Tilapia Culture

Tilapia Nursery

harvesting

Freshwater Cage Culture

Tilapia Brackishwater Culture The Philippines has more than 500,000 ha of

brackish water ponds, rivers, and estuaries. About 40% of the country’s brackish water

ponds are either idle or unproductive. With the problems of milkfish fry shortage

and shrimp disease, the expanded culture of tilapia in brackish water areas is therefore timely and appropriate, since the common cultured species or brackish water ponds are milkfish, shrimps, and other fishes like tilapia.

The Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) is one of the two important species of tilapia available in the Philippines. It is commonly grown in freshwater ponds and cages.

The other one, the Mozambique tilapia (O. mossambicus) is usually found in brackish water areas.

Tilapia is the most important cultured freshwater fish in the country.

It can be easily bred in ponds, ‘hapas’ (inverted mosquito nets) or concrete tanks.

The Nile tilapia can only tolerate brackish water of up to 25 parts per thousand (ppt) while the Mosambique tilapia can tolerate salinities of up to 40 ppt.

The hybrid of the two species can withstand salinities by up to pure seawater (32 ppt).

For brackish water pond culture of tilapia, the preparation of the pond and methods of culture are similar to those for milkfish.

Stocking of tilapia fingerlings can range from 1 to 2 m2 for extensive culture and 4-5 m2 for intensive culture with water depth of 0.3-1 m.

Use of pond fertilization, supplemental feeding, or commercial feeds can be applied depending on the cultural management.

The culture period can last for 3-5 months and yields of harvestable-sized tilapia (100-200 g) can be 1-5 mt/ha per crop.

For brackish water cage culture of tilapia, site selection is a major factor.

A cage is an enclosure made of systematic netting which is suspended from a floating frame (floating type) or attached to structures (fixed type) that are implanted into the bottom of a water body. Cages can vary in a size from 1 to 1,000 m2 and depths of 1-5 m.

Freshwater bodies like ponds, lakes, reservoirs, and rivers can be used for cage culture of tilapia if they have good quality and sufficient water for water exchange through the cage to allow replenishment of oxygen and removal of wastes, one of the two requirements for fish to grow in cages.

The other one is food that can come from water/or fed to the fish.

The water current in rivers should not be too fast to make fish swim against it.

The tilapia is a suitable fish for cage culture because it can tolerate crowding, thrives on natural food such as plankton, and accepts artificial feeds.

The stocking of only male tilapia in cages or 95 to 99% males also improves growth, survival and feed conversion because the male grows faster than the male.

One practical and economical method for the production of all male tilapia fingerlings is the so-called sex reversal technology (SRT).

Rivers and estuaries should have a minimum depth of 1.5 m at low tide with slow to moderate current and good quality.

Cages can have sizes of 1-4 m2. With artificial feeding and culture periods of

3-5 months, yields of 30-50 kg/m2 of harvestable-sized tilapia can be obtained.

Thank you!