Tilapia Tilapia ( ) is the common name for nearly a hundred species of cichlid fish from the coelotilapine, coptodonine, heterotilapine, oreochromine, pelmatolapiine, and tilapiine tribes (formerly all were "Tilapiini"), with the economically most ...

has become the third most important fish in

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...

after

carp Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...

and

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus '' Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Onco ...

; worldwide production exceeded in 2002 and increases annually. Because of their high protein content, large size, rapid growth (6 to 7 months to grow to harvest size), and palatability, a number of coptodonine and oreochromine

cichlids Cichlids are fish from the family Cichlidae in the order Cichliformes. Cichlids were traditionally classed in a suborder, the Labroidei, along with the wrasses ( Labridae), in the order Perciformes, but molecular studies have contradicted th ...

—specifically, various species of '' Coptodon'', ''

Oreochromis ''Oreochromis'' is a large genus of oreochromine cichlids, fishes endemic to Africa and the Middle East. A few species from this genus have been introduced far outside their native range and are important in aquaculture. Many others have very ...

'', and ''

Sarotherodon ''Sarotherodon'' is a genus of oreochromine cichlids that are native to the northern half of Africa (south as far as the Congo River basin), with a single species, ''S. galilaeus'', also ranging into the Levant. A couple of species from this g ...

''—are the focus of major

efforts. Tilapia fisheries originated in Africa and the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...

. The accidental and deliberate introductions of tilapia into South and Southeast Asian freshwater lakes have inspired outdoor aquaculture projects in various countries with tropical climates, including Honduras, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Tilapia farm projects in these countries have the highest potential to be "green" or environmentally friendly. In temperate zone localities, tilapia farmers typically need a costly energy source to maintain a tropical temperature range in their tanks. One relatively sustainable solution involves warming the tank water using

waste heat Waste heat is heat that is produced by a machine, or other process that uses energy, as a byproduct of doing work. All such processes give off some waste heat as a fundamental result of the laws of thermodynamics. Waste heat has lower utilit ...

from factories and

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many ...

s. Tilapiines are among the easiest and most profitable fish to farm due to their omnivorous diet, mode of reproduction (the fry do not pass through a planktonic phase), tolerance of high stocking density, and rapid growth. In some regions the fish can be raised in rice fields at planting time and grow to edible size () when the rice is ready for harvest. Unlike salmon, which rely on high-protein feeds based on fish or meat, commercially important tilapiine species eat a vegetable or cereal-based diet. Tilapia raised in inland tanks or channels are considered safe for the environment, since their waste and disease is contained and not spread to the wild. However, tilapiines have acquired notoriety as being among the most serious

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species adv ...

in many subtropical and tropical parts of the world. For example, blue tilapia (''Oreochromis aureus'') (itself commonly confused with another species often used in aquaculture, the Nile tilapia, ''O. niloticus''),

Mozambique tilapia The Mozambique tilapia (''Oreochromis mossambicus'') is an oreochromine cichlid fish native to southeastern Africa. Dull colored, the Mozambique tilapia often lives up to a decade in its native habitats. It is a popular fish for aquaculture. Due ...

(''O. mossambicus''), blackchin tilapia (''Sarotherodon melanotheron''), spotted tilapia (''Pelmatolapia mariae''), and redbelly tilapia (''Coptodon zillii'') have all become established in the

southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

, particularly in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. Commercially grown tilapia are almost exclusively male. Being prolific breeders, female tilapia in the ponds or tanks will result in large populations of small fish. Whole tilapia can be processed into skinless, boneless (PBO) fillets: the yield is from 30% to 37%, depending on fillet size and final trim. __TOC__

Commercial breeding of Nile tilapia

Although farming of Tilapia has been going on for thousands of years, breeding of Tilapia did not start until recently. The first breeding program started 1988 in a collaboration between the international center for living aquatic resources (ICLARM or WorldFish) and Akvaforsk. The name of the project was GIFT, meaning genetically improved farmed tilapia. Four wild strains from Africa were crossed with four farmed strains from the Philippines. This strain is currently farmed in more than 87 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The GIFT strain is used in two selection programs, one of them being GenoMar, a subsidiary EW Group. In the past the absolute and only important trait when breeding tilapia was growth, being the only criteria for selection. Today more traits have been added into the selection criteria, like growth, fillet yield, robustness and specific disease resistance. Robustness is one of those traits that is becoming more important since it is the biggest problem with mortality on farms today. GenoMar has successfully had a growth increase of 7% per generation while fillet yield only improves with 0,3% per generation. The explanation for this is its low heritability together with the fact that the trait cannot be measured on live animals and therefore information of fillet yield is given from relatives instead. Breeding of Tilapia is done with the help of a pyramid scheme with multiplying generations. The goal with this is that a few high merit individuals can be passed down into

billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: *1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is its only current meaning in English. * 1,000,000,000,000, i. ...

