Are tilapia a good food source for largemouth bass in private ponds? This is a question that many landowners have about growing big and healthy populations of largemouth bass in their ponds. Other states in our region use tilapia as a food source to help grow bigger bass, so should we?

Tilapia have a critical temperature around 55 degrees Fahrenheit. This means that tilapia will die when the water temperature falls below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Most Oklahomans will see the water temperature in their ponds fall below this critical value, causing a tilapia die-off every late fall/winter. By having this die-off, the pond would need to be stocked every spring when the water temperature gets back up over 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

Tilapia are very fast-moving fish, which makes them difficult for bass to consume in the summer months. The larger adults that are stocked are also usually not eaten by bass. Tilapia will have multiple spawning events throughout the summer to put small, young-of-year individuals in the pond. These young-of-year fish are mostly what the bass will consume later in the year due to them being smaller and easier for the bass to catch. The multiple spawning events equate to different sized fish to eat, but bass tend not to feed on tilapia until the water temperature is close to, or below, the critical temperature of 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Once this water temperature is met, the bass will eat the dying fish that are much slower and easier to catch.

Stocking these fish every year and having them die every fall/winter can be very expensive. Because tilapia are not eaten during the summer months, a stocking of tilapia for a year will only feed bass for a short window, about two weeks for most ponds. That is a lot of money and effort to feed fish for a couple of weeks.

There are many ponds that hold big bass without stocking tilapia. The bass in these ponds eat native fish such as bluegill and redear sunfish. These sunfish will be eaten all year long and will be a continual, regenerative food source for bass to eat and grow. Bass will eat sunfish when the water is around the critical temperature when tilapia start dying and through the winter due to their critical temperature being much lower.

If a healthy bass fishery is what you are after, then establishing and maintaining a healthy sunfish fishery may be the better choice for the long run. Sunfish will feed bass throughout the entire year, they are cheaper to get a hold of, and they do not have to be stocked every year.