The Aquatic Chicken Tilapia and its Future Prospects in Malaysia by Pradeep, P. J., Srijaya, T. C., Anuar bin Hassan, Faizah Shaharom and Anil Chatterji Institute of Tropical Aquaculture, University Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu Aquaculture - the husbandry of aquatic organisms - is an age old practice and has undergone progressive changes over years. Ancient civilization from the Far East and pre-columbian societies of the Amazon were known to have harvested the fish stranded in pools by receding floodwaters. The first account of the earliest beginning of aquaculture dates back with Chinese during the period 2000-2500 B.C. with the introduction of common carp for culture which indicated that aquaculture has a long history dating as far as 4000 years ago. The world population is increasing drastically, thus so also the demand for food production. Today, aquaculture has a different face than it had 2000 years ago with more than 45.5 million tone fish production globally. In this completely changed fast moving world, it is hoped that aquaculture products will help to solve the increasing demand for food especially in terms of a cheaply available protein source. Aquaculture industry is currently the fastest growing food-producing sector with an average annual growth rate of 8.9% over the past few decades surpassing both terrestrial livestock meat production and capture fisheries. The potentiality of aquaculture practices can significantly contribute much for local food security and livelihood to fisherman and the rural community. The International Fish Tilapia, a native species from Africa, was once a much neglected fish which has now emerged to the status of one of the most productive and internationally traded food fishes in the world. They are amazing fish with several storied histories and can be traced to ancient Egyptian times as depicted on carvings from an Egyptian tomb dating back over 4000 years. This revealed that these fishes were grown in ancient ponds and cages for the table of Egyptian pharaohs. The fish has now been distributed all over the world and as such they are more common among the Asians than in its African homeland. Tilapia was even given a precious and royal outlook by Thai s as it has been considered to be the King s fish. The Tilapiines are originally an exclusive group of species from the Nile Valley and spread to the native waters of central and western Africa. The first scientific oriented culture of tilapia was reported and conducted 52 Prospect
in Kenya in 1924 and soon it spread throughout Africa. These groups of fishes were artificially introduced to many Asian countries and some Pacific Island during the 1950s with an aim to improving fish production or to developing aquaculture. Since then this indigenous fish from Africa has expanded world-wide in both developed and developing countries including more than 100 tropical and subtropical nations. The Chicken of the Sea This expansion has a wide range, inhabiting the fresh and brackish waters of Africa, the Middle East, Coastal India, Central and South America. Tilapia has received as much attention in the tropics as the salmonids have in the temperate areas. This fish is so popular in many Asian countries including Philippines and Indonesia that the local people recognize it as a vital part of the national cuisine and as a native species. During the 1970 s this adaptable fish from Africa prompted the international development agencies to name it as the Aquatic Chicken and subsequently also as the fish of the 1990 s. But recently they are also considered as Food Fish of the 21st Century. The last three decades have seen significant developments in farming of tilapias worldwide. Tilapias are highly suitable to aquaculture because they possess an impressive physiological range of attributes. Mainly, tilapias tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions such as a variety of salinity range, oxygen tension and overcrowding. Tilapias exhibit relatively short reproductive cycles, breed prolifically under culture conditions without any hormonal induction for spawning and reach to sexual maturity early, which is all advantageous for selective breeding. They are strongly resistant to disease and infection and are amenable to handle. Most importantly, tilapias have goodtasting flesh with a mild flavor and widely accepted as a highly valued food source. Global Tilapia Aquaculture Production Tilapia became one of the most commercially important groups of cultured freshwater fish with a production exceeding 8,50 000 tones annually in 85 countries including Thailand, Taiwan, China, Philippines, Indonesia, Latin America, Caribbean, the Middle East and Africa, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Canada, Korea, Japan, and most states of the U.S. However, in recent years tilapia culture has progressed swiftly over the Asian countries particularly in Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines and China. In the present scenario, approximately 87% of the global trade of tilapia accounts from China, Egypt, Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. Among all the producers, China has the highest production. They produced almost as much tilapia as all the other nations jointly produce and that accounted about 48% in 2005. Seventy three percent of the tilapia consumed by world population is now produced through aquaculture. Tilapia farming is a $2.5 billion industry that generates more than 2 million metric tons of farmed tilapia each year. In 2000, 1.27 million mt of tilapia was produced from aquaculture where 85% was grown in freshwater environment and 14.1% in brackish water. A significant contribution in global tilapia production was given by O. niloticus Prospect 53
