations about it. Stocked some up around Waxahachie,TX last year to help with a major filamentous algae problem and stocked some more out near Waco to help with algae and feed bass in a high catch rate pond a client uses to entertain guests who can't fish very well lol