Stocking Tilapia for Algae Control in South Carolina

Question: Can you stock tilapia for algae control in the upper coastal region of South Carolina? If so, are they effective?

Answer: We do stock tilapia for algae control; however, there is a drawback to using tilapia: they die in the wintertime in our part of the state. Once the water temperature goes much lower than about 70 degrees, they start to die. They tend to do much better down in Florida and in the southern part of the country. However, you can stock them they just, they’re seasonal. And they are effective. For the time that they are in a pond, they do eat algae. So, they are effective. It’s just, it’s a cost that you have to weight out whether or not it suits you or whether it’s something that would be beneficial in your budget to continually buy fish that may not thrive or may not survive, or will not survive through a winter.