Tilapia in Mississippi
Stocking Rate
Novice producers of tilapia in intensive flow-through tank or recirculating production systems should be able to approach a final stock density of about 1/4 lb per gallon of tank capacity. More experienced producers can utilize higher stock densities (1/2 to 1 lb/gal), but supplenation with pure oxygen will be required. Using the 1/4 lb/galthreshold production capacity, you can calculate how many fish of a given size that can be stocked in the tank. In other words, you can stock more smaller fish, or fewer larger fish. Maximizing tank production capacity by growing fish to a certain size, but up to the carrying capacity, and then splitting out the stock, is an effective way to improve the economics of tilapia production.