Tilapia (genus)

This article is about the genus Tilapia. For species commonly referred to as "tilapia", see Tilapia.

Tilapia
Zebra tilapia, Tilapia buttikoferi
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Cichlidae
Subfamily:	Pseudocrenilabrinae
Tribe:	Tilapiini
Genus:	Tilapia Smith, 1840
Species
43; see text
Synonyms
Chromis Günther, 1862 (non Cuvier, 1814: preoccupied)

Tilapia is a large genus of cichlid fishes endemic to Africa, except for a single species (T. zillii) that also occurs in the Middle East. The vast majority of the species are from tropical Western and Middle Africa, but there are also a few species in Northern, Eastern and Southern Africa. Many species have quite restricted distributions (e.g., four only in Lake Ejagham and nine only in Lake Bermin) and are highly threatened. A few are very widespread and are important in aquaculture, and have even been introduced to regions far outside their native range.

The common name "tilapia" is also used for tilapiine cichlids of the genera Oreochromis and Sarotherodon, which were long contained in Tilapia.

There is strong indication that even the remaining Tilapia do not constitute a monophyletic group, but rather an assemblage basal among tilapiines and possibly even paraphyletic with non-tilapiine cichlids. For example, Tilapia bemini seems to be closer to Astatoreochromis, and a group containing Tilapia rendalli, Tilapia ruweti and Tilapia zillii is probably even more distant, based on mtDNA sequence analysis. Research is hampered by the fact that hybridization runs rampant in these fishes, and that judging from mtDNA alone taxa may appear to be closer to others than they actually are. (Nagl et al. 2001)

Species

• Tilapia bakossiorum Stiassny, Schliewen & Dominey, 1992
• Tilapia baloni Trewavas & Stewart, 1975
• Tilapia bemini Thys van den Audenaerde, 1972
• Tilapia bilineata Pellegrin, 1900
• Tilapia brevimanus Boulenger, 1911
• Tilapia busumana Günther, 1903
• Tilapia buttikoferi, Zebra tilapia Hubrecht, 1881
• Tilapia bythobates Stiassny, Schliewen & Dominey, 1992
• Tilapia cabrae Boulenger, 1899
• Tilapia cameronensis Holly, 1927
• Tilapia camerunensis Lönnberg, 1903
• Tilapia cessiana Thys van den Audenaerde, 1968
• Tilapia coffea Thys van den Audenaerde, 1970
• Tilapia congica Poll & Thys van den Audenaerde, 1960
• Tilapia dageti Thys van den Audenaerde, 1971
• Tilapia deckerti Thys van den Audenaerde, 1967
• Tilapia discolor Günther, 1903
• Tilapia ejagham Dunz & Schliewen, 2010
• Tilapia flava Stiassny, Schliewen & Dominey, 1992
• Tilapia fusiforme Dunz & Schliewen, 2010
• Tilapia guinasana Trewavas, 1936
• Tilapia guineensis Günther, 1862
• Tilapia gutturosa Stiassny, Schliewen & Dominey, 1992
• Tilapia imbriferna Stiassny, Schliewen & Dominey, 1992
• Tilapia ismailiaensis Mekkawy, 1995
• Tilapia jallae Boulenger, 1896
• Tilapia joka Thys van den Audenaerde, 1969
• Tilapia kottae Lönnberg, 1904
• Tilapia louka Thys van den Audenaerde, 1969
• Tilapia margaritacea Boulenger, 1916
• Tilapia nigrans Dunz & Schliewen, 2010
• Tilapia mariae, Spotted tilapia Boulenger, 1899
• Tilapia nyongana Thys van den Audenaerde, 1971
• Tilapia rendalli Boulenger, 1897
• Tilapia rheophila Daget, 1962
• Tilapia ruweti Poll & Thys van den Audenaerde, 1965
• Tilapia snyderae Stiassny, Schliewen & Dominey, 1992
• Tilapia sparrmanii, Banded tilapia Smith, 1840
• Tilapia spongotroktis Stiassny, Schliewen & Dominey, 1992
• Tilapia tholloni Sauvage, 1884)
• Tilapia thysi Stiassny, Schliewen & Dominey, 1992
• Tilapia walteri Thys van den Audenaerde, 1968
• Tilapia zillii Gervais, 1848

References

• Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2006). Species of Tilapia in FishBase. October 2006 version.
• Nagl, Sandra; Tichy, Herbert; Mayer, Werner E.; Samonte, Irene E.; McAndrew, Brendan J. & Klein, Jan (2001): Classification and Phylogenetic Relationships of African Tilapiine Fishes Inferred from Mitochondrial DNA Sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 20(3): 361–374. doi:10.1006/mpev.2001.0979