My thoughts have not changed from this prior thread. A better use in the initial first year stocking would be a few brood tilapia and not yoy tilapia. Then use your preferred stocking of other fingerling fish (LMB , CC , BG/CNBG , RES , HSB , SMB , FH , Gams or whatever)
Tilapia as initial forage
http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=000459;p=1 Subsequent to this thread I found this study.
Comparative Evaluation of Two Tilapias as Pond fishes in Alabama
H. S. SWlNGLE
"Excerpts" :
PRODUCTION IN PONDS STOCKED WITH BROOD TILAPIAS AND LARGEMOUTH BASS
The earliest broods of tilapias were usually
small, and consequently these individuals
rapidly grew too large for small fingerling
bass to eat. When largemouth bass were
stocked in excess of 100 per acre, few were
able to grow large enough to feed upon 3-
and 4-inch tilapias. The maximum production
of bass in such combinations was 73 pounds
per acre. Low production was due to the very
short period during which the young tilapia
were available to bass and to the small size
(1 to 2 inches) of the bass stocked.
When 100 bass of the 1-inch group per acre
were stocked with brood tilapia April 15 to
20, they were able to attain an average size
of 0.3 to 0.5 pound by the following August 1,
when the ponds were open to fishing. This
growth was much faster than that obtained in
bluegill-bass populations.
When brood tilapias were stocked in estab-
lished bluegill-bass populations in May, they
were found to reproduce in May or June,
but the young subsequently disappeared, ap-
parently victims of bass predation. Hofstede
and Botke (1950) also have reported that the
Java tilapia became abundant in Indonesian
waters only where predation was absent.
The most effective use of bass predation
was in Pond S-1157, where bass were not
added until August. At this time many young-
of-the-year tilapia were too large to be eaten,
but the addition of bass reduced the survival
of tilapias which hatched subsequently. The
rate of feeding was then doubled, causing
many of the larger fingerling tilapias to grow
to harvestable size. This procedure resulted in
a production of 2,453 pounds harvestable
fish per acre (Table 1).
PRODUCTION OF TILAPIAS WITH FINGERLING STOCKING
A second possibility remained with finger-
ling stock -- the use of the repressive factor to
control reproduction (Swingle, 1957a). This
procedure involves stocking at such a rate
that fish grow readily, but by the time they
are sexually mature, they have excreted or
secreted into the water sufficient amounts of
a repressive factor to reduce materially or
prevent reproduction. This practice is used
in carp culture and was used to develop a
system of commercial culture of the speckled
bullhead (Swingle, 1957b). Results of ex-
periments with various rates of stocking fin-
gerling tilapias are given in Table 3.
This study is full of info but it was written from the perspective of Tilapia as an aquaculture food program (how to get food size tilapia for humans) as efficiently as possible. My understanding is that the LMB did better during their first year if brood tilapia were there so the LMB could eat most of the subsequently born yoy tilapia , but where yoy tilapia were stocked along with the yoy LMB (at yoy rates) their was the potential for the yoy tilapia to grow to fast and start reproducing and end up stunting and taking up to much of the pond's carrying capacity.