Mozambique tilapia
Mozambique tilapia | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Actinopterygii |
Order: | Cichliformes |
Family: | Cichlidae |
Genus: | Oreochromis |
Species: | O. mossambicus
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Binomial name | |
Oreochromis mossambicus (W. K. H. Peters, 1852)
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Synonyms | |
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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 to human introductions, it is now found in many tropical and subtropical habitats around the globe, where it can become an invasive species because of its robust nature. These same features make it a good species for aquaculture because it readily adapts to new situations. It is known as black tilapia in Colombia[2] and as blue kurper in South Africa.[3]
Description
The native Mozambique tilapia is laterally compressed, and has a deep body with long dorsal fins, the front part of which have spines. Native coloration is a dull greenish or yellowish, and weak banding may be seen. Adults reach up to 39 cm (15 in) in
Distribution and habitat
The Mozambique tilapia is native to inland and coastal waters in southeastern Africa, from the
Otherwise it is a remarkably robust and fecund fish, readily adapting to available food sources and breeding under suboptimal conditions. Among others, it occurs in rivers, streams, canals, ponds, lakes, swamps and
Invasiveness
The Mozambique tilapia or hybrids involving this species and other tilapia are
Hybridization
As with most species of tilapia, Mozambique tilapia have a high potential for
Behavior
Feeding
Mozambique tilapia are
This broad diet helps the species thrive in diverse locations.Due to their robust nature, Mozambique tilapias often over-colonize the habitat around them, eventually becoming the most abundant species in a particular area. When over-crowding happens and resources get scarce, adults will sometimes
Social structure
Mozambique tilapias often travel in groups where a strict dominance hierarchy is maintained. Positions within the hierarchy correlate with territoriality, courtship rate, nest size, aggression, and hormone production.[21] In terms of social structure, Mozambique tilapias engage in a system known as lek-breeding, where males establish territories with dominance hierarchies while females travel between them. Social hierarchies typically develop because of competition for limited resources including food, territories, or mates. During the breeding season, males cluster around certain territory, forming a dense aggregation in shallow water.[22] This aggregation forms the basis of the lek through which the females preferentially choose their mates. Reproductive success by males within the lek is highly correlated to social status and dominance.[23]
In experiments with captive tilapias, evidence demonstrates the formation of linear hierarchies where the alpha male participates in significantly more agonistic interactions. Thus, males that are higher ranked initiate much more aggressive acts than subordinate males. However, contrary to popular belief, Mozambique tilapias display more agonistic interactions towards fish that are farther apart in the hierarchy scale than they do towards individuals closer in rank. One hypothesis behind this action rests with the fact that aggressive actions are costly. In this context, members of this social system tend to avoid confrontations with neighboring ranks in order to conserve resources rather than engage in an unclear and risky fight. Instead, dominant individuals seek to bully subordinate tilapias both for an easy fight and to keep their rank.[24]
Communication and aggression
Urine in Mozambique tilapias, like many freshwater fish species, acts as a vector for communication amongst individuals. Hormones and
Urinary pheromones also play a part in male – male interaction for Mozambique tilapias. Studies have shown that male aggression is highly correlated with increased urination. Symmetrical aggression between males resulted in an increase in the release of urination frequency. Dominant males both store and release more potent urine during agonistic interactions. Thus, both the initial stage of lek formation and the maintenance of social hierarchy may highly depend on the males’ varying urinary output.[25]
Aggression amongst males usually involve a typical sequence of visual, acoustic, and tactile signals that eventually escalates to physical confrontation if no resolution is reached. Usually, conflict ends before physical aggression as fights are both costly and risky. Bodily damage may impede an individual's ability to find a mate in the future. In order to prevent cheating, in which individual may fake his own fitness, these aggressive rituals incur significant energetic costs. Thus, cheating is prevented by the sheer fact that the costs of initiating a ritual often outweigh the benefits of cheating. In this regard, differences between individuals in endurance plays a critical role in resolving the winner and the loser.[26]
Reproduction
In the first step in the reproductive cycle for Mozambique tilapia, males excavate a nest into which a female can lay her eggs. After the eggs are laid, the male
Male Mozambique tilapias synchronize breeding behavior in terms of
Parental care
Typically, Mozambique tilapias, like all species belonging to the genus Oreochromis and species like Astatotilapia burtoni, are maternal mouthbrooders, meaning that spawn is incubated and raised in the mouth of the mother. Parental care is, therefore, almost exclusive to the female. Males do contribute by providing nests for the spawn before incubation, but the energy costs associated with nest production is low relative to mouthbrooding. Compared to nonmouthbrooders, both mouthbrooding and growing a new clutch of eggs is not energetically feasible. Thus, Mozambique tilapias arrest oocyte growth during mouthbrooding to conserve energy.[31] Even with oocyte arrest, females that mouthbrood take significant costs in body weight, energy, and low fitness. Hence, parental-offspring conflict is visible through the costs and benefits to the parents and the young. A mother caring for her offspring carries the cost of reducing her own individual fitness. Unlike most fish, Mozambique tilapias exhibit an extended maternal care period believed to allow social bonds to be formed.[32]
Use in aquaculture
Mozambique tilapia are hardy individuals that are easy to raise and harvest, making them a good aquacultural species. They have a mild, white flesh that is appealing to consumers. This species constitutes about 4% of the total tilapia aquaculture production worldwide, but is more commonly hybridized with other tilapia species.