farmers and researchers were keenly interested in genetic improvement of this fish. This resulted in considerable research efforts in the genetic improvement of tilapia through strain selection, selective breeding and other methods. As a result, a number of superior strains are now available from both O. niloticus and O. mossambicus with a corresponding greater potential for the hybrids between them. Thus a new strain with desirable features of tilapias combined with favored color was produced for the first time in Taiwan in the late 1960 s through the interspecific cross of O. mossambicus albino and O. niloticus which was called Taiwanese red tilapia. In Florida another red tilapia strain was also developed during 1970s by crossing a normal colored O. hornorum female with a red-gold male of O. mossambicus. A third red tilapia strain was developed in Israel by crossing red Nile tilapia with wild-type Blue tilapia. Red tilapia is not a true species of tilapia as it is genetic improvements selected from tilapia species in the genus Oreochromis with attractive red coloration that was a result of continuous selective breeding. On account of its characteristic color with resemblance to premium marine species such as sea bream and red snapper along with fast growth and market demand, red hybrid tilapia is becoming more popular. Red tilapia hybrids are most commonly used in intensive aquaculture operations but recently they are being selected as the species for culturing in brackish water and also in low- input farming systems. compared to O. mossambicus and O. aureus and accounted for about 83% of total tilapias production Worldwide. Aquaculture of tilapia and its consumption also rapidly increasing in North, Central and South American nations, principally motivated by the high-priced export markets to the United States. In America, tilapia has become one of the most important food and trade commodities. Surprisingly, the annual retail sales of tilapia have consistently surpassed those of trout since 1995. With the rapid progress of the tilapia industry in the past century, 54 Prospect
Tilapia Culture in Malaysia Malaysia earned an estimate wholesale value of RM 170.6 million by producing a total of 32258 mt of tilapia in the year 2007. The majority of this contribution was from red hybrid tilapia (80%) with the remainder being from black tilapia. In Malaysia, tilapia production alone contributes to about 46% of the total fresh water aquaculture production and about 12% of the total (both marine and fresh water) production of the country. Tilapia in terms of value of production, contributes about 49.37 percent which is followed by catfish (37 percent) and carps (10 percent). In terms of value, red tilapia yields the highest value of $27. Similar to other neighboring countries, Malaysia also has witnessed some spectacular growth in tilapia aquaculture over the past several years. Tilapia production in Malaysia during an 8 year period from 2000-2007 has increased from 18471 mt to 32258 mt with an increase of 75% over the period and an average annual increase of about 10% consequently. Considerable increase was shown in production of red hybrid tilapia with an increase from 15363 to 26175 mt or a 70% increase. Similarly, the black Mozambique tilapia production has increased from 2914 to 5849 mt with an increase of over 100%. By year end 2010, the Malaysian Government aims to produce about 507550 mt of aquatic products from aquaculture under the National Agricultural Policy. Since this fish is so popular and common among the consumers and fish culturists, it has the potential to contribute significantly to this targeted production. The projects assisted by Malaysian government have turned out to be very effective in farming tilapia in earthen ponds around inland areas. This assisted directly the poor households in the urban areas. Cage culture operations in lakes and reservoirs through governmentassisted projects have also proved to be successful and likely to improve livelihoods, as well as providing a cheap source of protein. Prospect 55
R&D the potential farmers on cheap rates. Future Prospects of tilapia Constraints of Tilapia Farming in Malaysia Globally the commercial demand for tilapia is increasing every year due to health awareness through eating fish. People are looking to tilapia for this choice as it is very popular and because it is a comparatively lower priced fish. One of the major constraints among number of factors affecting the expansion of tilapia aquaculture is shortage of quality fries. Another major concern arises due to the deterioration in genetic quality of the seeds produced. Although improved breeds of tilapias from breeding programs on selection and sex control have been developed but there is a need for 56 Prospect sustained production and effective dissemination of these to farmers. The lack of attention given to marketing and other business aspects is also a constraint to successful commercial farming of tilapias. In addition, rising production costs, lack of skilled labor, threat of diseases, and food safety and quality of aquaculture produce have become issues which are making aquaculture development difficult. Seed supply for tilapia still depends on imports for commercial production in Malaysia. The attempt made by the Institute of Tropical Aquaculture of University Malaysia Terengganu has been to produce disease resistant seeds of tilapia. In future high quality seeds of tilapia will be available to Tilapia aquaculture has a great potential for future. This poor fish from the land of Africa will be the most in-demand fish in this century. Tilapia will be a life saver for a hungry world within the next few years, especially towards solving the problem of malnutrition by serving as a major source of animal protein. No other fish in the upcoming centuries can hold the status of being an economical and easily available protein source as enjoyed by this common man fish. It is rather interesting that Tilapia eggs were chosen as the first aquaculture experiments to be conducted in space by NASA. The aim of NASA was to shed light on the effect of gravitational environment on the development of eggs as compared to the development of tilapia eggs back on earth kept as control. In the future, aquaculture is thought to be an attractive food source for space stations and other space explorations. Tilapia will be a major source for this effort because of their favorable space culture potential.