Spotted tilapia (Pelmatolapia mariae) is a freshwater, brackish species recorded in the United States.
Scientific name: Pelmatolapia mariae · Water: Freshwater, Brackish
Size: up to 32.3 cm
The spotted tilapia is a demersal cichlid of still or flowing waters in rocky or mud-bottomed areas, occurring in warm springs and in mud-bottomed to sand-bottomed canals. It clearly prefers a herbivorous diet of algae, higher plants and parts of cassava, but also takes insects and shrimps along with their eggs, and it consumes plant matter. It reaches sexual maturity at 10 to 15 cm; the parents prepare a nest site on logs, leaves and other debris, and the 600 to 3,300 eggs per female are guarded by the parents and hatch in one to three days, with the larvae needing a further six to eight days to develop before they can swim freely and parental care continuing until the fish are about 2.5 to 3 cm. Maximum length is about 32 cm standard length, commonly about 18 cm. It is a gamefish and a commercial aquarium fish. Fishing vulnerability is low to moderate at 28 of 100 and resilience medium. IUCN lists it as least concern.
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