Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait my tilapia??

the tilapia that i stocked about five months ago have a wide range of colors. some are pearl white, others are grey, and some are grey with orange fins. is that common for them to be multi colored? also they were pretty good size when i got them. when should i expect to see the babies? will the babies be in schools? in the shallows?

What do you consider "pretty good size" - 3", 5" 7", 9"?. Where did you get your tilapia because the source may determine the color pattern. Are you sure there aren't small tilapia in the pond? Have you tried trapping or seining? I'm not experienced with talapia but I think you should provide a little more information to get some credable answers from those with tilapia experiences.

scott69, I don't know what kind of tilapia you stocked, but even pure strain Blues can have some variation in color. this variation becomes MUCH more pronounced due to sexual excitement, age, stress, water clarity, etc. Blue tilapia males will often get dark fin tips, lose body side colors, and develop a red/orange distal margin between the dorsal spins. If your fish appear to be more of an overall orange, then they have a large percentage of orange Mozambique in them. Orange Moz. were used by unscrupulous fish retailers selling them in place of Red Snapper since the fillets of both look virtually identical.

As Yolk said in your other post on this same subject, you will rarely see small tilapia. Once released from Momma's mouth, they go deep into forage and once too large to hide there (about 1-2 inches) 99+% are eaten by predators---that is one of the beautiful things about tilapia as a forage fish since this smorgasbord takes pressure off the normal forage species.

they were a wide range of sizes when stcked, any where from 6-10".. their colors are not even close. they white ones are pearl white, others are grey and some are grey with orange fins... greg g. hooked me up with davis fish farm in alabama, not sure where davis gets them from..

i am not sure that there are no young in the pond, just havent seen them yet.

Like I said Scott, I doubt you will EVER see the young. When less than a half inch long they'll hide in plant matter, under leaves, anywhere. When they get spotted by anything with a mouth big enough to eat it, it quickly becomes food. Most likely all you will ever see of "young" will be in the 4-6" range and VERY few of those!

scott folks in AL that stocked them have called me to say" that was cool, I saw the tiny babies shoot in the mothers mouth." Keep looking. However yes bass are going to eat most of them.

Scott, Ill be happy to send you a few thousand babies if you just HAVE to see them in the pond!!

i saw 2 small schools of fish yesterday..both schools were abou the size of a cantelope and contained hundreds of tiny white looking fish..tilapia maybe???

Sounds like about2-3 week old spawn with no place to hide (or just released and momma swam away fast). Each ball is probably from a single female in the over one pound size (600-800 fry)...Fry would be 3/8 to 1/2" long. They have very reflective scales at such a young age.

i made a mistake in my original post. the tilapia had been in 5 weeks, not 5 months at time of post. a friend of mine got some fish the same day from the supplier. he has a tiny little pond. he says he is seeing lots of babies in his pond. 2" or so.

if mine were stocked the first of june, which would mean they have been in 3 months now. what is the largest off spring that might be in the pond. i see a few 6-8 inchers from time to time. reckon those are off spring or the originals?

fish are pellet fed

Of what few offspring didn't get eaten, 6-8 would be common and some would be over 10 inches.

Sounds like you got the same type as mine; pearl white with some slight red markings. If you want to see your young fish, take a dip-net and run it through the weeds and grass on the edges. There will be hundreds in the net. I rarely see them in the open. I've also rarely seen something as prolific a spawner but then, pearly white fish stand out more than FHM or BG. Maybe I just see them better.

I have a small secondary pond with no predators..I put in five pounds in May...I have thousands now...I use a cast net every couple of weeks and transfer some into the big eat-me pond.

I bet "thousands" is an understatement without predators!

When are they going to O.K. tilapia for GA?

The day after Cleveland wins a Super Bowl!
Seriously, I wish they would, too (legalize Tilapia, that is).