Tilapia breeding is important for global aquaculture production and food security. Nile tilapia is the most commonly farmed species due to its fast growth, high reproduction rates, and ability to thrive in various environments. Tilapia can be bred through mixed-sex or mono-sex culture. Mono-sex male culture is preferred for commercial farms since males grow larger. Methods to produce male-only populations include manual sexing, hybridization with other species, hormone treatment of fry, and genetic manipulation. Hormone treatments typically involve feeding fry diets supplemented with steroids like 17-alpha methyltestosterone.

1. Tilapia Breeding
VALA FORAM D.

2. Introduction
• fish production and consumption plays important role in
achieving one of the Millennium Development
• Goals—that of eradicating hunger and reducing the
incidence of malnutrition.
• Tilapias have the potential of becoming the most important
aquaculture species in the world.
• Tilapia has been a more affordable source of protein than
pork, chicken, and other sources of animal protein.
• In 2010, the world production of farmed tilapias reached
3.2 million metric tons of which about 35% was produced in
China (Fitzsimmons et al., 2011).

3. • TILAPIA Originally native of Africa but distributed all over the world.
• Oreochromis niloticus (Nile Tilapia) Aquatic chicken
• Most favoured species for culture, originally found in Nile valley, upto
Central and Western Africa.
• Easy growing fish , reproduces prolifically under natural conditions.
• Remarkable ability to adapt to different climatic regions of the world-
salinities, foods and ecosystems.
• Highly disease resistant.
• Good growth rate and feed conversion efficiency.
• GLOBAL AQUACULTURE PRODUCTION OF NILE TILAPIA (FAO) China first
in the production.

6. • Sexual Dimorphism- sexes separate
• Male - Two apertures on ventral side of
belly:- Anus and urinogenital
• •Urinogenital aperture smaller
• Female - Three apertures- anus, urinary
And genital aperture
• •Bigger Urinogenital aperture
• Age at first maturity -10 -17 cm length
and 4-5 months
• Courtship behaviour
• Males show active display in their
breeding territory called lek,
• Nests are prepared by scooping out
depressions at pond bottom.
• Mature female Visits the pond and
there is immediate courtship and
mating.

7. Parental care:
• Tilapia niloticus is a maternal mouth brooder.
• Incubation period varies from 4-10 days depending on
temperature.
• At 20 Deg C - - 6days
• At 28 Deg C – 4 days
• At 30 Deg C- only 3 days.
• After hatching, larvae takes 4 to 6 days for yolk sac
absorption.
• When fully absorbed , the larvae leave the mouth of the
mother.- swimup fry- start feeding.
• Mother continues to shelter the larvae for 1-4 days more.
• Larvae takes 10-12 days to become fully independent.
• Mother does not feed during incubation but starts feeding
vigorously when the period is over

9. Species:-
• Other Species of Tilapia
• Oreochromis aureus, Oreochromis mossambicus (Java Tilapia), Oreochromis
spilurus niger, O.urolepis hornorum, O. macrochir, Sarotherodon galileus, S.
melanotheron ,Tilapia rendalli , T. zilli.
• Problems in aquaculture of Tilapia
• Uncontrolled reproduction causes overpopulation
• stunted growth, and uneconomic returns.
• Collection of naturally produced fry – not sustainable
• cannibalism among the fry, older and larger consume the weaker fry.
• Asynchronous breeding habit.
• Overcrowding, stunted growth and decline in reproductive efficiency.
• decline in frequency of spawning and reduced fecundity

10. Important requirements and
Characteristics
Mature tilapia
• 4 to 6 months
• WEIGHT : 5 to 100 grams
• LENGTH : 10 to 12 cm
• SPAWNING TEMPERATURE
• OPTIMUM 25 to 30⁰C
• MINIMUM 21⁰C
• EGG PRODUCTION PER FEMALE
• 100 g female tilapia – 100 eggs per spawning
• 100-600 g female tilapia – 1000 to 1500 eggs per
• spawning.
• BEST SIZE FOR BROODSTOCK
• 100 to 200 g

11. Cont..
• Spawning Process
• The following sequence characterizes the mating behavior of
• Tilapia.
• 1. Brood stock become acclimated to their surroundings 3 to 4
• days after stocking.
• 2. Males define and defend territories on the bottom, and form a
• nest by cleaning a circular area 20 to 30 cm. Wide. In ponds with
• soft bottoms, the nest excavated 5 to 8 cm deep by digging with
• the mouth.
• 3. The female is attracted to the nest where the male courts her.
• 4. A mating pair of Tilapia

