# Cold Weather Here! What about your Tilapia Guys?



## Chef T (Feb 28, 2011)

I've been keeping up with this pond section and still find the fact tilapia are stocked in Ohio interesting. I know it's because they wont survive here, but doesn't that leave a bunch of fish ready to kick the bucket? What do you pond owners do with all these fish then? Do you need a few volunteer's to yank those delicious fish out your ponds? Like to hear your input guys..


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

I have seen one dead tilapia so far. The vast majority get eaten by the bass and cats when they get slow.

The larger ones die and the turtles do a good job. The first year I put tilapia in my pond I thought I would have hundreds of dead tilapia floating in the fall but I had maybe a dozen that were too big for the bass and cats in the pond to eat.

Mine are still swimming around pretty well right now. I had tilapia well into November last year.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

The year I put in over 700 I think I had a little over a dozen end up on the bank. Other years with more typical stockings resulted in just a couple floaters. They'll hang out in the warmer extreme shallows and get very sluggish making them easy targets for bass.


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## keith_r (Jun 18, 2010)

i've got about 60 tilapia in in my basement pond (with 130 yp or so).. the coldest the pool got last year was 60, so i expect them to make it through without any problems


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## T-180 (Oct 18, 2005)

Could you harvest some out to eat if you wanted or are they pretty much sacrificial to the predators ??


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

You can harvest with a castnet in the shallows on warm afternoons or with a bobber, and corn or doughballs.


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## T-180 (Oct 18, 2005)

Thanks for the info. May have to try some next year/


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

T-180 said:


> Could you harvest some out to eat if you wanted or are they pretty much sacrificial to the predators ??


My tilapia have been eating the bottom muck from my pond all summer, I'm not sure I want to eat them. In fact knowing what tilapia eat I don't even eat them in restaurants or buy them from stores. I'm afraid they came from below one of the chicken farms where they are used to clean up the effluent

My tilapia were still going strong this past weekend.


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## T-180 (Oct 18, 2005)

I've wondered that myself Lundy. Brilliant marketing to take a fish that's used to clean up after other fish in an aquaculture operation & sell them as a luxury meal !!!
I read that people put them in tanks of clean water for a week or so to purge, then clean them, but not sure I want that much work to it. Much easier to just clean a mess of crappie or bluegill.

Have you noticed much difference in the muck levels in the pond because mine sure could use some reduction.


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

Hard to measure the muck reduction results. My pond is old with a lot of trees and leaves. The muck level was over 12" in some areas. I have had tilapia in the pond the last two years. They do a good job on algae once the are established but I haven't done a good check for muck reduction the last two years. I guess I need to check.


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

keith_r said:


> i've got about 60 tilapia in in my basement pond (with 130 yp or so).. the coldest the pool got last year was 60, so i expect them to make it through without any problems


Keith, can you provide any details on how you are handling these tilapia in your basement? I have a buddy who is trying the same thing right now but he has no experience with it and not a lot more knowledge about it other than that they were able to collect about 40 and put them in a tank. He was wondering about what to feed them. I have read a bit about farming them and much of it gets pretty technical as far as testing water quality and controlling PH, etc. Have you done anything to get algae growth in your tank to provide natural food source or are you totally feeding manually? And what are you feeding them?

His goal in this is not to maximize the growth of these fish. I imagine his concern is much like yours, just to get these fish through the winter inside and then get them back in the pond next spring to do their own thing. 

If anyone else has any specific details in reference to this project I would like to hear them as well.


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## keith_r (Jun 18, 2010)

i'm using aquaponics.. gravel beds to filter the water (and growing fresh greens with flourescent shop lights), feeding the fish duckweed that i'm growing in buckets, minnows, crayfish and Purina Aquamax (there's a pet store in madison that orders it for me) - purina has a dealer locator, most will add the fish food to their regular order for you...(tilapia are fine with lower protein food, same as catfish food..)
i stopped at a feed mill the other day, but they stopped selling fish food in early october..
shoot me a pm, and your buddy can take a look at how i'm doing it (i'm in fairport) or i can send a link to lots of pictures


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## hang_loose (Apr 2, 2008)

keith, I just found out a friend of ours does aquaponics. He uses pebble stones on top of lava rock for filtering and growing (it makes it a lot easier to move because of weight issues). Just wondering if you've tried this?

I forgot to tell you that he puts a layer of netting over the lava rocks then adds the pebble stones.


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## timmyv (Apr 26, 2006)

keith_r said:


> i'm using aquaponics.. gravel beds to filter the water (and growing fresh greens with flourescent shop lights), feeding the fish duckweed that i'm growing in buckets, minnows, crayfish and Purina Aquamax (there's a pet store in madison that orders it for me) - purina has a dealer locator, most will add the fish food to their regular order for you...(tilapia are fine with lower protein food, same as catfish food..)
> i stopped at a feed mill the other day, but they stopped selling fish food in early october..
> shoot me a pm, and your buddy can take a look at how i'm doing it (i'm in fairport) or i can send a link to lots of pictures


Can you put the link up here or post some pics here? this sounds very interesting to me.

Tim


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## keith_r (Jun 18, 2010)

here's a link to my "basement" system, been running it since october 2010
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8354
later pages show the pool with the yp and tilapia


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