TANK CULTURE OF TILAPIA 



By Richard N. Uchida and Joseph E. King, Fishery Research Biologists 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 



Until about two df cades ;x<ro. tlie ciclilid lisli 

 TUapia luosxiDuhicu Peters liad received only 

 minor attention as a food and fjame fish in its 

 native East African environment. No intensive 

 cultivation of tilapia was carried on in Africa, and 

 it was not until this Hsh mysteriously appeared in 

 East Java in l!t-'59 that anyone recognized that it 

 possessed many of the desirable characteristics of 

 a pondfish and that it was readily adaptable to 

 culture (Atz, 1954). The potentialities of vari- 

 ous species of Tilapia were demonstrated by W. II. 

 Schuster Ix-fore a fratherinfr of inland fisheries ex- 

 perts held at Surabaja in lOoO (Vaas and Hof- 

 stede, 1952). Since that time, tilapia have been 

 successfully introduced into many southeastern 

 Asian countries where they have become an im- 

 portant source of protein food. 



In recent years, many scientists in various parts 

 of the world have studied the biology of tilapia and 

 its culture in ponds and rice paddies. The work of 

 Vaas and Hofstede (1952), Chen (1953), Panik- 

 karandTami)i (1954), and Swingle (19fi0) is par- 

 ticularly noteworthy. Chimits (1955, 1957) has 

 published excellent reviews of tilapia culture and 

 liis bibliographies bring together a wealth of in- 

 formation on these fishes. Raerends and Baer- 

 ends-Van Roon (1950) siiould be mentioned for 

 their contriljutions to knowledge of the behavioi- 

 of the cichlids. Other sources of information on 

 various aspects of tilapia culture and biology- are 

 Brock (1954), on spawning in salt water; Fish 

 (1955) and Le Roux (195fi), on feeding habits; 

 and liowe (1955), on fecundity. Brock and 

 Takata (1955) and King and Wilson (1957) re- 

 ported on use of yoimg tilapia as supjilementary 

 tuna bait, and Hida et al. (1961) on the tank 

 cultui'e of bait-size tilapia. 



Swingle (1957) was the first to recognize that 

 species of Tilapia iia\e potentialities as a fresh- 



Approved f(ir putilicjition. November 

 tin 111!). 



I'jr.O. Fislier.v Hulle- 



water game fisli in the I'nited States. Other in- 

 \estigators have fovnid several of the many species 

 of Tilapia to be suitable laboratory animals for 

 many types of physiological research. 



The decision to introduce T. mosmmhica to 

 Hawaii was based primarily on two major con- 

 siderations: the usefulness of the fish for clearing 

 aquatic vegetation fi-om irrigation ditches and 

 canals and the possibility that the young could be 

 used as bait fish in tiie Hawaiian skipjack fishery 

 (Brock and Takata. 1955) . Since its introduction 

 to Hawaii in 1951. tilapia has received widesj)read 

 attention and is now well established in many 

 private and commercial ponds throughout the 

 major Hawaiian islands. 



The pole-and-line fishery for skipjack {Katsv- 

 toomis pelatnis) is the largest commercial fishery 

 in Hawaii. Descriptions of this fishery and the 

 associated live-bait fishery have been published by 

 June (1951), Brock and Takata (1955), and 

 Yamashita (1958). All of these investigatoi-s 

 cite the shortage of bait fish as the principal 

 factor limiting production of this pole-and-line 

 fishery. 



Because of this critical demand for bait, atten- 

 tion was focused on tilapia as a possible supple- 

 ment to natural bait supplies. Tester et al. 

 (1954), experimenting with artificial materials 

 (both edible and inedible) to attract tuna to the 

 stern of a fishing vessel, reported generally nega- 

 tive or inconclusive results, which gave added im- 

 petus to the search for a suitalile substitute live 

 bait. In the summer of 1954, Brock and Takata 

 (1955) initiated the first sea trials to evaluate 

 tilapia as live bait and in a mimber of the sea tests 

 tiiey obtained encouraging results. King and Wil- 

 son (1957; p. 8) nuule fui-tlier sea tests during the 

 summer and fall of 195() and concluded that the 

 young of Tilapia mo.ssainhica are an adequate bait 

 fisii for catcliing skijijack. They further pointed 

 out that although tilapia in some re.spects was in- 



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