I stocked tilapia at a rate of 10 lb. / acre two years ago in May and last year stocked at 50 lb./acre. I found very little results and not much spawning with 10 lbs., but a tremendous benefit with 50 lb. / acre. Spawning tilapia were everywhere and bass were right with them crashing on their spawn. My bass RW sky rocketed on bass over 15" from before tilapia at 89% - 105% to now all 120% - 135%. We are seeing and catching the fattest bass we have ever seen - and across the board on bass sizes.
This is a really old thread but this seems pertinent to anyone utilizing TP as forage source. We should keep in mind that the production of TP forage depends to a significant degree on the weight of females (total weight) introduced. Although one might presume that the sex is mixed 50/50 this is generally not the case. Generally, males dominate because they grow faster and there is enough cannibalism during the fry rearing stage to reduce female numbers relative to males. Compound this with Male weights that are 2 times as great as females (twice the weight correlates with only 25% increased length) and the 10 lbs/acres one is stocking may only be 3.3 lbs of females and that is IF the sex ratio is 50% females. In a case where females are 40% of the stocked number, the weight of females would only be 2 lbs/acre.
It is even possible, particularly if one has a small pond, that his stocking of TP is entirely comprised of males and no reproduction occurs at all.
Increasing the stocking weight will typically increase the weight of females. The weight of females is important because the number of eggs per spawn is highly correlated with weight. In depends in part on the species but generally is >2000 and <4000 eggs per lb female per spawn. Given only a small percentage survive the first month when they are 1" in length the production of significant numbers of prey depends on having enough weight of females.
