Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

That is correct for Texas. Mossambicus can be stocked in ponds, and they are used quite a bit for aquatic vegetation control in Texas ponds. What's funny is that virtually none of the stock sold in Texas for pond stocking is actually Mossambicus. They are mostly Blues and Niles or various percentages of the two.

Actually, that is not true..... The ONLY species you can get for pond stocking is O. mossambicus......

GP

GreenPhoenix,
Actually it is 100% true. The only species someone in Texas is SUPPOSED to stock (without permit) in ponds is O. Mossambicus. However, what people ACTUALLY stock in TX is most often a tilapia of mixed blue and nile parentage. Even those that are claimed to be be Mossambicus are often mixed with blue and/or nile blood as well.

Ironically, recently on a pond management website I am actively involved with, a member proudly posted several pictures of his freshly stocked "Mossambiques" he placed in his TX pond. The pictures were clearly Rocky Mountain Whites (a blue/nile hybrid). I told him via private message that he might want to take those pictures down since he had stocked a regulated species, NOT Mozambiques. He got his fish from a large pond stocking outfit based in TX that makes hundreds of deliveries every year throughout the state.

Trust me, it happens all the time. People simply don't know how to ID tilapia, and even experienced eyes struggle with the various hybrids out there, which is a large percentage of the stock throughout the US as it is.

Dang Bill! Sorry to hear that man. What's to stop you from claiming a commercial permit then, technically speaking?

I'm sure it can be done even though I'm zoned residential, If the guy doesn't want me to have it he can put me through a lot of grief if I try to force the issue. He may have been involved in the mediation of the tilapia in Port Sulphur. And it left him with a bad taste with the ordeal. They actually poisoned a few square miles of marsh to be sure they killed all the tilapia someone had released. Yep a bad egg and the rest of us have to suffer. It wasn't easy for me to overwinter those guys anyway so I'm going to go back with channel cats.

Wow, that makes me wander what my Overton Tilipia are, as the male's are very white with a reddish face, and the females are darker green with dark stripes, and don't really look like the pic's of O. Mossy's i've seen......

Mine were from Overton also - From what you describe though, it looks like mine were all male. Mostly white with color to the face.



The ones on the right are blue gill.

DéjàVoodoo,

when i first got mine, they were all Very white, and only a few of them had any stripes at all.....

It took at least a couple of Mo for them to change colors and darken up, as i posted in my thread......

I know Todd Overton, and he supplies extremely high quality fish. He's also a very hard working and honest guy. If he was told he was getting Moz's from HIS supplier, that's what he believed. He would never knowingly misrepresent his fish, and I'd vouch for him without a second thought on that. He's an expert on North American native fish, and is a brilliant pond management professional, but tilapia are a relatively new thing to US fish haulers and pond stocking companies.

I could be wrong, but those don't look like pure Moz's. They look more like a typical Nile (Niloticus) and Blue (Aureus) cross to me, or perhaps a Nile/Moz cross. The vertical banding on the body is characteristic of Nile/Blue, not Moz. However, it looks like there might be red/orange margins on the caudal (tail) fin, which suggests at least some Moz blood. Niles and blues often have a more consistent reddish color throughout the entire caudal (tail) fin in most strains, not just the margin (a few strains of Nile and Blues lack reddish tail coloration entirely though). I can't tell from the picture, but if you look closely at the tail fin, if there is prominent vertical banding on it, that is also a very good indicator of strong Nile influence. Blues will have this banding as well, but it is more "broken up" than Niles. Moz's tend not to have this banding, or if they do, it is extremely faint and HORIZONTAL. Additionally, Niles and Blues tend to have a more rounded and compact body shape, while Moz's tend to be longer, more fusiform fish, particularly males.

Hope this helps.

Slightly bigger picture that has not been rezied - just cropped.



The picture sure looks like the fish have more color then I remember seeing in the water. When in the water they always looked pretty white.

DéjàVoodoo -
Just to satisfy my own curiosity, could you zoom that pic in on some of the tails and repost?

Sorry - That is the best resolution I can get. I should have taken some closeups.

For you Texas folks, I'll have some fantastic Golden Mossambiques available beginning this coming Spring. They are Hawaiian Golds, a pure Oreochromis mossambicus strain. We've been quite impressed with them during grower trials.

Here's a picture of a young adult Hawaiian Gold:

Worth mentioning... we also have Wild Color Pure Mozambiques as well, but they are available in extremely limited quantity.

Kellen -- thanks for the information... I have a small background with fish identification and I know how hard it can get when hybrids are involved... I guess I had just "assumed" that the Powers that Be would actually enforce the rules they expect up to live by! (Maybe I hope too much...)

I would love to know if you still have a few of the Hawaiian Golds left, I was thinking about getting some depending on price.

Adam