Tilapia: Trash fish or treasure fish?

[Aerows]

I've read a number of articles about how Tilapia are raised by the ponds being set below chicken coops in China to feed the fish, and that they thrive on it.

I've heard they are pure trash fish.

All of it could be true, but I think the majority of it is a crock of you-know-what. They are a cichlid species and they don't play well with others, that's true, but they are also herbivores. What herbivore eats feces? They eat food that is facilitated by the growth of vegetation, but that doesn't mean they eat feces themselves. You and I eat vegetables that were grown by ... um, yeah. Shit.

I was initially shocked by it, and I must admit I reflexively thought, OMG the fish I just ate are eating shit!

They are. But I ate shit when I had vegetables, I ate shit when I ate a steak, and I ate shit to a more frighteningly close degree when I ate catfish.

That story is bogus, and designed to stop the use of a fish that is environmentally sustainable and stable. In short, bullshit.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Thank you for your take on this...

You have brought a measure of much-needed sanity to the topic.

And I appreciate it!

[Aerows]

8. You are welcome

I like it, and figured I'd research it with the perspective that I have an Uncle that farms catfish. Sure enough, it was some pure bullshit put out to make the fish less attractive, since it is entirely sustainable, good tasting, and can be farmed. It eats algae, which processes the crap in all sea life, and is a hearty, muscular cichlid. Cichlids are neat fish. They are aggressive and nasty during mating season and toward other fish, but make for good eating like Sun fish in the US (which are small) and these guys. Some of the aggressive perch we so like to eat are also cichlids.

[Aerows]

9. Feeding smaller sunfish and cichlids (of which Tilapia are direct relatives)

Tell me they eat shit. They are less aggressive than most Cichlids, but they are aggressive. Here are their relatives.

[Aerows]

10. I had a 100 gal. tank as a kid

and we had two Pacus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacu Read the section on "Aquaria" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piaractus_brachypomus Was their species. Wonderful fish in a lot of ways One of them ended up at the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans (that's where I grew up) because he outgrew a 500 ga tank. We took on some green terror cichlids and a Jack Dempsey cichild. An aggressive tank, but an electric blue African cichlid lived in it like it was home. She grew to nearly two inches in length, and those who know a tank like that know it's ugly if there is an electric blue that length. She scares the shit out of Oscars, Green Terrors ... and everybody but Pacu fish.

They could probably eat the cat had he slipped into the tank, and I'm not really kidding. Fish that come up to feed on balls of hamburger meat are in a different class than "here are some fish flakes".

[cbayer]

2. People gobble it up out here on the west coast.

I've never hear anyone object.

[Aerows]

5. Because it is a vegetarian fish. It is indeed bland

but because it has a diet of algae. The person that wrote that article has an extreme bias, and forgets that there are many in the US that practice Aquaculture. My uncle, for example. He farms catfish in abundance. Check out the statistics for Aquaculture in Mississippi.

A link: http://www.growingmississippi.org/aqua1.htm

[Betsy Ross]

3. Apologies for no source

In the US, tilapia are grown in tanks fouled by other fish to clean them up. It was explained as part of an environmentally balanced farm.

[Aerows]

4. "chinese who farm them won't eat them."

Left out was "Because they cannot afford them." That's why it was such a strange, biased article.

Catfish clean up tanks that other fish "foul up", but typically get fed grain (and eat the fish killing algae). I know this because my uncle farms catfish. This is a bullshit article that displays no knowledge of aquaculture whatsoever.

[nebenaube]

6. They are not eating shit...

They are eating vegetation that grows because of the shit.

[Aerows]

7. That was my point

as most vegetation grows commercial or farmed. Or really wild, but that can be debated later LOL.

The article made it sound like they directly ate shit. And it was some, pardon the pun, yellow journalism worse than I've ever seen.

[BainsBane]

11. It is essentially flavorless

I'm not buying it again. I just got some trout from Lake Superior. That should be good.

[Aerows]

12. I don't argue with you that it is full of flavor, because you are correct, it is not.

What Tilapia is does not become a bad thing in a cook pot. It is good baked, it's good fried, it's good broiled, and it's good in casseroles. Nobody elected it fish of the year, but it is fantastic as a staple, is sustainable, and it eats algae. Not shit. That would be snails.

It's a fish that actually balances out the ecology of a certain area, like catfish do. Are you ready to tell every catfish eater in the US that they also eat shitfish, despite the fact that their tastebuds tell them something different?

You might. But then yell at people in gardens that turn shit into tomatoes, cabbage, and every other thing a vegetarian eats. Beans. Honey. Beans.

[BainsBane]

14. I'm not the one who brought up eating crap

that was you. I just said I don't like tilapia because it has no flavor.

[Warpy]

13. The only way I like fresh water fish

is if they go directly from lake to gutting to frying pan. Otherwise, they all taste muddy to me.

I'm not even nuts about them flash frozen.

However, as Fukushima radiation travels up the food chain, becoming more and more concentrated in larger sea life, fresh water fish will be about all we have left.

[rdharma]

15. I think a lot of fish do what Talapia do. Feed off the bottom.

Catfish, Carp, etc.

I just don't like the texture or taste of Tilapia. Pretty much tasteless mush.

[Warpy]

16. I could probably eat it fresh

Unfortunately, all we get here is previously frozen.

Some fish stands up to freezing. Tilapia doesn't, it's too delicate.

[grasswire]

17. Tilapia just isn't that nutritious

Very little essential oils, and very little protein.

Added: I would never eat fish grown outside U.S./Canada.

[LancetChick]

18. I love tilapia!

My favorite way to eat it is in the Persian dish Ghalieh Mahi, with a garlicky cilantro sauce flavored with tamarind. I also sometimes keep frozen breaded tilapia filets which nuke better than fish like cod because they don't fall apart and become mush as easily. It is a bland fish, but it takes strong flavor additions very well.