Son Jeff's stock pen tank comletely covered with water meal and chemicals are not an option.
Tilapia wil starve to death unless they eat the stuff - tank was dried up during drought.



Will post results...

George, I'm looking forward to hearing the results of this experiment.

I am willing to bet a cold one the tilapia clean up the stuff pronto and that the seeds located in the pond mud float up and start again at which point the tilapia will finish it off. In other parts of the world they raise tilapia for food on DW (WM is a close relative of DW). The tilapia will then start eating the bottom muck.

I'm thinking that they may be the best curative for the nasty stuff.

George, what was the approx weight on those tilapia?

Dave, Todd was busier than a one-arm paperhanger so not much time for me to watch since he was on top of the truck with net and buckets…

He was sorting larger same sex tilapia for ¼ acre pond – small same sex for 3 very small stock tanks - small multi sex for water meal tank, and the rest for main pond – all at the same time….!

Most average hand size I would guess, up to close to a pound.
He grew-out some beauts …



OOPS - he does have a tail - really....we'll call him shorty...

Wait a minute, I resemble that remark. Except that I had my monkey tail surgically removed several years ago.

Has it grown back AGAIN?

George, I think the Tilapia idea is great, but if it doesn't work completely I wonder why you couldn't use Sonar. From what I remember you only need to keep livestock away for about 24 hours after treatment. It completely eliminated Mr H's watermeal last year.

GW - my beautiful DIL says no chemicals....period!!!
Especially in this pen where her baby goats and great Pyraneees puppies are born...

Well there is no arguing with a beautiful DIL!

George please keep me posted, with postive results maybe we can talk Georgia DNR into allowing them for watermeal control, wishful thinking I know. Could you please report size of pond and number of pounds of stocking to help determine success of experiment. thanks

Greg, it's a very small shallow livestock tank - maybe 40 ft diameter.
I guess about 6-8 hand size both sex tilapia but not sure.
Overton was very interestd in this experiment as well and I'm sure he will chime in - in fact it was his idea.

This is a small scale experiment on watermeal control. I think we tossed about 3-4 lbs of fish in the pond, few males but mostly females, trying to get good reproduction. They should clean it up good.

I have visited a pond 3 yrs in a row to help the pond owner w/ ideas to control watermeal. He has had a problem w/ it in his 1/2 ac pond for 20 years. one year, he drained it and dug it out, but it was back in 3 years. it lays in a low windless area and has catfish in it. his main concern is sunlight penetration to keep oxygen in the pond for his fish. he has tried diquat many times with little success. it blows back up very quickly. we discussed fluridone and the correct procedure. but, for that price, he wants to be assured it will work and we aren't sure. Here's why - the pond is shallow and very silty. i walked out in the pond w/ rubber boots in an opening where there wasn't any watermeal floating. i looked behind me to see a thick trail of watermeal coming up behind me from the sediments. i went to the mud along the bank and dug down about an inch and it was everywhere. how is diquat and/or sonar going to control this? so, until we figure something out, he has an industrial fan blowing across the pond allowing sunlight to penetrate about half of it. Like Greg, i am interested in some confirmed control with tilapia and the stocking rates.

Graves Lovell
Alabama DCNR

Have you looked into Sonar AS? Sure worked well on my neighbor's little pond.

Here's a link to the first post I made about treating his pond. That was almost one year ago and there's no sign of more watermeal.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=89099#Post89099

Up-Date - Tilapia Water Meal Experiment:
No apparent decrease in watermeal coverage on old shallow stock tank.
Todd says "be patient"

That stuff (some sps) can double in volume every 24 hours. If you have the same amount then the tilapia are working on it.