Description
The Nile tilapia has distinctive, regular, vertical stripes extending as far down the body as the bottom edge of the caudal fin, with variable coloration. Adults reach up to 60 cm (24 in) in length and up to 4.3 kg (9.5 lb). It lives for up to 9 years. It tolerates brackish water and survives temperatures between 8 and 42 °C (46 and 108 °F).
It has been variously reported in the literature to be a plankton feeder, an omnivore, and to feed on higher plants to the extent it may be used in control of aquatic weeds. Introduced tilapia can, on the other hand, easily become an invasive species (see Tilapia as exotic species).
It is a species of high economic value and is widely introduced outside its natural range; probably next to the Mozambique tilapia (O. mossambicus), it is the most commonly cultured cichlid.
Read more about this topic: Oreochromis Niloticus
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“The type of fig leaf which each culture employs to cover its social taboos offers a twofold description of its morality. It reveals that certain unacknowledged behavior exists and it suggests the form that such behavior takes.”
—Freda Adler (b. 1934)
“Do not require a description of the countries towards which you sail. The description does not describe them to you, and to- morrow you arrive there, and know them by inhabiting them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I fancy it must be the quantity of animal food eaten by the English which renders their character insusceptible of civilisation. I suspect it is in their kitchens and not in their churches that their reformation must be worked, and that Missionaries of that description from [France] would avail more than those who should endeavor to tame them by precepts of religion or philosophy.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)