12. Cont..
• 5. The female lays her eggs in the nest after which
• they are fertilized by the male.
• 6. The female picks up the fertilized eggs in her mouth
• and leaves the nest. The male continues to guard the
• nest and attract other females for mating. Courtship
• and mating require less than a day.
• 7. Eggs are incubated for 2 to 5 days in the female’s
• mouth before they hatch. Young fry stay with their
• mother for an additional 5 to 7 days. They hide in her
• mouth when danger threatens. The female does not
• eat while incubating her eggs or caring for the new fry

13. • 8. A female guards her young for 5 to 7 days. They
• hide in her mouth when danger threatens.
• 9. The female will be ready to mate again about one
• week after she stops caring for the fry.
• 10. Fry from schools after leaving their mother and
• can be easily harvested with small mesh nest at this
• time. Large schools of fry may be seen 13 to 18 days
• after broodstock have been introduced to their new
• surroundings.

14. • Tilapias Fingerling Production:
• For the purposes of farming tilapia there are
• two sources from which tilapia fingerlings
• are obtained: collection from the wild and by
• breeding in nurseries established in
• countries where tilapia is farmed. Countries
• which do not have either of these sources
• they import their requirements from countries
• that has them.

15. Advanced techniques for bood stock
management
• Advanced techniques for brood stock management
• Conditioning brood fish before spawning
• a. Stocking the brood fish at optimum stocking density
• b. Providing the brood fish with good quality feed.
• c. O. mossambicus is reported to feed upto 40% of their body weight
• d. immediately after release of fry from its mouth.
• Collecting the larvae from the mouth of the brood fish
• a. Water level is lowered to 20-30 cm depth.
• b. Females are examined for presence of larvae
• c. Eggs are collected from the mouth into a basin.
• d. Eggs are taken for artificial incubation
• e. Spawned females are replaced by ready to spawn females once in 10 days

16. • Artificial incubation of eggs
• Incubation device is a round bottom container (20 litre) with
inlet pipe at the centre and an outlet pipe at the side
• Can hold about 80000 eggs for incubation.
• Outlet water is allowed to flow into a fry tray – collection of any
hatchling that are carried out thru the overflowing water.
• Water from the fry tray is allowed to flow into a filtration unit
by gravity. The unit – prefilter, slow sand filter and UV steriliser.
• Water is allowed to flow into a sump or reservoir
• From sump water is pumped into an overhead tank from where
the outlet pipe is connected to the incubation vessel.

17. • Larval care in Tilapia culture
• •Newly hatched larvae are delicate and reared in trays in a flow through
system (Yolk sac absorption tray)
• Rearing continues for upto 20 days after hatching
• Tray made of Al or plastic 40X 25 X 8 cm or 40 X 30 X 10 cm with holes
on lateral sides
• •Fine meshed plastic or nylon net is fixed inside the tray, prevents the
escape of the hatchlings when water flows through the tray
• A 3 cm water depth is maintained in the tray
• Faster the flow rate, the lesser time it takes for yolksac abspn.
• Fry after yolksac abspn – called swim fry start feeding,
• fed 4-8 times/day

18. Tilapia culture
• Tilapia can be cultured as:
• 1. Mixed sexes - males
• and females together
• 2. Mono-sex - only males

19. Cont..
• Tilapia farmers choose to raise male tilapia only
since they have a higher growth rate compared to
females
• Better growth rate, greater body depth and width
• Purity of parental stock has to be ascertained for
producing single sex offsprings.

20. Mixed-sex culture
• Advantages:
• 1. Technically easy
• Disadvantages:
• 1. Small harvest weight
• 2. Mixed sizes at harvest

21. Mono-sex culture
• Advantages:
• 1. Large harvest weight
• 2. Uniform size at harvest
• Disadvantages:
• 1. Technically difficult

22. • Mono-sex male tilapia populations can be
produced by:
• 1. Manual sexing
• 2. Hybridization
• 3. Sex-reversal
• 4. Genetic manipulation

23. Manual sexing
• Manually sexing tilapia is different but not
impossible. It is however very labour intensive and
therefore costly.
• When a tilapia fingerlings has reached a weight of
25gm it can normally be differentiate by looking at
the genital papilla.
• The genital papilla has one single opening in a male
tilapia
• Genital papilla having a two opening in female
tilapia

24. Hybridization:-
• It is a act of breeding between two different
species/genera, which ordinary are not
Interbreeding.
• Ex:-
Nile tilapia × blue tilapia(o. Niloticus × o. Aureus)
• Superior growth of male.
• Fertile hybrid.
• Increased cold and salinity tolerance.

