Creating a Lake

[marimus]

Tilapia are declared noxious where I live, which means that its illegal to even keep them in an aquarium, let alone a pond or lake.

They have invaded many of the waterways, displacing native fish and breeding like crazy.

6 Tilapia were released into a golf course waterway in Port Douglas (north queensland). 18 months later, 16 tonnes of fish were removed (they poisoned the water to kill the fish).

An amazing example of how one species can react completley differently to different climates.

 

[Bird]

Tilapia are declared noxious where I live, which means that its illegal to even keep them in an aquarium, let alone a pond or lake.

I don't really know much about tilapia, but . . . about 17 1/2 years ago I went fishing at the lake in Fairfield State Park. They had adapted salt water redfish (or red drum) to fresh water so we caught a couple of 30" ones. In reading the rule book, I found that the lake also had tilapia and the rules said if you caught tilapia, they had to be gutted before you left the lake. In other words, they obviously did not want them to spread. So I've done a little reading about them on the Internet and found a lot of surprises:
1) According to what I've read, tilapia is the #1 farm raised fish worldwide. I would have thought catfish, carp, or salmon,
2) Tilapia are available for "bow fishing" at Lake Fairfield. They supposedly are vegetarian and won't take the baits used for other fish,
3) There are places in the USA that produce commercial fish food specifically for tilapia.

I don't know just where they all come from, but I think every supermarket around here has tilapia; either whole and/or fillets and we've been buying and eating a lot of it. It's actually very good eating.

 

[patrick_g]

Eddie, I stocked the newest pond I built with fathead minnows and then 200 of the 4 inch channel cats. I do not feed the catfish much or often so the growth rate is not so great but if I am patient they will get to fishing size. I was told by some experts that you'd do much better going mono-culture with the catfish so I have no plans to put anything else in there.

I was also told that mixing crappie and bass was a poor idea unless you have a truly large lake (bigger than you and I have) but that it works once in a while. As I only built 1 1/2 of my 10 ponds I just got what the previous owner had in most instances and some of the ponds have both large mouth bass and crappie as well as bluegill and perch.

My trim carpenter "discovered" a grass carp in one of the smaller ponds he was doing catch and release on the big mouth bass. He accidently snagged its tail but it broke free. It was a big'un, probably about 25lbs.

I've been thinking when I make time for it that I will make a support for a feeding station to dispense floating catfish food. That will do wonders for the growth rate. My buddy stocked later than I did and is catching two to two and a half pounders in his pond that is smaller than mine but he was feeding pretty religiously.

I was invited to a neighbors pond at feeding time and saw a regular feeding frenzy when they tossed out a couple pounds of floating catfish food into a floating "hula hoop" to keep it contained in spite of some wind. His "pets" run 20lb and up (plenty of up.) They are just to watch they don't fish that little pond in ttheir front yard.

Sealling leaks in a pond is an iffy buisness but you can buy bags of oil well drilling mud which can be poured out over the leak area and get a pretty good seal. If you aren't familiar with it don't think environmental disaster, think completely safe and harmless and natural. It is bentonite a natural occuring mineral that expands on contact with water and is used a lot in sealling leaks in dams and such.
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Pat http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

[EddieWalker]

Rob,

My brother used to have a flat bottom boat just like yours back in Califonria. One night a buddy and I went out in the Sacramento Delta right after some serious rains. We had a 5hp motor and could barely get it to move against the current. Being not very bright, we figured we could hug the shoreline up stream until we ran out of fuel, then float with the current down stream. This actually worked, excpet for trying to get it back to shore where we'd parked the truck. This might have been one of my top ten dumb things I've ever done!!! hahahaha

marimus,

The reason we can stock our ponds here with tilapia is that they will "ALL" die off in winter.

I've also heard you guys have a real problem with rabbits!!!

Bird,

I've never eaten Tilapia that I know of, but I don't like to eat fish. I'll probably fish the pond, but for me, it's a visual thing. The fish are secondary, but for Steph, the kids and some guests when the park opens, the fish will be a big deal.

Pat,

I've heard allot of stories about too many crappie taking over a pond and the other fish not being able to keep up with them. The Copper Nose Bluegill are supposed to be the right ones to put in with a bass, catfhish type pond. They will grow to two pounds or more, they reproduce well, but not nearly as bad as brack crappie.

The Redear Sunfish are for the snails and deeper water. They will fill a part of the lake that other fish wont use. I'm not sure about there fishability, but since they are a benificial fish, I've decided to include them.

