Have you ever seen blood-red tilapia? Yellow-brown or yellow-brown tilapia is the most common, and these two body colors are also its true colors. However, although red tilapia is less common, it has gradually replaced the normal color tilapia. Fish has become the "darling" of the new generation, and the normal tilapia, which has already begun to be disliked by people, is even less popular. What is going on? Let’s find out together.

The rejected tilapia Non-fish

01 The rise of tilapia

In many waters in southern my country, tilapia has quietly emerged as a dominant fish species, especially in In the Guangdong and Guangxi areas, friends who like fishing can find traces of tilapia in almost any wild water body. However, tilapia is not very popular, and in some areas, tilapia is even called "junk fish".

However, you may not have thought that tilapia was once the "darling" among farmed fish. First of all, tilapia is not a native fish in my country, but a freshwater fish native to Africa. Because its appearance is somewhat similar to our common crucian carp, it is also called "African crucian carp".

The introduction of tilapia into China can be traced back to the 1960s. In 1946, Japanese Taiwanese soldier Wu Zhenhui and Japanese fishery expert Guo Qizhang brought it from Singapore.He harvested hundreds of tilapia fry from Taiwan. Unexpectedly, these small fry multiplied in large numbers and became the main farmed fish in Taiwan at that time. In order to thank Wu Zhenhui and Guo Qizhang, people called it "Wu Tilapia".

Later, the southern region of my country introduced tilapia from Vietnam as an economic fish for farming in 1957. At that time, the main reason why my country chose to introduce tilapia was Their adaptability is extremely strong. They can survive in low-oxygen, slightly polluted environments and grow rapidly. This is obviously an ideal choice for fish farming. In addition, tilapia’s meat is relatively tender and has fewer spines. Therefore, the initial market feedback was also very good. It is precisely because of this that tilapia farming began to expand from Hainan and Guangdong and Guangxi to surrounding and northern provinces.

02 The Disliked Tilapia

Tilapia is popular among farmers due to its fast growth rate, strong disease resistance, strong adaptability and strong reproductive ability. It is loved by households, so the amount of tilapia cultured in our country has been growing explosively. However, as more and more tilapia are cultured, it is clear that tilapia will not be content in fish ponds. They will escape into wild water bodies during floods and form wild populations.

This does not matter, after all, it is good news for fishing friends, because tilapia is very tasty, and as long as there is tilapia in the water body, it will basically not "air force".

This was originally a good thing until people discovered that there were even tilapia fish in some ditches near the village. It’s a big deal. After all, many ditches are so smelly that few fish can survive here. However, tilapia can swim freely here, which not only makes people think of various pictures when eating tilapia. , so the word that tilapia was "dirty" began to spread from word to mouth. In the end, people ignored that most tilapias survive in clean water, and classified them as "junk fish" together with the former Egyptian pond fish. In the queue.

What is the red tilapia?

When we see a fish with a different color than normal fish, we usually think it is It comes from mutation, but the red tilapia is not just a simple mutation.

First of all, the red tilapia, also known as the rainbow sea bream, is a brightly colored fish bred using modern bioengineering technology. Tilapia. Secondly, the parents of rainbow snapper are Nile tilapia and Mozambique tilapia. These two tilapias are economic fish introduced into my country. Its red color comes from Mozambique tilapia because The base of the pectoral fins of normal Mozambique tilapia is bright red.

In artificial breeding, the animals themselves are prone to genetic mutations Therefore, experts selected a part of Mozambique tilapia that had a genetic mutation that caused the body part to appear red, and crossed it with Nile tilapia. After many generations of selective breeding, the rainbow sea bream was finally developed.

The reason why experts spend a lot of energy to breed rainbow sea bream is because they found that while the red gene mutated, the intermuscular spines of tilapia were also gradually reduced, so After crossbreeding and selective breeding, the intermuscular spines of rainbow sea bream have almost disappeared, and its meat is more delicate than the other two types of tilapia.

In addition, the body cavity of rainbow sea bream does not have the black membrane (scientific name is peritoneum, which is located between the abdominal wall and internal organs of the fish) that most fish have.It can secrete mucus to moisten the surface of organs, reduce friction between organs, and has the function of absorbing impact and protecting internal organs), and black The membrane is one of the main sources of fishy smell.

Of course, rainbow snapper is not all red, there are also many varieties such as pearl white, leopard print, etc., with different colors. There are great differences in body color among species. For example, the pearly white tilapia is mainly bright white with lighter red.

Summary

Red tilapia is actually the result of artificial breeding and modern bioengineering technology. Compared with normal tilapia, it has It has fewer spines, lighter fishy smell, and more tender meat. Therefore, it has gradually begun to replace the status of normal-colored tilapia.

However, today’s red tilapia and Just like the tilapias that have just arrived, they are no longer satisfied in cages or fish ponds. They have also quietly escaped into wild water bodies. I hope that their survival ability will not be strong enough to survive in ditches, otherwise they will also step down. Following in the footsteps of normal tilapia.