Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Grass Carp vs Tilapia

Hey Skinny,

You are correct in that tilapia will start to die off around the 50 to 55 degree mark from what I have read. The pure blue strain can last to as low as 45 degrees I believe but don't quote me on that. Rainman is the expert in that department but I think I am close to the numbers. So that means you would have to stock them year after year and that could get pretty expensive in a 4 acre pond. Of course depending what type of weeds they are the Grass Carp will take care of them but he won't see much the first year or so. He will need to be patient. I stocked 7 in my 1 acre pond last year and my pond weed is almost all gone this summer except for about 10 percent of it. I still have a Chara problem and I may not have enough GC to do the job on that stuff as it spreads FAST!!! And they may not be able to keep up this year. At any rate I have had pretty good success the the GC when it comes to weeds of a certian type. You may want to find out what type of weeds he has first. I am no expert but I believe Tilapia are more of a algea and organic eater (Bottom Feeder) than weeds. I have been told everything from 5 GC per acre to 12 per acre. I went with 7 and I seem to be doing pretty good. With all the Chara I have I may need a couple more but the jury is still out on that. Anyway hope this helps. If it were me and he wants a natural way of getting rid of his weeds and something he can put in his pond and not have to restock every year than I would go with the GC. They say once you put them in there you don't really need to replace them for about 5 to 7 years. I guess at that point they start to not do there job very well anymore and you need to restock some new ones. The only problem is getting rid of the old ones??? That could be a little difficult. Like I said I am no expert just giving you my advise based on my expeirence thus far. Oh and one other thing you need to make sure the person can actually have GC in MO?? I believe in some states your not allowed to stock them.

Good Luck with your pond mentoring bud...