Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Talapia Survival

There really weren't that many dead tilapia. We saw forty or fifty, total, over 17 acres. These were fish stocked last spring, original average weight of two pounds each. They were fed all spring and summer. Lots of babies were born, but we didn't see one baby tilapia during the electrofishing expedition. I expected that. As tilapia begin 'dealing' with cold, they become sluggish. The bass we electrofished in that lake looked like a deputy sheriff. They had gorged on sluggish tilapia. Baby bluegill were in hiding, in dense shoreline cover. Adult bluegill were holding tight to dense shoreline cover, and a dock, and standing cover out in the lake. Bass were mostly suspended, in water 6 to 8 feet, so electrofishing many of them wasn't easy, since our boat pushes current down to six feet. But, we got a good enough sample to tell the landowner what was going on. There were no capacity constraints for this pond, or we would have seen lots of baby tilapia dead, too. The goal was to supplement the natural food chain, not overwhelm it. And, it appears, that's what happened.