Moedjair or Mujair (1890–1957) is a Javanese inventor who in 1939 was the first to culture the fish species '' Tilapia zillii'', at the mouth of the

Serang River Serang River is a river in northern Central Java, Indonesia, about 400 km east of the capital Jakarta. The largest tributary is Lusi River, which discharges into Serang River after passing the city of Purwodadi.Java Island. Moedjair was born Iwan Dalauk in 1890 in Blitar, East Java; he died there in 1957.

Experimentation with fish

In 1939, Mudjair went looking for fish at the river estuary along coast. He noticed a strange fish that fed its children when in danger and spit back when they reached safety. Wishing to bring a specimen home, Moedjair questioned whether the fish would survive a non-saltwater environment. Experimenting with freshwater habitats, he demonstrated 4 fish can live in saltwater after 11 experiments. These 4 fish, released in

rivers A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

and

lakes A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

, quickly grew in population. To honor his work, the fish was named mujair in Indonesian, and ''mujair'' is now a popular freshwater fish in Indonesia.

References

Fisheries and aquaculture research institutes Tilapia {{Indonesia-bio-stub