# Tilapia Source



## garryc (Jan 21, 2006)

It's possible I've found a local source for tilapia. My local vocational school has a bio-agriculture program and we have a Voc Ed teacher in our club. I told him we would need about 10 pounds of mixed sex about May 15th. 

The thing is, right now our pond is stone dead. It has large amounts of algae in it built up about 10 feet out around the edges. On the bottom it is covered with fresh bright green algae. So, what kind of growth and breeding rate would I expect?

Our building and lands buffoon got an HP 100 pump and a single airstone for our .4 acre (it will be operating at 99% of it's max continuous duty rating) So if we stock it with bass. bluegill and red ears will they be able to keep the tilapia population under control? We don't want a massive die off and mess next fall. Maybe we could import a few big bass also.


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

As far as the stocking goes, if the pond really doesn't have an exsisting population of fish... which it sounds like it doesn't.. I'de recommend stocking fish of the same size. You mentioned "importing" a few big bass, that's a bad idea. Those small fish you're speaking about stocking, will just become expensive bait for that hand full of "imported" largemouths! Get some fatheads and golden shiners now, stock your sport fish next Spring. By the time your bass, bluegills, and redears go in next spring there will be a ton of baitfish fry available for them.

If you overstock your tilapia you are going to have a massive die off in the fall, no way around it. Some of the guys on here have experimented with them, and I don't recall any of them complaining about the die off. Pretty sure Pondfin knows the stocking rates.

Probably wouldn't hurt to throw a few grass carp in this pond either.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

I put 250 2" tilapia in a tank and some grew to 8" in two months with water in the mid eighties. The warmer the water the faster they grow. That 250 fish turned into 750 fish in two months too. These fish survive poor water quality well but are sensitive to temps. I've had success stocking when temps are in the low sixties. Keep in mind mid 50s is fatal for most varieties. Having aeration may delay how soon you can stock, especially considering how far North you are. Their metabolism is slow during cool temps so they won't be eating as much anyway. Stocking time for tilapia at my place seems to coincide with the toad tadpole hatch.

I wouldn't want a big die off but it's pretty amazing how fast nature will clean up things. Ideally you want the tilapia to convert the algae into forage for you predators. Maybe a late September fishing derby would help too. If there aren't predators large enough to eat the tilapia produced in the pond, those that aren't removed will just be fertilizer for next years weeds but I think adding bass too large too soon would be worse for the long term.

Like fishman said, I'd consider adding some grass carp along with the tilapia because their feeding preferences seem to compliment each other.

If I owned your club's pond, I'd stock small forage fish spring 2010 with the tilapia and hold off on the bass. If there is a massive tilapia die off, I'd rake them out and let nature or the lawn mower take care of them. If the forage survives the winter and looks good in the spring of 2011, I'd add fingerling bass then and you should be catching some decent fish in 2012. If that's too long for the club members, consider hybrid stiped bass and a pellet feeding program.

Some channels could also be added with the initial forage stocking to provide some catchable fish earlier. 

10 -15lbs of tilapia per acre is a good maintainence number. I'd say you'll want to at least double that number if you want to eliminate a heavy weed infestation but I don't know what will happen in a pond without predators.


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