By Greg Lutz
Unfortunately, most tilapia varieties that exhibit good growth in commercial production have limited salinity tolerance. And, as nature would have it, most varieties that can survive and reproduce in seawater grow too slowly or stop growing altogether at relatively small sizes.
Throughout the world, most commercially utilized tilapia varieties are derived from the Nile tilapia, (Oreochromis niloticus) or its hybrids with blue tilapia (Oreochromis aureus), and neither of these tolerate high salinities. In contrast, the Mozambique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) is widely recognized as the most salinity-tolerant tilapia species, but most strains of this fish exhibit commercially unacceptable growth rates, poor fillet yields and small size at maturity.
Although