s of production fish at the farms. The generation interval today is down to only 6-9 months meaning that there can be more than one generation per year. Mass selection and pedigree-based selection are the most used methods today for genetic improvements of tilapias. The breeding program GenoMar has used marker-assisted selection since 2004 using microsatellites when doing parentage assignment has been done on Tilapia. Since 2019 genomic selection using single nucleotide polymorphic (SNP) has been used more widely. The latest genome assembly is from 3 years ago, and can be seen from the name of the assembly that NMBU was also highly involved in the effort along with the University of Maryland. Nile tilapia have 22 pairs of chromosomes. 23 Linkage groups because of the sex chromosomes. About 1 billion base pairs in length, 3,010 contigs made 2,460 scaffolds which were placed at a chromosome level as the karyotype was already known. The reference genome also has the non-nuclear mitochondrial genome. With help from bioinformatics, the estimated number of genes is around 30 thousand. It can be browsed in ensembl or NCBI for example. The essential technological foundation for genomic selection is not obtaining the pedigree but the genotypes of the animals. This is currently done by SNP chips, oligonucleotide arrays. They have to be specifically designed for a species and commonly that is done based after the whole genome sequence has been obtained. Only some parts of the WGS are of interest, namely those that exhibit variation. Dense markers are considered good enough to capture the gene content because they are in linkage disequilibrium with the genes that influence the phenotype, or as they are called QTL. There are three major SNP chips for Tilapia, which were announced in 2018, 2020 and then 2020 again. In RNA Seq, the RNA from cells of a tissue is extracted and they are sequenced in order to know what genes are being expressed and at what intensities. First, the extracted RNA is converted into cDNA and that cDNA library is sequenced using the same machines used in whole genome sequencing. The bioinformatics pipeline afterwards is different from WGS, though. Since the segments are shorter, alignment is not as difficult. Also, one is interested in the amount of transcription that is happening. In any case, RNA Seq provides valuable insight into the biology of a group of cells and the entire organism. In the beginning, breeding programs focused mainly on growth traits. Nowadays, more traits are included in the breeding goal. The tendency is to have even more traits in the future. For example, disease resistance, reproductive traits, robustness, lower emissions, feed conversion ratio (sustainability traits). New technologies for high-throughput phenotyping, as in the concept of precision farming, mean that many novel traits might be included as well. There is already a tendency to have mergers and acquisitions, with a few companies buying smaller ones, just like it happened in the poultry industry. Also like the poultry industry, the exploitation of heterosis is a possibility that could be established in Tilapia breeding. This would mean more protection for the companies and attract more corporate enterprises. Because crossbreeding provides a biological lock mechanism. Gene editing is coming. Especially

CRISPR CRISPR () (an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. These sequences are derived from DNA fragments of bact ...

-Cas9 can already be implemented and holds a lot of promise. We also expect for the production systems to become ever more intensive. This means fewer ponds, more cages and more RAS. Overall, the average fish density is going to increase.

Nutritional value

Tilapia from aquaculture contain especially high ratios of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids.

Around the world

Apart from the very few species found in the

Western Asia Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes A ...

, such as the Middle Eastern

mango tilapia The mango tilapia (''Sarotherodon galilaeus'') is a species of fish from the cichlid family that is native to fresh and brackish waters in Africa and the Levant. Other common names include Galilaea tilapia, Galilean comb, Galilee St. Peter's fis ...

, there are no tilapia cichlids native to Asia. However, species originally from Africa have been widely introduced and have become economically important as food fish in many countries. China, the Philippines,

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

, Indonesia, and Thailand are the leading suppliers, and these countries altogether produced about of fish in 2001, constituting about 76% of the total aquaculture production of tilapia worldwide. }), whereas the black and silver striped hybrid is known as ''pla nin'' ( th, ปลานิล; lit. "Nile fish"). Both hybrids of tilapia ''O. niloticus'' are very popular in

Thai cuisine Thai cuisine ( th, อาหารไทย, , ) is the national cuisine of Thailand. Thai cooking places emphasis on lightly prepared dishes with strong aromatic components and a spicy edge. Australian chef David Thompson, an expert on Thai ...

