Design

The Zebra tilapia is a substrate-spawner. Once a pair is formed, both the male and the female excavate a large pit with the intention of laying eggs on the solid base below. Spawning takes place with the pair alternating egg laying and fertilization. Both parents may care for the eggs, including fanning water through the nests to incubate the embryos.

Features

• Zebra tilapia are oval-shaped fish with a black body coloring.
• They have 7–8 yellow or white vertical stripes These stripes tend to fade as they age.
• The fins have the striping pattern of the body, except for the anal and pelvic fins, which are black.

Fun Facts

• People have imported and bred tilapia throughout the world for both aquatic and nutritious purposes.
• The zebra tilapia is an extremely intelligent and aggressive aquarium fish. Aquarium owners find that it reacts to movements outside of the aquarium, and may attempt to attack an “invader” through the glass, sometimes even spitting rocks at the glass.
• There is no easy way to distinguish males from females, either by color, body shape, or fin development, though males are a bit larger than females.