The question concerns adding Talapia to a 165 acre lake in East Texas. Basically, what we need to know is do Talipia disturb the Bluegill spawn? Do they invade and take over the Bluegill spawning areas? As in many other small lakes in our area, our once abundant Threadfin shad population has been decimated by bird depredation. That being said, going forward we need to depend more on Bluegill and other sources for forage. Thus the question of also adding Talapia, and if they would interfere with our Bluegill spawn. Thanks

Call the local TP&WD office, they can help you.

Buggsboy, I've been stocking Tilapia in my ponds in East Texas for many years...one of the very first to do so and the first I know of to actually run experiments on their effects on my ponds.

To answer your question, as long as the Tilapia die off every winter, they actually benefit the blue gill population in my ponds by taking predation pressure from LMB off of them during the growing season. My original research on Tilapia showed that mature Tilapia, e.g. a couple of years old and over 4 pounds, will eat small fry of blue gill and their eggs...but in my ponds( and most ponds in East Texas) they never reach that size and die off every winter.

The Mozambique, which we can legally stock in Texas are mouth breeders and as best I can tell do not disturb blue gills at all and on the contrary , moving slower than 'gills are probably considered great friends by the 'gills.

I should add my ponds (5 of them) are up to 5 acres each so not the same as 165 acre lake.


p.s. good luck getting an answer from your local T,P,&W

Stocking Tilapia would not be a detrament to the bluegill population. Like Meadowlark said, it is a benefit as there is more forage for the bass to consume; thus allowing the bluegill population to build. Lakes in which we stock with tilapia usually see an increase in bluegill populations not a decrease when we sample them with our electrofishing boat in the fall.

Better have a big budget to stock a 165 acre lake with tilapia.

Thanks for all the valuable information. We wouldn't buy enough Tilapia to stock the whole lake, just what we could afford for supplemental summer/fall forage. I'm just trying to gather information to pass on to the other board members of our lake, so that we can make an informed decision. Thanks again.