. Some 300,000 farmers in Thailand raise species of tilapia. In March 2007, millions of caged tilapia in the

Chao Phraya River The Chao Phraya ( or ; th, แม่น้ำเจ้าพระยา, , or ) is the major river in Thailand, with its low alluvial plain forming the centre of the country. It flows through Bangkok and then into the Gulf of Thailand. ...

died as a result of oxygen deprivation. , , - , Taiwan , 61,711 , In

, tilapiine cichlids are also known as the "South Pacific crucian

", and since their introduction, have spread across aquatic environments all over the island. Introduced in 1946, tilapiine cichlids made a considerable economic contribution, not only by providing the Taiwanese people with food, but also by allowing the island's fish farmers to break into key markets, such as Japan and the United States. Indeed, tilapiine cichlids have become an important farmed fish in Taiwan for both export and domestic consumption. The Chinese name for the fish in Taiwan is ''wu-kuo'' (吳郭), and was created from the surnames of Wu Chen-hui (吳振輝) and Kuo Chi-chang (郭啟彰), who introduced the fish into Taiwan from

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. The Taiwan tilapia is a hybrid of ''Oreochromis mossambicus'' and ''O. niloticus niloticus''. , - , Colombia , 63,450 , , - , Myanmar , 33,755 , , - , Malaysia , 32,526 , , - , Ecuador , 23,050 , , - , Uganda , 31,670 , , - , Bangladesh , 24,823 , , - , Costa Rica , 23,034 , , - ,

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist s ...

, 20,580 , , - , Honduras , 16,455 , In Spanish, tilapia are simply known as ''tilapia''. Formal tilapia farming is relatively new to Honduras but the commercial export market is expanding rapidly. The firs
audit of a Honduran tilapia fishery
was conducted in 2010 and the facility was found to be compliant with international standards. Honduran aquafarmers are now exporting nearly 20 million pounds of the fish every year, leading tilapia to become viewed as a promising commodity for the developing nation. Joint efforts among community farm training centers, a nonprofit Honduran microfinance group
FEHMISSE
an
foreign investors
are assisting local entrepreneurs as they establish and maintain environmentally sound tilapia farms. , - , Nigeria , 11,989 , , - , Zambia , 10,208 , , - , United States , 9,979 , The geographic range for tilapia culture is limited by their temperature-sensitivity. For optimal growth, the ideal water temperature range is , and growth is reduced greatly below . Death occurs below . Therefore, only the southernmost states are suitable for tilapia production. In the southern region, tilapia can be held in cages from five to 12 months per year, depending on location. About 1.5 million tons of tilapia were consumed in the US in 2005, with 2.5 million tons projected by 2010.

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist is an academic medical center and health system located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and part of Charlotte-based Atrium Health. It is the largest employer in Forsyth County, with more than 19,220 employe ...

(2008, July 10)
''Popular Fish, Tilapia, Contains Potentially Dangerous Fatty Acid Combination''
ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 11, 2008, fro

/ref> , - , Other countries , 79,335 , , - , TOTAL PRODUCTION , 3,497,391 ,

Other countries

India

The FAO has not recorded any production of farmed tilapia by India. Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture (RGCA), the R&D arm of Marine Products Export Development Authority, has established a facility in Vijayawada to produce mono-sex tilapia in two strains. This project involves the establishment of a satellite nucleus for the GIFT strain of tilapia in India, the design and conduct of a genetic improvement program for this strain, the development of dissemination strategies, and the enhancement of local capacity in the areas of selective breeding and genetics. The development and dissemination of a high yielding tilapia strain possessing desirable production characteristics is expected to bring about notable economic benefits for the country. Farming of Tilapia is not permitted in the country on commercial basis. The Rajiv Gandhi Center for Aquaculture (RGCA) has expressed interest in obtaining the Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT strain) for aquaculture development in the country. The GIFT tilapia strain, selectively bred in Malaysia and the Philippines, has achieved an improvement of more than 10 per cent per generation in growth rate and has been widely distributed to several Asian countries and to Latin America (Brazil). However, rather than passively importing the improved genetic stock, the Center is interested in running a formal breeding program (fully pedigreed population) similar to the one that has been carried out for the GIFT strain in Malaysia. The aim is to produce fast-growing high yielding tilapia strains adapted to a wide range of local farming environments that can be grown at as low a cost as possible. The project involves several steps. The first is the establishment of a new nucleus of the GIFT strain at the RGCA and the design of a formal breeding program to further improve its genetic performance within the local environment. This will involve enhancing the capacity of local personnel in selective breeding, genetic improvement, statistical analysis and hatchery management through specialized training courses. Once a high performing tilapia strain (or strains) has been developed, the establishment of satellite hatcheries will increase the availability and decrease the costs of seed stock. These public and private hatcheries will act as multipliers for the superior genetics developed at RGCA and the sites for dissemination of quality broodstock to fish farmers. Although the ultimate target groups of this project are fish farmers and small householders, a wider range of beneficiaries is expected, including commercial producers, scientists and the end consumers. The RGCA will gain experience and knowledge on the development of genetic improvement programs for economically important traits and other aspects of modern quantitative genetics. This experience and the development of a standard selective breeding protocol will allow for genetic improvement programs for other aquaculture species that are commonly cultured in India. Hatchery managers, producers and farmers will also improve their capacity to implement on-farm selective breeding programs. In the longer term the project is also expected to contribute to the development of a complete chain of production. This will require initial capital support for farmers, identification of alternative cheap plant-based feed, and diagnosis of diseases in hatcheries, as well as strategies for early growth management. Improvement in harvest technologies, including storage of product and transport facilities, is likely to improve as a consequence of this project.

