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Some Reasons Why Nile Tilapia Are Now
Transferred In Africa
Nile tilapia are now preferred above Mozambique tilapia for fish farming.
The first aquaculture trials with tilapia were done with Mozambique tilapia and some others. Soon it was realised that the Nile tilapia has some significant advantages: high growth rate and better production. Additionally, crosses with the closely related Israeli tilapia
(O. aureus produced all-male offspring, resulting in two advantages: higher growth rate and no or lower breeding rate (which often is a problem in tilapia farming).
Nile tilapia were first released in Lake Victoria where they displaced two valuable large tilapia (indigenous and endemic
O. esculentus and O. variablilis) so that these species are today threatened or extinct. As result of the proven success in fish farming, it was imported into Zambia in 1982 for two fish farms from where it escaped into the Kafue River where it was collected in 1992. Again it was transferred further southwards to fish farms near Lake Kariba. It is now common in certain areas of the lake and it is just a question of time before it may hybridise with local species there or outcompete them. In the nineties it was also distributed to fish farms south of Lake Kariba and distributed to angling ponds because of its good properties. Later anglers and fish farmers distributed it to dams around Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Some fish were placed into tributaries running to the Limpopo River. Up to date it is known from no less than twelve different dams in Zimbabwean tributaries of the Limpopo River. Nile tilapia or nillies today are an angling attraction of their own in tourist angling resorts in Zimbabwe.
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