Blue tilapia are primarily vegetarian, so if you have some really weedy
or algae-choked ponds, these fish should do wonders if adequately
stocked. Common stocking rates are ~40lbs/acre if you just want
algae/weed control, and ~100 lbs/acre if you're looking to quickly grow
trophy bass.
When you stock a pond with adult blue tilapia broodstock in the late
spring, they'll reproduce prodigiously (and very successfully, since
they're mouth brooders, i.e. the mother holds the eggs and young fry in
her mouth, giving them much higher survival rates). Blue Tilapia
females will spawn every 6 weeks or so, producing huge waves of fry that
graze voraciously on aquatic plants/algae over the summer, clearing up
your pond and providing increased forage for your game fish. In the
fall, when temperatures dip, the blue tilapia will become sluggish and
eventually die when water temps drop below the upper 40's, thereby
providing your game fish with lots of easy food to fatten up on heading
into winter. So in essence, stocking with blue tilapia will clear up
your pond and convert unwanted algae/weed biomass into game fish
biomass.
I cannot recommend blue tilapia enough as a tool for pond management. I
think it is well worth the time of any interested person to google
around and research the topic for themselves. Tilapia pond stocking is
really taking off as an effective biological method of pond management,
replacing chemical-based methods. Using blue tilapia often comes out
similarly priced to using chemicals, but the other wonderful benefits of
using blue tilapia really tip the scales in its favor.
Why pure blue tilapia instead of other kinds of tilapia? First, blue
tilapia are significantly more cold hardy: they can survive down into
the upper 40's, whereas other types of tilapia die off in the mid/upper
50's. This means that you can put them in sooner and they'll stay alive
longer, giving you an extra couple months of growth, production, and
performance from blues that other types of tilapia cannot provide.
Second, blue tilapia are better filter feeders than other kinds of
tilapia. As adult blue tilapia swim around, algae in the water sticks
to mucus in their throats, which they then swallow. This allows adult
blue tilapia to get significant nutrition directly from the water column
(digesting the algae and the bacteria growing on the algae) while
further cleaning the water for you.
