Tilapia Culture in Kuwait: Constraints and Solutions

摘要

Tiiapia farming in Kuwait is in its early stages. Slow growth, high production cost and poor demand are the major constraints to the expansion of tilapia culture in Kuwait. This article presents some suggestions for overcoming these problems to improve the economic feasibility of tilapia culture in Kuwait. Tilapia is an African freshwater fish that belongs to the family Cichlidae and includes over 100 species.There is some evidence that the Egyptians practiced tilapia culture nearly 4000 years ago. Most of the commercially cultured tilapia is of the mouth-brooding genus Oreochromis in which females incubate the eggs in their mouth cavity. Cultured tilapia is a major source of fish protein in many countries around the world and the consumption of tilapia in both the developing and industrialized countries is increasing.There is an increasing interest in tilapia culture and it has been transplanted and stocked into waters of most countries of the world (Balarin and Hatton 1979; Eknath et al. 1993). Tilapia is currently ranked second only to carp culture and is likely to be the most important cultured fish in the 21st Century (Fitzsimmons 2000).