Mango tilapia facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Mango tilapia |
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The mango tilapia (Sarotherodon galilaeus) is a type of fish. It belongs to the cichlid family. These fish live in fresh and slightly salty (brackish) waters. You can find them in Africa and the Levant region.
People also call this fish the Galilaea tilapia or St. Peter's fish. It's a pretty big cichlid. It can grow up to 41 centimeters (16 inches) long. It can also weigh about 1.6 kilograms (3.5 pounds). This fish is important for local fishing. It is also raised in fish farms (aquaculture).
There are five recognized types (subspecies) of mango tilapia:
- Sarotherodon galilaeus borkuanus
found in Chad - Sarotherodon galilaeus boulengeri
- Sarotherodon galilaeus multifasciatus
found in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, and Ghana - Sarotherodon galilaeus sanagaensis
Mango tilapia are special because they are mouthbrooders. This means the parents carry their eggs in their mouths. Sometimes one parent does it, and sometimes both parents do.
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Where Mango Tilapia Live
This fish lives in many places. You can find it in lakes, rivers, and other fresh or brackish waters. Its home stretches across northern and central Africa. This includes places like Saharan oases. It also lives as far south as the Guinea region and the Congo River Basin. You can find it in Lake Albert and Lake Turkana too.
Outside of Africa, it lives in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine. It's one of the few cichlids found both north of the Sahara and in Asia. They usually like water temperatures between 22 and 28 degrees Celsius (72-82°F). But they have been seen in water as cold as 9 degrees Celsius (48°F).
Mango Tilapia Behavior
Reproduction and Family Life
Mango tilapia usually mate for life, which is called monogamy. The male and female work together to dig a small dip in the ground. The female then lays her eggs in this dip. After that, the male swims over the eggs to fertilize them.
Then comes Mouth brooding. This is when one or both parents keep the eggs safe in their mouth. They do this for about two weeks. Once the mouth brooding starts, the pair might not stay together anymore.
Choosing a Partner
Scientists studied how mango tilapia choose their mates. They found that bigger fish tend to pair up faster. Also, if there were many more males or many more females, it took longer for fish to find a partner. The study also showed that fish that chose partners of similar size had more babies. This is called greater reproductive success.
Flexible Parenting Styles
Male mango tilapia can change how they behave when they mate. When they are spawning (laying eggs), males can be territorial or not. Being territorial means they guard an area. Males can also choose to help with mouth brooding or not. And they can choose to stay with the female or not.
These different ways of behaving are called "alternate reproductive styles" (ARS). Males that were territorial often left the female after mating. But a male's behavior can change during different breeding times. These choices also affect how much parental care they give.
Parental care is very important for baby mango tilapia to survive. When both parents shared the job of keeping the eggs safe, they had twice as many babies survive. If only one parent cared for the eggs, they still had 20% more babies survive per group. Both parents are equally good at caring for the same number of eggs and young fish.
Parental care has some costs for the parents. For example, it can slow down their own growth. It can also make them wait longer before they can have more babies. For females, parental care can reduce their ability to have many babies in the future (fecundity). This is because gaining body weight helps females have more babies. Female mango tilapia have high costs for parental care. These costs include making the eggs and then caring for them. Studies show that parents are more likely to leave their young if the costs of caring are very high. Males are also more likely to leave if they don't get many benefits from caring.
Different Names for the Fish
Mango Tilapia in Israel
In Israel, the mango tilapia is also known as "Galilee St. Peter's fish". In Arabic, it's called musht 'abyad, which means "white comb". This fish is white and bigger than another fish called the "Common St. Peter's fish" (Tilapia zillii). The Common St. Peter's fish is just called musht in Arabic.
There's also the "Jordan St. Peter's fish" (Oreochromis aureus). This fish traditionally came down the Jordan River from Lake Huleh to the Sea of Galilee. It is black and also bigger than the white "Common St. Peter's fish".
