There are no blackchin mutants in Thai waters, says scientist
CU biology lecturer tells the public not to panic because blackchin and Nile tilapia cannot breed naturally
A well-known biologist at Chulalongkorn University on Wednesday dismissed the possibility of blackchin tilapia and Nile tilapia cross-breeding, saying the reported hybrid was only a fat blackchin.
Jessada Denduangboripant, a biology lecturer at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Science, posted images of several newspaper and news agency headlines screaming that a hybrid blackchin-Nile tilapia had been found in Samut Prakan.
The lecturer said he closely inspected the photo of the so-called “hybrid” fish and was certain that it was just a fat blackchin tilapia. He reckons the misunderstanding was sparked by the fact that most blackchin found in Thailand are lean and small in size, but the one caught and shown to media on Tuesday was fat and large.
Jessada noted that blackchin and Nile tilapia looked similar but each had distinct characteristics. For instance, he said, the Nile tilapia has stripes on its body and its tail is round.
However, he said, the fish in the photo has a square tail and no stripes on the side. Plus, he said, it has a black stripe on its chin.
“So, I’ll say it’s not a hybrid or mutant as headlines screamed this morning. From the picture, it’s just a blackchin that has eaten a lot and become fat. It looked different because Thais tend to believe that all blackchin tilapia are lean and thin,” Jessada said.
On Tuesday, Adisorn Chansukkasem, a shrimp and fish farmer in Samut Prakan’s Bang Bo district, invited reporters to observe blackchin tilapia in his fish ponds. He said he suspected the blackchin had cross-bred with Nile tilapia to produce a hybrid.
Jessada, however, noted that blackchin cannot cross-breed with Nile tilapia naturally because they belong to different genres. The blackchin belongs to Sarotherodon while Nile to Oreochromis and their cross-breeding in labs has resulted in too few infertile eggs, he said.
