Jan 2 2016, 01:13 PM
QUOTE(Michael J. @ Jan 31 2011, 04:34 PM)
klchong:
Put it this way, tilapia production is the second largest freshwater fish production in the world. There are many buyers, and the trend, especially in the US is increasing, since tilapia is considered by many to be a sustainable fish species. Compared to pangasius (aka patin), acceptance of tilapia by the food production industry is generally good over there.
However, in Malaysia, there's still a lot of stigma associated with the fish. Many Malaysians consider tilapia a trash fish, and even a "poor man's fish". At one point, red tilapia was doing very well, being sold as "cherry snapper", until that advertisement came up informing people that cherry snapper is actually red tilapia. Pangasius on the other hand is extremely popular (sutchi, basa, "dory", etc.).
My suggestion is that you go get fries of the new hybrid variety, which is >95% male. Male tilapia grow a lot faster than females, and a lot more uniform. In addition, monosex culture tend to produce larger fish. Mixed sex cultures tend to result in over-crowding and competition for food, and therefore smaller fish. Remember, tilapia reach sexual maturity very fast, so having females in the pond is not such a great idea.
Alternatively, if you could, try sourcing pure Mozambique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) and Wami tilapia (Oreochromis urolepis hornorum); cross breeding the female of the former with the male of latter will produce a >95% male population in the F1. The tedious part, however, is maintaining the pure lines of those two, in order to ensure that you have stock to recreate the F1 generations. Or you could also cross Mozambique tilapia with Blue tilapia (Oreochromis aureus). Note that having Mozambique tilapia genetics allows the hybrid to tolerate salt water conditions, and more bioaccumulation of minerals.
I guess it is alright in having the tilapia in your pond, but if you want to improve your existing stock, then I would suggest that you take our only selected broodstock; the simplest selection method is to single out the largest males by size, weight, and health, and choose mid-sized to large females of good health. Develop a breeding system, where a sample size of the offspring of each specific cross is monitored. That way you can keep improving your existing broodstock.
That saying, the next hurdle is actually marketing the fish. As I said before, local stigma of the fish inhibits marketing to quite some extent. However, a key world you should have with you at all times is this: Value-Add.
Fresh fish is without a doubt much preferred by Malaysians, but so are many fish-products. You may explore processing your larger tilapia fish for fillets, and the smaller ones for fish paste, fish ball, etc. By products, such as bones, scales, gut material etc. can be treated with softening agents (eg. papain) and processed into animal feed additives. The liquid by product from the entire process could also be further processed either as a liquid feed culture for hydroponics, or fertilizer.
On a side note, I'm personally not in favor of raising fish in earthen ponds, unless you have a separate cement/poly purging pond. One is due to groundwater leaching; there's always the danger of toxic aluminate leaching, which may not lead to fish kill, but could result in the fish flesh accumulating toxins. Second, is due to general hygiene; you wouldn't want nematodes etc. present in your fish flesh.
Hi all.... and Michael J,Put it this way, tilapia production is the second largest freshwater fish production in the world. There are many buyers, and the trend, especially in the US is increasing, since tilapia is considered by many to be a sustainable fish species. Compared to pangasius (aka patin), acceptance of tilapia by the food production industry is generally good over there.
However, in Malaysia, there's still a lot of stigma associated with the fish. Many Malaysians consider tilapia a trash fish, and even a "poor man's fish". At one point, red tilapia was doing very well, being sold as "cherry snapper", until that advertisement came up informing people that cherry snapper is actually red tilapia. Pangasius on the other hand is extremely popular (sutchi, basa, "dory", etc.).
My suggestion is that you go get fries of the new hybrid variety, which is >95% male. Male tilapia grow a lot faster than females, and a lot more uniform. In addition, monosex culture tend to produce larger fish. Mixed sex cultures tend to result in over-crowding and competition for food, and therefore smaller fish. Remember, tilapia reach sexual maturity very fast, so having females in the pond is not such a great idea.
Alternatively, if you could, try sourcing pure Mozambique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) and Wami tilapia (Oreochromis urolepis hornorum); cross breeding the female of the former with the male of latter will produce a >95% male population in the F1. The tedious part, however, is maintaining the pure lines of those two, in order to ensure that you have stock to recreate the F1 generations. Or you could also cross Mozambique tilapia with Blue tilapia (Oreochromis aureus). Note that having Mozambique tilapia genetics allows the hybrid to tolerate salt water conditions, and more bioaccumulation of minerals.
I guess it is alright in having the tilapia in your pond, but if you want to improve your existing stock, then I would suggest that you take our only selected broodstock; the simplest selection method is to single out the largest males by size, weight, and health, and choose mid-sized to large females of good health. Develop a breeding system, where a sample size of the offspring of each specific cross is monitored. That way you can keep improving your existing broodstock.
That saying, the next hurdle is actually marketing the fish. As I said before, local stigma of the fish inhibits marketing to quite some extent. However, a key world you should have with you at all times is this: Value-Add.
Fresh fish is without a doubt much preferred by Malaysians, but so are many fish-products. You may explore processing your larger tilapia fish for fillets, and the smaller ones for fish paste, fish ball, etc. By products, such as bones, scales, gut material etc. can be treated with softening agents (eg. papain) and processed into animal feed additives. The liquid by product from the entire process could also be further processed either as a liquid feed culture for hydroponics, or fertilizer.
On a side note, I'm personally not in favor of raising fish in earthen ponds, unless you have a separate cement/poly purging pond. One is due to groundwater leaching; there's always the danger of toxic aluminate leaching, which may not lead to fish kill, but could result in the fish flesh accumulating toxins. Second, is due to general hygiene; you wouldn't want nematodes etc. present in your fish flesh.
I'm new here- looking for exactly these tilapia- male hornorum and female mossambicus pure breeds to try breeding the hybrids in m y home aquarium.
Nothing too ambitious, I just want to see if I can manage to get fry at all.... and if I do then maybe see if I can learn how to grade them by size etc and grow them out to table size, just for my own consumption.
Any ideas where I can go shopping?
Thanks!
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