Creating a Lake

[EddieWalker]

Mike,

Your post really suprised me. The guys over at Pondboss seem to love Tilapia and have had all sorts of posts on what a great fish it is. Fast growth with rapid spawning, then dieing off in winter to prevent overpopulating the pond. It sounded ideal. Now I'm trying to find out if I can get them or not. If not, I'm not out anyting, but from all I've read, I'd really like to be able to get them.

RLK,

Why didn't you let some of the Tilapia go in your pond? Wont they die off in the winter? Until then, they would have been fun to catch.

Thanks for the picture, they are a nice looking fish.

Eddie

 

[rlk]

Eddie, the person who I get my fish from did not recommend turning them loose in the pond. I have a 2.5 acre pond, and if I wanted to catch talapia, I would have had to purchase more than I did. Also, since I was doing this as a trial, and to harvest a large number of fish, raising them in the cage was the best way.

I don't know how expensive the talapia are in Texas, but mine were 4 - 6 inches long and priced around $2.00 each. With that much money invested in the fish, I wanted to harvest all I could rather than have some die during the winter.

Bob

 

[Limecuda]

What is the magic temp they die at?

 

[EddieWalker]

Bob,

Thanks, I didn't know they were that expensive. If they cost that much here, I'll have to rething using them for a forage fish for my bass. This is if they are legal. hahaha

Limecuda,

From what I've read, 50 degrees will kill off all the Tilapia. It's a process that starts with some sooner than others, but by the time the water is down to that level, they will all be dead.

Of course, when that happens, it's a good time to put in trout. They will do fine here as long as the water is cold, but when it starts to warm up in the spring, the trout will all die off.

Anybody get the impression I'm gonna have allot of buzzards around here?

Eddie

 

[wushaw]

More like alot of fat coons and coyotes.

 

[Glowplug]

This is the picture of a talapia.

That's a great use for the Raleigh News & Observer!

I don't know much about Tilapia but I do know they taste really goooood!

 

[rlk]

That's a great use for the Raleigh News & Observer

And that is about all it is good for, other than lining the bottom of bird cages!

Bob

 

[have_blue]

I don't know how expensive the talapia are in Texas, but mine were 4 - 6 inches long and priced around $2.00 each. With that much money invested in the fish, I wanted to harvest all I could rather than have some die during the winter. Bob

Mozambique tilapia are great breeders. I intend to stock a few larger fish in as soon as the water warms, and should have a million by dieoff time. I won't get to harvest great numbers of them, but the cost will be very low. Plus I will get the benefit of them providing forage for the bass, and eating the weeds and filimentous algae.

 

[EddieWalker]

We had an inch and a half of water in the rain guage this morning, so that means the weather forcasters are one hundred percent for the year!!!

There's no really obvious changes to the lake, but I took a few pictures anway. A few days ago I dug out the silt pit as it had filled up. Since that's what it's there for, I guess it worked. All that dirt would have gone into the lake if I didn't have the pit there to catch it. The moon picture was two days ago.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[Bird]

We had an inch and a half of water in the rain guage this morning

I only had about .71" and was both surprised and happy to get it. The lake's looking good, Eddie.