Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Stocking Tilapia - please weigh in

Hey teehjaeh57! I've been around, but lurking mostly. I'm quite busy this time of year due to end of year stuff for my business. ICK! Rainman has some quality fish in my opinion. If he says they are purebred Blues, that's enough for me. His work with T has already added a lot of valuable info to this site on the subject, and it has helped me a great deal. My tilapia are mostly a blue/nile mix. They have proven extremely cold tolerant so far. I had a holding tank sitting on my basement floor with no backup heat dip down to 59 degrees for 3 days. The fish slowed a bit but still ate well. I also recently received a shipment of 2 inch fish via UPS and when they arrived (two days late!) the water was ICE cold and absolutely filthy. You could hardly see the fish in the poop/water mud mixture they were in. The fish were lively, and I haven't had a single one die. They are about 4 inches now after a month and a half. I have kept aquariums for most of my life, and I have never encountered a tropical that is so hardy! It's amazing.



We are really just starting to touch on the subject. I would really like to see Missouri change their stance on the subject of Tilapia in ponds here as I would like to use them and study them in a pond environment as well, but I don't hold out a great deal of hope on that. I do intend to setup a fairly large RAS for them when we complete our new house at the pond. I already have about 320 gallons dedicated to them now, but no more room to grow in my current house (I'm worried it might freak out people looking to buy the house... hehe). I've seen some excellent info added to this thread since this post of yours, and it goes right along with everything I've read and researched. This is going to get fun I think.



Time has really been the only thing preventing me from adding them. This year I'm hoping to add a lot of these, in small quantity. It will be done in conjunction with removing a large number of 12-14 inch LMB. I would like to keep the predator/prey ratio to a reasonable level. I can't wait though. I have had an extremely difficult time finding GP, and they are really the fish I'm most anxious to add. Imagine fishing for those in the shallows during the early morning with a fly rod. I used to do this up in MN for NP, and it was a blast!