Tilapia in SoCal lake?

[Just_Bass]

I really need opinions from expert about stocking Tilapia in our local lake legally. I know tilapia is invasive specie but would it do more harm than good compared to carp for helping to eliminate some algae or weed?
As of right now my lake is not in good shape, the filtration plant is closed a couple years ago, not a lot of water circulation and now golden algae bloom. We start seeing a lot of shad die off as well as big catfish and some small bluegill. Bass and crappie is still in decent shape, caught more than 100 past weekend average 12” with 20% pushing 14-15”
This is gonna be legal act since one of our friend is in the POA board. We have stock bass, gill and crappie in the past but I told him we have pretty healthy populations of those and no need to stock more. I’m trying to think tilapia might be good alternative but doesn’t want to risk eco system and quality of the fish in our lake.
Any opinions on this?

[Gotfish?]

Tilapia have been caught in Hodges and Murray, they are thought to have been put there by someone buying them at Asian markets. They were not stocked by lake authorities. They do not over run other species like carp or snakeheads do. Some of the best bass fishing in the world is in Mexico where the bass feed on tilapia.

Salton Sea used have lots of them until the salinity got so high no fish could live there. The ones in Salton sea were from freshwater tilapia introduced in the irrigation canals to control weeds that mutated to survive salt water. As a fish, there are both salt and freshwater species, native to Africa. They die off when the water gets below about 50F so they might not survive the winter if you are very far inland.

For fish farming, they are considered one of the the most productive fish, as much as 2000 lbs/acre per year in ponds. Ponds will be stocked in the spring and harvested in the fall before the water gets cold.

[DarkShadow]

DFW Kwin should be able to shed more light on this.

The only pond I know of that has tilapia has been completely over run. While you have the 3 and 4 pound teelops, the vaaaast majority are an inch long, and invade the pond.

But again, maintenance is key.

[Bassmann86]

Tilapia have been caught in Hodges and Murray, they are thought to have been put there by someone buying them at Asian markets. They were not stocked by lake authorities. They do not over run other species like carp or snakeheads do. Some of the best bass fishing in the world is in Mexico where the bass feed on tilapia.

Salton Sea used have lots of them until the salinity got so high no fish could live there. The ones in Salton sea were from freshwater tilapia introduced in the irrigation canals to control weeds that mutated to survive salt water. As a fish, there are both salt and freshwater species, native to Africa. They die off when the water gets below about 50F so they might not survive the winter if you are very far inland.

For fish farming, they are considered one of the the most productive fish, as much as 2000 lbs/acre per year in ponds. Ponds will be stocked in the spring and harvested in the fall before the water gets cold.

The Tilipia were one of the main reasons the corvina disappearing from the Salton Sea and overran it. I would say the can survive our winters by the size of the 2 I saw at lake Murray this past month.

[Queue]

I really need opinions from expert about stocking Tilapia in our local lake legally. I know tilapia is invasive specie but would it do more harm than good compared to carp for helping to eliminate some algae or weed?
As of right now my lake is not in good shape, the filtration plant is closed a couple years ago, not a lot of water circulation and now golden algae bloom. We start seeing a lot of shad die off as well as big catfish and some small bluegill. Bass and crappie is still in decent shape, caught more than 100 past weekend average 12” with 20% pushing 14-15”
This is gonna be legal act since one of our friend is in the POA board. We have stock bass, gill and crappie in the past but I told him we have pretty healthy populations of those and no need to stock more. I’m trying to think tilapia might be good alternative but doesn’t want to risk eco system and quality of the fish in our lake.
Any opinions on this?

Tilapia will not be approved for stocking into Canyon Lake, or any other lake outside of the Salton Sea/Colorado River watershed.

[Queue]

Tilapia have been caught in Hodges and Murray, they are thought to have been put there by someone buying them at Asian markets. They were not stocked by lake authorities. They do not over run other species like carp or snakeheads do. Some of the best bass fishing in the world is in Mexico where the bass feed on tilapia.

Salton Sea used have lots of them until the salinity got so high no fish could live there. The ones in Salton sea were from freshwater tilapia introduced in the irrigation canals to control weeds that mutated to survive salt water. As a fish, there are both salt and freshwater species, native to Africa. They die off when the water gets below about 50F so they might not survive the winter if you are very far inland.