If I find that I need more dirt and need to quarey a new area, I have a good spot for another pond that could be two acres in size. If I do dig this pond, than I'll make it a black crappie pond.

Before I moved here, I never heard of them, but now that I'm here, it seems allot of people realy like to fish them. One pond dedicated to them would make a great kids fishing hole with lots of action. But that's down the road and as of right now, not likely to happen.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[mike4038]

Prohibited Exotic Species.
Tilapia, Family Cichlidae
All species of genus Tilapia (including Sarotherodon and Oreochromis)

Exotic Fish, Shellfish and Aquatic Plants
Mike

 

[Bird]

I've never eaten Tilapia that I know of, but I don't like to eat fish.

We sure differ there. I love all kinds of seafood and fresh water fish, too. We probably have fish about once a week, maybe twice, but iIt would be just fine with me to have fish 3 or 4 times a week. Fish is kinda like ground beef; it can be prepared in many different ways; fried, baked, grilled, chowders and stews, etc. so I doubt that I'll ever get tired of it.

 

[marimus]

marimus,

The reason we can stock our ponds here with tilapia is that they will "ALL" die off in winter.

I've also heard you guys have a real problem with rabbits!!!

No, not really any rabbit problem, at least in my state. The ground is too hard for them to burrow where I live, so they are limited in safe areas to reproduce. There is also a rabbit proof fence that runs partway along the border with New South Wales, although its in a state of disrepair now.

You do see the occasional rabbit, but really not that many.

 

[RobJ]

Eddie,

With a 37 year old Mecury 9.8 motor...we only fish upstream and have had to use the river flow to get home a couple times even though we usually don;t go up more than a couple miles. On a good motor running day we will venture to the south side of the lease, the last spot for an easy walk back to the ramp and ATV's

Lot of fun on the river dodging the huge logs that are floating after the river rises quickly.

 

[rlk]

I'm also thinking about putting in Mozambique Talapia. The die off when the water temps has me a litte concerned, but from what I've read over at Pondboss.com, it's not something that's very evident. Apperantly, when they die from the water getting cold, Mother Natured cleans them up real quickly. Eddie

Eddie, I raised some talapia during 2005. Like your climate, our water gets too cold for the talapia to survive over the winter.

I raised mine in a round cage that is 4 feet across and 4 feet deep. The cage is made out of plastic or nylon, and has floats attached around it. I anchored it right off of my gazebo, so I could easily throw feed to the talapia. You have to have a top on the cage because the talapia are so aggressive they could easily jump out.

Around Easter, I purchased 250 fingerlings - actually ended up with a lot more.

I began harvesting during October, as it started turning cool then, and I did not want to loose any fish. See the attached picture.

I tried to feed the fish at least 2 times a day, sometimes 3. Many weekends I was out of town, so they only fed on whatever came into the cage, as well as algae that grew on the cage.

The large talapia were close to 2 pounds. The ones that grow in warmer climates get much larger, but from a fingerling to 2 pounds in 6 months is a lot of weight gain.

The first harvest, I took the top off of the cage, and dipped out enough talapia to fill a 5 gallon bucket. Put the top back on, and started cleaning fish. I knew right then that I had bought way too many fish.

I ended up cleaning and filleting 80 talapia that day. Got them all wrapped and frozen, then asked the wife what the he77 we were going to do with all the rest. The next day I called a buddy and he came and took about 50. Called another buddy and he came and got another 50. The next day, I cleaned another 70+. Still had a bunch of fish left in the cage.

I was out of freezer room, so called a neighbor and asked if he wanted some. He said yes, so I pulled the cage out with the tractor, dumped the remaining fish in the loader of the BX 2200, and took off for my neighbors. Neighbor heard me coming and came out with a small bucket. I laughed, and told him he needed a bigger bucket. He had not looked in the loader yet, so he went back and got another small bucket. When he came back out and looked in my loader, he almost had a cow. (His dad has done similar things to me in the past: calls and ask if I can use a mess of butter beans. I say yes, and he brings a couple of bushels.) Anyway, neighbor gets his brother to help clean the fish. They ended up with almost as many as I did, but I was so tired of cleaning fish that I didn't care.

Now talapia is a great eating fish. The meat is white and is very mild - quite similar to flounder or grouper.

All in all, raising the talapia was a fun project, but it was not economical. Considering the cost of the fingerlings; all the fish food I bought; the time involved; etc. I would have come out better buying fresh fish.

Bob

 

[rlk]

This is the picture of a talapia.