Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Tilapia or CNBG for forage

Once upon a time, this Hartley guy made some wild and wooly claims about the benefits of stocking Tilapia every year. Crazy stuff - they made your bass bigger, they made your BG bigger and more numerous, they wiped out FA - just crazy stuff. All now not only repeated in other independent tests in various ponds in various places, but becoming completely accepted into pondmeistering CW.

About the only question I have left about Tilapia is whether stocking them in a new pond concurrently with the initial BG forage is a good or bad idea. That's a study I'd like to see someone run with, preferrably contrasted with a no-Tilapia control pond. The only real feel I have for it now is that it's probably not cost-effective to stock Tilapia as forage until you have the predator presence which can utilize them. I'd think they'd still do great on FA if this was present. But what would the impact on a NEW BG population be???