For fish farming, they are considered one of the the most productive fish, as much as 2000 lbs/acre per year in ponds. Ponds will be stocked in the spring and harvested in the fall before the water gets cold.

Tilapia came in with shipments of catfish (Hodges) and numbnuts with buckets (Murray, Miramar, Otay etc.)

[Queue]

Tilapia have been caught in Hodges and Murray, they are thought to have been put there by someone buying them at Asian markets. They were not stocked by lake authorities. They do not over run other species like carp or snakeheads do. Some of the best bass fishing in the world is in Mexico where the bass feed on tilapia.

Salton Sea used have lots of them until the salinity got so high no fish could live there. The ones in Salton sea were from freshwater tilapia introduced in the irrigation canals to control weeds that mutated to survive salt water. As a fish, there are both salt and freshwater species, native to Africa. They die off when the water gets below about 50F so they might not survive the winter if you are very far inland.

For fish farming, they are considered one of the the most productive fish, as much as 2000 lbs/acre per year in ponds. Ponds will be stocked in the spring and harvested in the fall before the water gets cold.

The Tilipia were one of the main reasons the corvina disappearing from the Salton Sea and overran it. I would say the can survive our winters by the size of the 2 I saw at lake Murray this past month.

Just about everything died in the Salton Sea because the water became hypersaline and fish could not survive or breed effectively to maintain a population.

[Spektrum]

Tilapia have been caught in Hodges and Murray, they are thought to have been put there by someone buying them at Asian markets. They were not stocked by lake authorities. They do not over run other species like carp or snakeheads do. Some of the best bass fishing in the world is in Mexico where the bass feed on tilapia.

Salton Sea used have lots of them until the salinity got so high no fish could live there. The ones in Salton sea were from freshwater tilapia introduced in the irrigation canals to control weeds that mutated to survive salt water. As a fish, there are both salt and freshwater species, native to Africa. They die off when the water gets below about 50F so they might not survive the winter if you are very far inland.

For fish farming, they are considered one of the the most productive fish, as much as 2000 lbs/acre per year in ponds. Ponds will be stocked in the spring and harvested in the fall before the water gets cold.

The Tilipia were one of the main reasons the corvina disappearing from the Salton Sea and overran it. I would say the can survive our winters by the size of the 2 I saw at lake Murray this past month.

The game fish disappeared because of the increasing salinity. Being a basin, the salt has nowhere to go. Even the Tilipia can’t survive

[Gotfish?]

Good news is that there are still desert pupfish in Salton Sea. Use about 1/2 inch of Gulp trout worm in a #24 hook on a dropshot with 1 lb line and maybe you could catch a 3 incher (that would be a whopper).

https://wildlife.ca.gov/Regions/6/Deser ... rt-Pupfish

[vito1023]

It’s really sad what’s happened to Salton SeaI went there some 30 years ago got Corvina tilapia were plentiful. Took my soon to be to be wife there with some friends for a camping trip had a blast. She got two tilapia on one hook she’ll never forget I haven’t been there in a long time but sad to hear what it’s turned out to be. Is there nothing they can do to get some fresh water in there?

[Gotfish?]

Sure, they could divert Colorado River water from farms and cities to raise the water level and dilute the salinity. That means farms and cities would see a price increase or rationing. It would also flood a significant area of Imperial Valley farmland. And it would only temporarily solve the problem since the sea is landlocked and it would be just few decades at most until the salinity was back up to the current level.

But that would be just the sort of boondoggle that politicians like to fund.

[Spektrum]

The Salton Sea is an interesting body of water. It was created by mistake when a diversion from the Colorado river.

[camobass]

A “little” more to it than that

[Bendo]

The most interesting thing to me is there is a deep end and a shallow end. If we could build a dike across the median(6.5 Miles 20 feet high) Magic would happen. The huge evaporation that happens in the shallow end would stop, the deep end has enough fresh water entering from the two Rivers that enter the Sea, to maintain the proper salinity. Then Multi million dollar homes could spring up all around our inland sea, Recreation, Marinas, Mansions. Great fishing again, it would be worth Billions in Tax Revenue and Real Estate. Alas, I could not convince the three Billionairs I’ve approached with this scenario. My dream would be to stock it with Redfish, Tarpon, and Seatrout, reminiscent of the East Coast but not so far away. Now it seems there are more Billions in Lithium under the Shallow side. Even more money to make for the right Developer. Dreams….