25. O. Niloticus × o. Hornorum
• Male offspring.
O. Niloticus × o. Macrochir
• Male offspring, but strain of nile tilapia is important
for good fry production.
O.mossambicus × o. Hornorum
• Male offspring.
• Fertile hybrids.
• Slow growth and dark colors.
 O. Mossambicus × o. Niloticus
• Red tilapia with salinity tolerance.
• Progeny of these give range of colours.
• Known asas Taiwan red tilapia.

27. Hormone treatment:-
• Direct approach: monosex population produce
directly by hormone treatment.
• Indirect approach: monosex population can be
obtained in two steps.
1. A bloodstock population is established by sex
reversal.
2. Then these sex reversed individual should be
bred to produce monosex population.

28. Methods of hormone treatment
• Dietary supplementation:- the hormone mixed feed
is the most widely used and the easiest method for
achieving sex reversals.
• Immersion technique:- juvenile fishes are
immersed in hormone treated water.
• Injection:- injection requires less amount of
hormone to cause sex reversal. It is very much
laborious and expansive.

29. Steroid hormone
Androgens:- 17-a-methyl testosteron
Testosterone
11- keto testosterone
Estrogens:- Estradiol-17-B
Estrone

30. • Doses of 17a-MT - 40,60 and 80 mg of 17a-
MT/kg of feed ( From the 7th to the 28th day
posthatching to produce all male tilapia population)
• After 15, 35 , 75 and 1 year of treatment- growth
parameters, survival rate, sex ratio and gonad
histology.
• The maximum sex ratio of males (95% and 97%)
were recorded at 60 mg of 17a-MT/kg of diet after
75 day's and 1 yr of treatment.

31. Genetic manipulation
• Genetic manipulation- divided into three
categories
1. Marker-assisted selection (MAS).
2. Gross breading.
3. Genetic modification.

32. WHAT IS ‘GIFT’ TILAPIA
• Genetically improved farmed Tilapia (GIFT Tilapia)
• GIFT tilapia was developed by scientists at world
fish center through selective breeding of several
strains of Nile tilapia.
• GIFT strains of Nile tilapia grows quickly and
survives well, dramatically increasing aquaculture
yield.

33. Gift tilapia
• A collaborative research project named as GIFT
was started in April, 1988.
• After 5 generations of selection, the growth
performance of GIFT strains improved by more
than 80% compared with base population.

34. OBJECTIVES OF GIFT PROJECT
• Development of improved breeds of Nile tilapia
• To disseminate GIFT
• To carry out genetic, socioeconomic and
environmental evaluation of GIFT (in ponds 15% &
in cages 7%)
• To facilitate the development of national tilapia
programs.

35. ADVANTAGES OF GIFT
• Faster growth rate than other strains.
• Improved survival.
• Three fish crops per year.
• It is mainly plant eating.
• The GIFT strain has generated additional income
and employment for both fish formers and hatchery
operators.

36. • Improved survival in polluted waters and
• that they can be raised in extensive
• systems without the need for commercial
• feeds.
• The benefit of three fish crops per year,
• raises the yield potential and income
• generation from the smallest of ponds.
• GIFT consumes rice bran to weeds and even
sewage
• but it is mainly plant-eating.

38. Conclusion
• • Diversification of species in aquaculture by
• including more species is becomes necessary.
• • Introduction of tilapia in our culture systems is
• advantageous because it represents lower level in
• food chain, and thus its culture will be economical
• and eco-friendly.
• • GIFT was developed through traditional selective
• breeding techniques.
• • GIFT strain grows faster than local tilapia strains.

39. • In south-east Asian Countries, Its farming has
brought prosperity to the farmers besides
augmenting production for domestic
consumption as well as exports.
• GIFT has become popular in neighbouring
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka with no reported
adverse Impacts.
• •The introduction of genetically improved
tilapia such as GIFT is worth considering