Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Tilapia as forage fish

I've been searching through threads on Tilapia and haven't seen much about using them intentionally as a forage fish for bass, especially on initial lake stockings. Before adding them in this year I wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing something that would cause more harm than good. My thoughts are that I can buy the smaller sizes at the moment since I do not currently have any LMB in my pond, they can breed and then come fall when I put the bass in they should have a lot of small tilapia that will get increasingly easier to catch as the temperatures get colder. In theory this will help preserve my bluegill population. The double bonus for me is that I have a serious cormorant problem as well and the larger tilapia will hopefully be the first victims to buy me some time while I get my cormorant deterrents set up. I do not have a ton of floating algae in my pond, so not sure if a lack of food may prohibit the growth and well being of the tilapia or if they will be able to find enough food just pecking algae and growth off the submerged brush and trees? I could stock more fat head minnows if that would be more beneficial, however it appears that the current bluegill population ended up eating all of them last time (it was either them or the cormorants), and I think if I add fat heads with my additional jumbo bluegill that they will likely all be eaten up before I even get the bass put in the pond.

I stock Tilapia for FA control, but the first year I saw really fat SMB was after I stocked Tilapia for the first time.

Pay attention to water temp. You are limited to Mozambique Tilapia in Texas, and they go belly up around 65°F water temp I believe.

So I'm noticing my water temp fluctuating more than I thought it would. I bought a two pack of a cheap aquarium thermometer that has the probe on about a 12" wire. Temps were in the high 60s, but then after this last little cold snap it moved the temps all the way down to the low 50s. Should I be taking a deeper water temp?

12" is OK, deeper will fluctuate less. Mozzies I believe die out at 65°F and below water temp. So, potentially you might be without those as forage in the pond for 4-5 months out of the year. Up here in Indiana we can stock Blue Tilapia, and they are good for water temps down to the upper 40's. Still, our stocking is typically late May and they die out in early November.

For myself, I would abstain from stocking TP (as forage) in the LMB's initial year unless the initially stocked LMB are >12" in length at the time of TP introduction.



I am only going to say that you should do some research and correct this.

Centax, I whipped the cormorant problem on my 2 acre pond with twine. I drove stakes every 25 to 30 ft on both sides of the pond. Then twine stretched sorta tight back and forth. They need a runway to take off on and glide in. 5 years now with no problems.

Interesting idea. I was planning on buying two of the propane cannons. I can get timers for them so they are only going off during daylight hours that the cormorants would be present. The cormorants showed up in late November and early December but the ducks didn't show up until end of December/January so figured I could put the cannons up once the cormorant threat had passed. While it would be a lot of work, my lake is long and skinny so the twine idea can be done. I happen to already have a lot of steaks and a lot of twine on hand too. We flood an adjacent planted field for the ducks, so the twine wouldn't be an issue for them.

CentexSaj I had a similar issue with the cormorants last year. One day i counted 50 in a 12 acre pond, i watched them herd the BG and TFS in a line to one corner of the pond and feast. They left behind over a dozen injured BG with damaged tails and eyes. We were able to deter them with a loud noise accompanied by fast moving projectiles. In researching this issue I found that these birds will send out scouts to look for productive feeding areas and then show up in greater numbers. This year we were very proactive at deterring the scouts from getting comfortable and so far so good, never more than 2-3 seen at any one time.

A customer had 4 show up in his 3/4 acre pond and they hung out for a few weeks.His water clarity was hovering around 18" A fyke net survey a month later showed 80% of the fish that were caught in the fyke net had marks on them where they escaped from the cormorants. 80%. I would have never thought the percentage was that high. Missing scales, scrapes on both sides of the body, etc.