Malawi

In 2010

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northe ...

produced 2,997 tonnes of farmed tilapia. A few species of ''

'' tilapia, popular known as 'chambo', are the most popular fish in Malawi. They are endemic to bodies of water in Malawi like

Lake Malawi Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is the fifth largest f ...

Lake Malombe Lake Malombe is a lake in southern part of Malawi, on the Shire River, in the Southern Region. It is located at around , about south of much larger Lake Malawi. It has an area of about . In recent years the number of fishermen on the lake rose s ...

and the

Shire River The Shire is the largest river in Malawi. It is the only outlet of Lake Malawi and flows into the Zambezi River in Mozambique. Its length is . The upper Shire River issues from Lake Malawi and runs approximately before it enters shallow Lake Malo ...

. Due to over fishing, the fish however is now on the threatened species list. Malawi has fish farms that are dedicated to farming tilapia. File:Rednilejf.JPG, National Tilapia Research and Development Program (NTRDP) – Red Nile Tilapia Aquaculture of tilapia Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus File:Rednile2jf.JPG, Red nile tilapia under the experiment ( CLSU,

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

.) File:3rednilejf.JPG, Red nile tilapia for breeding File:23rednilejf.JPG, The fingerlings in breeding tubes File:44rednilejf.JPG, Water sprinklers for aeration of the fingerlings File:Rednilejf22.JPG, Pond

Notes

References

* Lim C and Webster CD (eds.) (2006
''Tilapia: Biology, Culture, and Nutrition''
Routledge. . * Parker R and Parker RO (2011
''Aquaculture Science''
Pages 123–128, Cengage Learning. . * Sayed, A.-F. M. (2006
''Tilapia Culture''
CABI. .
Tilapia, ''ITIS Standard Report''. (2004-05-11)

''Tilapias as alien aquatics in Asia and the Pacific: a review''
FAO report
''Managing Iowa Fisheries: Tilapia Culture in Iowa''

''The effects of introduced tilapias on native biodiversity''

*Ram C Bhujel, (2000) A review of strategies for the management of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) broodfish in seed production systems, especially hapa-based systems, Aquaculture, 181, Issues 1–2, pp. 37-59, ISSN 0044-8486, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0044-8486(99)00217-3. *K.A. Kabir, J.W. Schrama, J.A.J. Verreth, M.J. Phillips, M.C.J. Verdegem (2019) Effect of dietary protein to energy ratio on performance of nile tilapia and food web enhancement in semi-intensive pond aquaculture, Aquaculture, 499, pp. 235-242, ISSN 0044-8486, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2018.09.038. *Ramji Kumar Bhandari, Masaru Nakamura, Tohru Kobayashi, Yoshitaka Nagahama (2006) Suppression of steroidogenic enzyme expression during androgen-induced sex reversal in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), General and Comparative Endocrinology 145, Issue 1 pp. 20-24, ISSN 0016-6480, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygcen.2005.06.014. *Worl fish center, about us, referenced on (24.04.2022) from: https://www.worldfishcenter.org/about-us *Aquagen, Om Aquagen, references on (24.04.2022) from: https://aquagen.no/2017/03/01/ew-group-kjoper-genomar-genetics/ *Benchmarks genetics, about, referenced on (24.04.2022) from: https://bmkgenetics.com/products/spring-tilapia/ *Regal springs, our history, referenced on (24.04.2022) from: https://regalsprings.com/our-story/

External links

Taiwan Tilapia Alliance

James Cook University James Cook University (JCU) is a public university in North Queensland, Australia. The second oldest university in Queensland, JCU is a teaching and research institution. The university's main campuses are located in the tropical cities of Cairn ...

Information on two tilapia pest species from the Australian Centre for Tropical Freshwater Research as PDF downloads

Start Up & Success Tips For Tilapia Fish Farming Owners

Gallery of Earth Ponds and Cages Fish Farming

Aquaculture tilapia fish farm
''YouTube''. * http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/a-second-coming-for-tilapia-in-south-tamil-nadu/article9286888.ece {{tilapia

Tilapiini