Great question RC51 WE all assume that the never to be seen again tilapia that die in winter in northern ponds are 'eaten by turtles' If someone had a feeder and could net them with a cast net at will, has anyone tried tagging the largest of the adults and releasing them again?
Or tag some of the larger ones at time of stocking?
Would the tags hold up in the gut of a larger LMB so if a LMB was harvested the gut contents would tell us where that particular tilapia went
?
If land based predators are coming at night, going into the shallow water and dragging them out and eating them, wouldn't there be plastic tags on the shore line?
If they are sinking to the bottom and staying there then the tags would not decompose and in theory you could rake the shallows to rake the tags in or you could snorkel and see the colored tags?
I don't have enough turtles to consume my 100 or more tilapia, or at least it wouldn't seem possible.
It amazes me that the tilapia vanish without a trace. Only the 2 or 3 largest tilapia that were belly up in the shallows were eaten or partially eaten at the shore line as evidence by partial skeletons or bare skeletons.
I hope to snorkel in the spring to see how many fish bone skeletons I can see on the bottom. I was pretty certain I didn't have any predators so there should be at least 100 of them since the crayfish can't eat the bones!
