Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Tilapia and Duckweed

How effective are tilapia at controlling duckweed?

For details, the pond is a 1/3 of an acre and at this time approximately 1/3 of the pond is now covered and getting worse by the day. No submerged aquatic vegetation, lots of emergent vegetation along the bank. There is some algal growth, but no major algal problems as this time. The pond currently only has forage fish in it, no predator fish of any kind.

Would the addition of tilapia control duckweed in this situation or is some other method needed?

CJ:

I don't have an answer for you but I do have a question about duckweed. My neighbor has it in his pond (well, hole with some water in it). That BOW is in the middle of the woods, and is not exposed to much sun during the day. That BOW is roughly 100' due west of my pond. His BOW will be completely covered with duckweed by this time of the year, and mine will have no signs of it at all. My pond has a good 95% see full sun all day.

The neighbors BOW will dry up by late September as well, it never has water in it year 'round.

Is it only BOW's that get substancial amounts of shade that are affected the most? Or??

I think part of the problem is the lack of wind reaching the pond also. Mine is surrounded on two sides by trees. It gets a good dose of sun most of the afternoon but it is down very low and receives very little breeze. Another acronym, what is BOW

BOW= Body of Water

Common Acronyms

BOW=body of water

The pond I am experiencing the duck weed problem with has no trees around it that shades it. So it gets sun the whole day, so that is not a cause of the duck weed issue. It also has nothing blocking the wind from rippling the surface. The pond is small, so obviously there aren't massive waves or anything. We've had some heavy t-storms with 50 mph+ winds and 1"+ an hour rain fall rates and the duck weed just keeps spreading...

Is there any correlation between Duck Weed and water PH, maybe it is one factor.

Anyone have any ideas on the tilapia vs duckweed equation? I was just down to the pond and it is now 75% covered...

I think they eat it but it has a really amazing propogation rate. That stuff seems to double daily. I believe will eat it but to stay ahead of it, they may need some start out help.

For that size pond I would use the prickly rope.It works real well and is pretty easy and goes pretty fast.I had it a couple years ago,cleaned it out with the rope,and it never came back.

CJ, you could toss in 10 pounds of T to eliminate the plants and seine out some 3-4 pounders by september.

Tom, don't lie buddy! You'd still use dynomite just so you'd have more ponds to blow it out of each year!

As long at the tilapia are eating duckweed and not my forage fish I am happy. The problem with the pond is that 90% of it is surrounded by thick cattails and willows. Tough to use the prickly rope method on... Tilapia may be the winner.

CJ, unless there is very little plant life, tilapia eat very few fish unless it is a VERY easy meal.

The pond as I said is covered in duckweed. No submerged aquatic vegetation at all except for some eel grass I just planted a couple weeks ago. A little FA here and there, but nothing substantial. Since I have no predatory fish in the pond right now I think I am gonna cross my fingers and hope the duckweed doesn't cause a DO crash and kill all the forage fish off. Next year if the duckweed blows up again, I'll nip it in the butt early as I add the RES...