Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Disappointing Tilapia effectiveness this year

For the past 3 of 4 years I have added Tilapia to my 1.5 acre pond. The only year I had an FA problem was the year that I didn't add them...until this year! Even though I added more adult Tilapia than I usually do, the entire summer my pond has been 50%+ covered up in a brown, foamy looking FA. If I get FA that is the kind I get. I think it grows on the bottom and then floats to the top. Has anyone else experienced a less than effective Tilapia "crop" this year? The only other difference is that I purchased the Tilapia from a different area vendor this year.

Couple of questions:

Were the Tilapia the same size at stocking as the other years?

Were the Tilapia stocked at the same rate (pounds per surface acre)?

Did you kill any weeds in the pond that you didn't do in previous years?

One more question... what type of tilapia??? (according to your vendor).

Captain1, one more more question. Do you have fish feeders, and if so, have you seen the Tilapia coming to the feeders?


Another random observation. I've been stocking Tilapia for 5 or 6 years now, and seem to have better luck with fewer but larger Tilapia per pound. If your pond is predator heavy, freshly stocked smaller tilapia are right in their wheelhouse.

Don't forget the other side of the equation. It could well be a bumper crop of FA due to conditions and the tilapia ate a bunch but simply could not keep up.

What is the condition of the tilapia? Was the weather unusual ? What about increased nutrients (fert or dead plants , more fish )?

Great points! Are you suggesting that tilapia may default to feeding on pellets? I've never dealt with tilapia, but I do know we have that problem with grass carp.

Another great point, that also reminds me of grass carp issues we have. Sometimes the grass carp will find a rooted vegetation they like, and ignore the FA.

I'd be interested to know if the pond in question had some additional rains earlier in the year which may have brought in some additional nutrients. There's also a chance that the pond is simply aging, with increased nutrient loading.

They did at my feeder. All I had to do was catch one, and the rest stayed clear of it for a few days duration. I did have larger ones, so that could be one reason why they were more active at mine.

Rainman needs to chime in here, but I believe he said the younger tilapia are what really do the good job of cleanup. The older they get, their appetite dwindles. However, they do need to be stocked at a size that won't be forage themselves.

If you have FA why would you feed the tilapia? This was my first year stocking tilapia. They did great taking care of the FA. We don't fees anything... they are all on their own.

The feed is for the BG, or something similar. The tilapia and grass carp are just unwanted guests at the lunch table.

Captain, this year has been very unique for FA. I have had more calls than I can count this year concerning extremely heavy FA and other algae outbreaks in waters all over the country. One common theme I have discovered is that the outbreaks have all been in areas of drought and terrestrial vegetation die offs with an influx of rain washing the nutrients into ponds. Absent a drought stricken area, there has been freshly broken dirt that released nutrients, such as new building sites in a watershed.

Considering you have not answered the many questions asked yet, my educated guess is the long Texas droughts of late has built up an excessive amount of nutrient that the spring rains concentrated in your pond and the tilapia simply couldn't keep up.

I had one pond with a horse pasture/stable in the watershed that normally only used 30 pounds/acre of tilapia annually to keep FA at bay. This past summer, control was not achieved until a 150 pound/acre rate was reached.

For me, this past year has been exceptional in using tilapia for algae control. I don't anticipate years like this one happening often at all.

Don't take my "guess" as the explanation here. It could very well be that the tilapia were graded (and mostly same sex)...it could be from over feeding...it could be an algae took hold in your pond the Mozambique Tilapia won't readily eat...it could be the massive nutrient influx......or any combination. A true, "It all depends", but the Tilapia have already proven to be an effective tool in your pond and will be in the future as well, if used.

A couple comments on feeding habits of Tilapia and grass carp have been combined here.

Tilapia and grass carp are both pellet hogs, plain and simple. The difference is, Carp have a stomach an get full, where tilapia have only a bulb and eat constantly (except at night when essentially dormant). Carp will gorge and rest on pellets. Tilapia will gorge on pellets and continue to gorge on other available food when pellets are gone.

Carp don't eat FA intentionally, only if starving or feeding on other foods...carp can not extract enough calories from FA to offset the calories burned to consume FA. Tilapia can extract and convert nearly all the nutrient in FA to flesh, and since no other fish eats the FA, there is no expenditure of calories in competing for the food source.

I describe tilapia babies as doing the bulk of the FA control to help people understand the need for reproduction. EACH tilapia (juvenile or adult) will eat voraciously and grow rapidly, at all life stages. Growth may slow oce Tilapia are sexually mature, only because energy is expended from growing flesh into sexual reproduction. On average, and with an unlimited FA food supply, EVERY tilapia will eat 2 pounds of vegetation every 6 months. Ten, 1 pound tilapia stocked will eat roughly 20 pounds of FA in 6 months...If those 10 fish reproduce, say 1000 babies, every 3 weeks after initial stocking, 20 pounds consumed, just became 20,000 pounds, and that grows exponentially.

Grass carp slow on eating as they reach larger sizes because they expend little energy in surviving predation. Since grass carp do not reproduce in a pond, old, large GC need to be removed and replaced with younger, smaller stock. Usually, you replace 1/3 of the largest GC annually starting the third year after stocking to have the most effective, continued, vegetation control.

Sorry for the delay in answering questions. Been in a poor Internet zone! I don't have a serious weed problem in the pond. FA usually is what the issue is. I have not removed any weeds nor treated for them. Only tilapia. I stocked a variety of sizes probably 25% 5-7", 75% 8-10". I occasionally see large ones in the water.
No grass carp. The water is low, but it has been this low previously. East Texas has faired pretty well this year. The tilapia are Mozambique.

Also, I put 40 pounds of tilapia in.

Do your tilapia overwinter?

No. They usually fail in December. I net them before they die and eat them if I can.

You may need to get the tilapia in sooner. Once the FA infestation gets a head start, no amount of tilapia works.

I ran into this a couple of years ago. I put 70 pounds of tilapia in a 1.5 acre pond West of Fort Worth. It's a limestone area with a very high alkalinity. The land owner later added another 40 pounds. Nothing worked and I called in Lusk the next year. They sprayed and added tilapia. Again nothing worked. The third year they jumped on it earlier with chemicals and tilapia. They also added some beneficial microbes. They also sprayed a couple more times. It worked but the answer was to jump on it when it first occurs and stay on it.

I agree with Dave in getting them in as early as possible.

Last year they did a great job until I killed the majority of underwater weeds in my pond. Then they couldn't keep up with the algae growth from all the nutrients that were available. I had to use an algaecide just to keep it manageable for a couple fo months, then they caught back up.