Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Tilapia Mating Habits

ML, I think you have to count the eaten ones too, because that's mainly why you stock them to begin with.

Theo,

Thanks...for a moment there I was afraid EL was right and I had lost my mind. ...not

I'm still waiting for someone to tell me why it's the males that have to swim around and act stupid.

Bobad,

Yes and thanks for your comment. In the context of that particular example, I was actually trying to address the EL remark about "solving world hunger".

In the "math" exercise that preceeded the world hunger and lost mind remarks, I assumed a range of 60 to 90% predation. It may very well be higher than 90% and, in fact, anecdotal evidence in my ponds suggest it is...but just as you say, that is the whole idea.

Maybe we need to re-look at the SRC paper. Regarding reproduction, "the female spawns in the nest (about two to four eggs per gram of brood
female)"

Further it states, "Mozambique tilapia may reach
sexual maturity in as little as 3 months of age, when they seldom weigh more than 2 to 4 ounces (60
to 100 grams)"

A 3 ounce Tilapia may produce over 200 fry in one spawn. Do the math folks, assume whatever you wish about those 200 fry and 3 months later give each of them 200 fry and so on. Pretty soon you are talking about real forage.

Ok, EWEST correctly points out that's in an aquaculture setting...the paper also says under adverse conditions they can spawn at as little as 2 ounces.

Cut the numbers in half or reduce by 3/4 or whatever for recreational ponds and I still maintain that Tilapia produce flat awesome forage....even a lost mind might find a sliver of wisdom occasionally...to paraphrase that old saying about a hog and an acorn.

Heybud,

I'll defer this one to Deb...if she happens to read your comment, I am positive she will have an appropriate answer.

Isnt that what all young males do? I remember doing that when i was in high school cruising for babes too!!!

EWEST,

Sorry, I meant that question on "why males" as a retorical question to lead the reader into more discussion of reproduction rates. Of course, there is no way a commercial operation wants those reproduction rates. It would be their worst nightmare to have thousands upon thousands of little fish and no big fish to market. They are looking to put flesh on the bones, not forage for LMB, as many of us are.

Different goals between the ag growers and the ponders and different methods to get each there successfully with the same fishes be they tilapia , catfish , LMB , BG or other forage fish.

Rome wasn't built in a day, but the math works...there are many ways to play the numbers, I'm not disagreeing with your concept of tilapia. The "real world" doesn't work like your projected numbers, my post was to point out your numbers are fictional. Did you see the immediate response to achieve what you posted ?

I remember you reporting a minor dieoff of tilapia in a pond where no predators were present...given your original computations, I would have expected quite a few more

p.s. In closing, you should really reply to Bob-O's post about not stocking BG in his predator pond in your other thread, I would hate for him to make an a monumental mistake.

I went back to my old picture of the small pond(1/4 acre or less) without predators and based on the cross-sectional area, the numbers of dead fish visible in that area, and some simple calculus computed that there were about 3000 small dead Tilapia total along the shoreline. I only stocked this pond with less than half-dozen small Tilapia....can't recall the exact numbers. Also, no way for me to estimate how many additional Tilapia sank to the bottom (possibly more than were visible) and how many were already consumed by the clean-up crew by the time I took the picture...Bald Eagles had already arrived

Taking those things into consideration, yes, I believe that experience is very consistent with what I've been saying about Tilapia forage production. I described the fish kill as minor in its impact because it was cleaned-up in about a week as I recall....but as you are so quick to point out, I have lost my mind.

I figure Tilapia probably eat Tilapia in a Tilapia-only pond - about every other fish species we deal with would.

I think the idea of multiple generations producing 1.7 billion tilapia per acre is hilarious !

I won't comment on the upper limit of 27 billion

EL,

Glad to see you have finally come around.

Just for grins I plugged in a 99% survival rate into the spreadsheet I use for monitoring my tilapia reproduction and ended up with around 15 million I guess with some aggressive rounding I could have a billion.

Realistically, I think brood rates of about 50 are more accurate, and I read where a 35% cannibalism rate is normal when they become crowded.

Regardless of the numbers, they are guaranteed to up the RW's of predators. To me they are the backbone of my pond and the and most valuable component of my pond management strategy.

We've seen production as high as 5000 lbs per acre, starting with 50 lbs per acre, in 1/2 acre production ponds, with only a single air stone diffuser and ability to add fresh water. At 20 fish per lb, this is equivalent to 100,000 fish per acre. No predators. Don't think cannibalism is significant. Seems that they stop spawning when they reach a certain density.

Todd,

You are probably right. There has to be something like that, otherwise, they would indeed take over the world, the warm water world at least.

Isn't it great to see folks talking about the degrees of Talapia's greatness rather than the kind of stuff that was formerly said about Tilapia?