Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Tilapia grow out tank

viking,

Yes sir it is much more fun to watch the cows mow the grass than run those weedeaters or weed burners. I've had cows for most of my life and never had one die in the pond...found three under a tree once that must have been hit by lightning, ouch ...but they have never done anything negative to the ponds that I can see.

You guys have cows that must be smarter or better trained than mine.

"That cow would eat you in a second if he had the chance, Timmy!"
-Actor Troy McClure, narrating "Bovine University"

Great reply!!

I've been checking my water temperature daily and it has been hovering around 65deg. for about a week. My thermometer is pretty cheap, is anyone else in the area recording similar temps? Submerged FA and a few floating bits have completely surrounded my pond about 3' out from the bank. These tilapia are going to have their work cut out for them!

Ryan:

I'm somewhere in the upper 60's. I moved my temp gauge indoors for a 100 gallon tank after the pond passed 65 deg, so I'm not exactly sure what it is - but the weather has been nice and it should have gone up a little.

Ryan,

Believe me, they are up to the challenge!

Thanks for the confirmation on water temps Theo.

I decided that yesterday was the day and what a day it was! It was sunny, 70s, just beautiful. Started loading up the tank and trailer at 3:30PM. Couldn't find the right size ball for the trailer, struggled getting the tank loaded, the high capacity trash pump I had planned on using had a stripped pulley which I didn't find out until after I had changed the oil and filled it with gas so I subbed a small 110V sump pump. I finally made it to the school at about 4:30PM and it was raining pretty steady. We started transferring water from the Tilapia tank to the portable. The undersized pump was working too slow and not needing that much water we started a siphon to help drain the tank down. By 6:15PM the fish were loaded and I was on my way. Arrived at home at 7:00PM. Started backing the short axle tiltable trailer through the gate and got stuck in the mud about 15' from the edge of the pond in a low spot. While assessing the damage and bucketing water into the tank to acclimate the fish to the pond temperature I decided that this may be a good opportunity to get a count and some pics. I pulled the plug, tilted the trailer and letem' rip. I started counting around 7:30PM. I can't catch fish in a puddle to save my life! I picked them up one at a time and put them in a bucket. My yellow lab Emma was a great help in keeping the bucket aerated. She would promptly dunk her head in the bucket after each fish was added and blow bubbles. I finally had them all in the pond by 10:00PM...at least I thought. I found 3 more still swimming in the much receded puddle this morning while taking "before" photos of the algae. Only one casulty of the transfer so far, even the almighty tilapia can't survive my size 12 Red Wings, oops. I am offering a free all-you-can-eat tilapia dinner to anyone who can guess the number of tilapia I counted before adding to the pond.

Here's the tank


Inside the tank


Here's the largest


Some others


Here is the algae this morning

About half were 3" to 4" with some as small as 1" and one that was about 8".

Ryan, those are the kinds of stories that make this forum so entertaining. Thanks for the good visual. They're funny after the fact, huh?

Great information once again Ryan! I vote this the best experiment of the winter 2005-2006! Keep that information coming!!!

OK, humor me guys. I started the grow out tank with 300 2-3" fish. A few were lost along the way. How many would you guys guess there were at stocking time?

OK Ryan I don't mind starting off the guess work. As Theo says this will be a WAG (Wild ___ Guess), not in Engineer-speak a ROM (rough order of magnitude more detailed and hopefully more accurate than a WAG ) and not even A SWAG (Semi-WAG). :p

I have 2 guesses :

If they spawned while in the RAS then my guess is 487,345.

If they did not spawn (your only report wrt said they had not spawned yet) 287. Any one else for a try. :p

Ryan, if only you could know how much analysis and thought I've put into this guess: 286.

287
("Price is Right" educated guess)

With many people involved and much feeding and handling of fish: 267?

267! Final answer!!!! Ship my DMD to Theo.
Honest, I didn't see PFF's 6:50 PM post.

Ryan,

Good project for all interested in overwintering Tilapia, well done! Now for the guess...don't think you had any spawning during the experiment, not the right habitat; subtract one right off for the oversized Redwings making 299; your set up was probably adequate for twice the population when it comes to Tilapia so my guess is 291 figuring a few might have jumped out along the way. Please send the dinner in a thermal pack to keep it fresh!!!

I was guessing in the same range as you guys.

The final count...drum roll please......719

We had only one more casulty. Emma carried it up to the back porch. I believe she was trying to give it CPR. It didn't make it, bringing the grand total to 718.

...I wish I could pick stocks and M funds like you raise Tilapia.
(I didn't win the Refrig/Range combo, either)

Lets see hmm - started with 300 - no spawn - few morts - wow I didn't know they could replicate by division.

I knew this was a miracle fish but nothing like this has been reported since the sermon on the mount. :rolleyes: :p

I did not expect any reproduction in this short of time and I would rather have produced a fewer quantity and larger tilapia. Fortunately most of the tilapia are small and I expect a large portion of the stocking to become snacks for the LMB. I couldn't catch a bass all weekend which is very unusual so they must be full.

Ryan,

Tilapia normally start reproducing at around 2 ounces in size and have even been known to spawn when as small as 1/2 ounce under less than favorable conditions. They are reproductive machines, an attribute which makes them such a great pond management tool. I saw ample evidence of Tilapia spawn apparently eating algae this weekend that were spawned from fish that were stocked only 20 days prior.

My friend has a few in his home aquarium. Last week he added feeder guppies for some other fish in the tank. The tilapia ate them too. This observation raises the question as to what effects they may have on desired fry in the pond. They may have mistaken the guppies for swimming pellets.

ML: I failed to get pictures of the new filter for the grow out tank again but made some observations: Plastic tub about 2'x3'x1.5', the lid was either concave or inverted with 1/4" holes drilled in it in a 1"c/c grid pattern, filled with packing peanuts, water pump floods the lid and it trickles through to the media and through a PVC drain at the bottom, a bypass valve was installed between the pump and lid that dumped back into the tank for flow adjustment...a picture would have been easier.

They have been known to eat fish (including their own) and fish eggs . Here is the link to the Fish Base data on what they eat - mostly plant material.

http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/TrophicEco/...ies=mossambicus

Due to the release size of the Tilapia being small and concern of their being quickly consumed would a small outdoor pond on the cheap side be a benefit? Something like a plastic lined pit or cheap swimming pool to allow the numbers to increase and add some size. If a small pool was managed to capture and release the smaller ones so the larger fish were not stunted from over population it seems this would add to the forage while allowing the initial stock over-wintered to grow larger to ensure their survival. Now your being in SW Ohio...not sure if some of the overnight temperature drops may present a problem.