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Aquaculture Potential Of Tilapia : Reasons For The Translocation Of The Mozambique Tilapia
Since the 1960's, the fish farming potential of tilapia, more specifically the Mozambique tilapia (then one of the better known tilapia species) was recognised by aquaculturists and this fish distributed to tropical regions outside Africa, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Florida Madagascar and Guatemala. It reacted well on the addition of feed and was especially successful in brackish and even saltwater ponds. Already in that period, attempts were made to overcome one serious disadvantage of tilapia for aquaculture: the relative small size at which it started breeding - as little as 12 cm length. This had a double negative effect: slow growth and complete overpopulation of the fish ponds. Today this still is one of the most serious disadvantages of tilapia farming.
Attempts to overcome the problem of early and prolific breeding, included hybridisation with other tilapia species which can result in pure male or sterile offspring. As other African tilapia species became better known, species were discovered that had higher growth rates than the Mozambique tilapia and also produced all-male offspring when hybridised. This included the Nile tilapia and Israeli tilapia
(O. aureus) that are now generally used in aquaculture. Red varieties derived from hybrids of all these species are also available today. In the mean time, all kinds of hybrid tilapia are now found in the wild in the countries to where tilapia species were originally distributed.
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