The Biology and Culture of Tilapias

LOVSHIN: I have no way of telling from pond work. We should expect larger numbers
of eggs from larger fish.

MIRES: I have observed in aquarium spawnings that the viability of eggs is just as good
from 6-year old fish as from younger broodstock.

LOWE-McCONNELL: In the wild, with batchspawning species such as S. esculentus and

also S. leucostictus in Lake Victoria, the number of eggs per batch gets lower with SUC-

cessive batches in females of comparable size. Robin Welcomme has demonstrated this.

MIRES: I know this, but in aquaria we have not observed a similar situation. On the

contrary, the number per batch sometimes goes up.