Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I live in Arizona so I was planning on using Tilapia but I've heard farmed Tilapi have high levels of Omega-6 which is bad for you. My question is does anyone have any info on nutrition numbers on wild vs. farmed Tilapia?

I mean doesn't it all go back to what you feed them?

I don't know that's why I'm asking

From what I remember there was research suggesting eating Tilapia was like eating bacon, due to the high Omega 6, but then I read other research claiming to disprove this and saying Tilapia was fine.

It depends on what you want to believe,If you look on the internet you will find what you want .While some say they are terrible ,if you read on some will say they are very low in fat compared to other fish.Some will say they taste horrible and are full of bones but all I can say to that is that they have never tried one.I would prefer them to trout and the bones are quite big and don't get stuck between your teeth like trout bones do.I was in the US recently and had quite a few tilapia meals.

I agree totally with dbird. Since I got to the Philippines in June I've eaten a lot of tilapia, and it is a delicious fish. I hate bony fish, but apart from the ribs, the backbone, the area around the pectoral fins, and the bones associated with the dorsal and anal fins, they are bone free. The ribs are large bones, not at all fiddly. If you fillet a tilapia and remove the ribs, you will have completely boneless fillets.

About the only thing I would add is that being a freshwater fish I would not use it for making any raw fish dishes such as sushi or cerviche. The risk of freshwater parasites may be low, but it does exist, and some of the freshwater parasites are pretty nasty. Cooking eliminates the risk.

Cheers,
Russ

From my research on exactly that same issue regarding omega 6 levels, it comes down to this...
Using Pellets only when feeding, omega 6 levels increase if the pellets has a high Maize content.
By including Duckweed, spinach, moringa leaves, kikuyu grass and other greens in their diet on a regular basis (ie 3-4 times a week), the levels balance out again.
If you are able to keep them on a mostly Greens diet, the Omega 3 levels get to a high enough level that the possible risks linked to O-6 is counter acted, and Tilapia becomes an ever better fish of choice on your menu
Last thought.... Tilapia Rendalli are the guys that are herbivorous, preferring above mentioned greens
HTH

Also, you can feed tilapia cracked flax in home made pellets, or grow flax sprouts like chia, and that will increase the omega 3s.

Thank you... I will look into that. I haven't ventured into homemade pellets yet, any good starting points you could share please for Rendalli diets?

Oh man, I haven't even gotten my system running yet, and I'm mainly looking at live foods for my fish, but there's a lot of info out there, this site, koiphen, and the planted tank are the three I've found the most useful overall. You could also just Google "diy herbivorous fish pellets" and see what comes up. The aquarium hobby is huge, so you'll at least have a starting point.

But you seem to at least have a good idea of what stuff causes problems. The next step is getting the fish to eat the good stuff, eh? There is a flax cereal I got as a sample that looks just like the koi pellets you see all over and my goldfish seem to love it, for whatever reason.