New Trends In Growth Pattern Of Monosex Tilapia

Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) is known as commercially important food fishes for aquaculture throughout several regions of the world such as China, South-east Asia, Africa, USA and Latin America/Caribbean and recently in Pakistan. Tilapia is an excellent fish for growing in the shallow and seasonal ponds. Tilapia all male culture is used for mono-sex culture because they have a higher growth rate and a larger max size than females.

Monosex tilapia (all male) farming has taken an important role in the fish farming business throughout the world. Monosex tilapia has great demand and value in the local and international market. As a result monosex tilapia farming rate is growing day by day. There are some other important reasons for gradually increasing the monosex tilapia farming. Generally, they have high ability of taking natural feed from pond, good interest in supplementary feed, surviving capacity in adverse weather and have high diseases resistance power. Along with this, the demand of this fish in international market is increasing day by day.Male-only batches can be obtained through: Mono-sex tilapia through manual sexing, Hormones, Hybrids, Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT), Male YY technology.

Growth Pattern Of Monosex Tilapia

​The growth rate of tilapia is determined by several factors and it is important to take all these factors into consideration. The growth rate will for instance be affected by water quality, temperature, oxygen levels, the general health of your fish, and the type of food provided to them. Last but not least, you have to pick an optimal stocking density.

All-male tilapia cultures are often densely stocked. This will decrease the individual growth rate of each fish, but it will normally result in a higher yield per unit area. Densely stocked cultures are more susceptible to ill-health and careful water management is recommended, since poor health can have a devastating effect on growth rate and lead to massive losses.

The normal stocking rate for all-male tilapia cultures varies from 4,000 to over 20,000 fishes per acre. If there is no supplemental aeration, it is safest to stay in the lower range. In a suitable environment with an adequate supply of nutrition, it is possible for 50 gram fingerlings to become 500 gram fishes within 6 months even without supplemental aeration if the stocking rate is 4,000/acre. This means an average growth rate of 2.5 grams per day and it is possible for such a culture to yield 2.2 tons/acre. 

A stocking rate of 8,000/acre can yield up to 4.4 tons/acre, but will require night time emergency aeration. You can expect the average weight gain to be 1.5-2.0 grams/day. The culture period will need to be at least 200 days, often more, if wanted to produce fish that weighs almost 500 grams.

Stocking rates above 12,000/acre will require extensive aeration, but can on the other hand yield up to 6-10 tons/acre. Keeping the water quality up will be difficult and one might have to resort to sub-optimal feeding rates and this will naturally affect the growth rate.