Blackchin Tilapia

Fascinating facts about the Blackchin Tilapia

• A blackchin tilapia can grow to a maximum length of 28 cm (11 in) but more normally attains 17.5 cm (6.9 in). Its tiny mouth hides a few hundred teeth arranged in three to six rows, suitable for scraping algae off rocks.
• In Florida’s invasive hotspots, blackchin tilapia can dominate the fish community, making up as much as 90 % of the total fish biomass and can spread disease to and out-compete native fish.
• When a fungal outbreak hit Lake Wilson on Oʻahu in 1991, roughly 20,000 blackchin tilapia died, an event that represented at most 0.5 % of the reservoir’s tilapia population.
• The species tolerates pure seawater, earning it the nickname “saltwater tilapia” in Hawaii, where it is found off sheltered beaches and in lagoon habitats.
• Since around 2015 the blackchin tilapia has been spotted in Manila Bay after likely escaping from the aquarium trade. Its rapid multiplication threatens fish ponds that raise milkfish by taking up space for other fish.

At a glance

About the Blackchin Tilapia

The blackchin tilapia (Sarotherodon melanotheron) glides through West African mangroves with a pale body that can flash light blue, orange, or golden yellow, each adult marked by a dark chin patch and irregular bars or spots along its sides. Its small, tooth-filled mouth, packed with a few hundred teeth in three to six rows, lets it scrape biofilm, detritus, bivalves and zooplankton from surfaces, even though it lacks gill rakers. Males are only subtly larger-headed than females, sometimes showing a gold tint on the operculum, while the dorsal fin bears 15–17 spines and 10–12 soft rays, and the anal fin 3 spines and 8–10 soft rays. Growing up to 28 cm but usually stopping near 17.5 cm, it forms nocturnal schools that drift into brackish lagoons, estuaries and even pure seawater, a rare tolerance among cichlids. Its reproductive drama unfolds in shallow shore waters where the female courts, digs a pit and leads the male into a bond; the male then guards the fertilized eggs while the female, though rarely, has been observed mouth-brooding in a Ghanaian strain. A surprising twist is its ability to thrive in both fresh and salty habitats, allowing it to colonise mangrove swamps, freshwater streams and coastal lagoons, and to become a prolific invader far beyond its native range.

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