I say ‘free-ranging’ advisedly as these fish are also farmed and, like chicken, they may be of two sorts. In their native environment, free-ranging tilapia can vary much both in length and body weight. In its jaws, a conical set of teeth is used to excellent effect when feeding. It is its bodily slenderness that likens it to flatfish. With one nostril on each side of its forehead, its face is dominated by its upward curving lower lip. Unlike the sole and plaice flatfish that swim laterally along the seabed, tilapia are vertical swimmers, with long dorsal fins abruptly ending before the tailfin. There are very many varieties, to include hybrids, for they compose a hundred or more species of cichlid fish. In Biblical times, the Galilean Comb (Tilapia galilaea) or Saint Peter’s fish is still caught by local fishermen today. Ancient Egyptians used aquaculture to breed them for food and the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) is seen both in hieroglyphics and painted on tomb walls. Tilapia include many species of fish, dating back to early Egyptian and even Biblical times in the Sea of Galilee. ![]() The total annual United States consumption of this fish is over 2.5 million tonnes!Īndrew Smith, a Scottish zoologist, first gave this species its name in 1840, when he observed it as a freshwater fish living in lakes, ponds, shallow rivers, and sometimes in brackish waters. It is the most frequently eaten variety of fish in the United States, where it is found in the coastal waters of Florida or farmed to produce 10,000 tonnes each year. How many of us have eaten tilapia, served in various dishes? TILAPIA is a Latinised version of a word taken from the African Tswana (Bantu) language, ‘thiape’, meaning fish. The Nile tilapia is the largest of the species.
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