Is it true or only legend that commericial fish farms rely on Tilapia as bottom feeder fish tank cleaners (huge tanks they raise fish in), to eat the other species poop and thus clean up the tank.

If this is true I ain't eatin' no more Tilapia.

 

Tilapia eat plants as far as I know. Though they will probably eat just about anything. We put them in our ponds to clean out the duckweed and algae. They are not bottom suckers like catfish. They'll eat whereever the food is.

I always thought they were nasty ugly fishes. I can't imagine how they got so popular as food with all the other choices around.

 

It's true, and that's why I don't eat Tilapia.

 

TRUE!!

It was on a Dirty Jobs episode, Mike Rowe visited a Striped Bass farm and, they used Tilapia to eat the poo of the other fish.

 

Tilapia are freshwater fish, you can't qualify these as a seafood.

There are also Tilapia only farm ponds, This is where market Tilapia come from - I doubt they would feed those poop.

http://www.fishfarming.com/tilapia.html

One of the reasons for the popularity of Tilapia in fish farming is because of the rapid growth potential.

If you saw the conditions that chickens, cows and pigs lived in just before slaughter, maybe you'd become a vegetarian

Regards,

GRUMPEE da carnivore

 

Maybe they don't feed them at all...they eat each other's poo...

 

I used to be a fan of NW fish & chips when it was made with cod. Then my taste wained once I noticed cod was silently being replaced with pollock, and now pollock with tilapia.

If its a money thing, the bottom line must show tilapia as bottom quality.
Doesn't that make us the bottom feeders?

 

Tilapia are technically Ciclids. While they are used for many things such as cleaning those tanks and eating the algae in the California`s Salton Sea the ones used for consumption are farm raised and fed grain just like cows. Now can one say that the fish never swim down and eat some algae or poo,No.

But if your going to nit pick the you really need to go vegetarian because all animals do something you would consider gross at one time or another,including humans. Ask yourself,in the last month what has YOUR mouth been in contact with?

 

Well said.

Back in the 70's I used to fish for Tilapia in the Salton sea until we started hearing about the pesticides and junk pouring into water from nearby reclaimed farmlands and the New river (from Mexico). Don't know if the area has recovered or will ever recover.

 

An interesting article that might explain a thing or two. Tilapia has become very popular because its cheap and its easy to raise. Other "wild" fish, such as cod and pollack, aren't even offered in a lot of restaraunts anymore because the prices have gone so high. Where I live, the "Friday night fish fry" is wildly popular. But where I live people are cheap too. No one's going to pay $12.95 for a fish fry that cost them $7.95 the week before.

People have been eating tilapia for thousands of years. The only real negative thing about tilapia I could find is that farmed tilapia doesn't have the same health benefits as "wild" fish. Infact, some experts are cautioning against eating it.

I've had it, its OK. Nothing special. I still prefer cod or perch.