Mozambique tilapia were one of the species flown on the Bion-M No.1 spacecraft in 2013, but they all died due to equipment failure.[35]
Other names
The species is known by a number of other names including:
- Mujair in Indonesia, the name derived from a Javanese breeder Moedjair.
- Daya in Pakistan
References
- ^ . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
- ^ "Listado oficial de especies invasoras para Colombia | Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia".
- ^ "Big Bass". Archived from the original on 2019-06-14. Retrieved 2012-03-22.
- ^ a b c d Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2019). "Oreochromis mossambicus" in FishBase. September 2019 version.
- ^ "GISD". Archived from the original on 2012-09-27. Retrieved 2010-09-12.
- ^ Waal 2002
- S2CID 109938635.
- ^ Moyle 1976
- ^ Courtenay 1989
- ^ Courtenay et al. 1974
- ^ Courtenay and Robins 1989
- ^ Swift et al. 1993
- S2CID 214614676.
- hdl:10356/142831.
- ^ "Culture of Hybrid Tilapia: A Reference Profile". 2018-11-21.
- ^ https://sta.uwi.edu/fst/lifesciences/sites/default/files/lifesciences/documents/ogatt/Oreochromis_mossambicus%20-%20Mozambique%20Tilapia.pdf [bare URL PDF]
- ^ Mook 1983
- ^ Trewevas 1983
- ^ "Biology and ecology of Mozambique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus)" (PDF). feral.org.au. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
- ^ De Peaza, Mia. "Oreochromis mossambicus (Mozambique Tilapia)" (PDF). UWI. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
- S2CID 1951640.
- ^ S2CID 34065315.
- S2CID 33463442.
- hdl:10400.12/1330.
- PMID 18076759.
- S2CID 920011.
- ^ a b Popma, 1999
- PMID 22551176.
- S2CID 28236698. Archived from the original(PDF) on 4 February 2021.
- hdl:10400.12/1340.
- PMID 3360291.
- .
- ^ Gupta and Acosta 2004
- S2CID 85396607.
- ^ Zak, Anatoly. "Bion (12KSM) satellite". RussianSpaceWeb.com. Archived from the original on 9 June 2013. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
References
- "Oreochromis mossambicus". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 10 January 2007.
- Courtenay W.R. Jr. 1989. Exotic fishes in the National Park System. Pages 237–252 in: Thomas L.K. (ed.). Proceedings of the 1986 conference on science in the national parks, volume 5. Management of exotic species in natural communities. U.S. National Park Service and George Wright Society, Washington, D.C.
- Courtenay W.R. Jr., and C.R. Robins. 1989. Fish introductions: Good management, mismanagement, or no management? CRC Critical Reviews in Aquatic Sciences 1:159–172.
- Courtenay, W.R. Jr.; Sahlman, H.F; Miley, W.W. II; Herrema, D.J. (1974). "Exotic fishes in fresh and brackish waters of Florida". Biological Conservation. 6 (4): 292–302. .
- Gupta M.V. and B.O. Acosta. 2004. A review of global tilapia farming practices. WorldFish Center P.O. Box 500 GPO, 10670, Penang, Malaysia.
- Mook, D (1983). "Responses of common fouling organisms in the Indian River, Florida, to various predation and disturbance intensities". Estuaries. 6 (4): 372–379. S2CID 87151335.
- Moyle P.B. 1976. Inland fishes of California. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. 330 p.
- Popma, T. Tilapia Life History and Biology 1999 Southern Region Aquaculture Center
- Swift, C.C.; Haglund, T.R.; Ruiz, M.; Fisher, R.N. (1993). "The status and distribution of the freshwater fishes of southern California". Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences. 92: 101–167.
- Trewevas E. 1983. Tilapiine Fishes Of The Genera Sarotherodon, Oreochromis And Danakilia. British Museum Of Natural History, Publication Number 878.Comstock Publishing Associates. Ithaca, New York. 583 p.
- Waal, Ben van der, 2002. Another fish on its way to extinction?. Science in Africa.
External links
- Photo of "Florida Red" hybrid. Retrieved 12 July 2007.