These hatcheries also started spawning tilapia in earthen ponds using the methods described The first private tilapia hatchery started operation in 1992, increasing to seven by 1996 and reaching
135 licensed and an unknown number of unlicensed hatcheries by
2010 Mapping by the Improving Employment and Incomes through Development of Egypt's Aquaculture Sector (IEIDEAS) project in 2012 suggested that there are around 440 tilapia hatcheries in Egypt Most use hapa-based production systemsin earthen ponds using the
methods developed in South East Asia for commercial production of
Nile tilapia fry and fingerlings Hapas in ponds are cheap to construct and more convenient to manage in commercial tilapia hatcheries A range of hapa sizes are used; in Egypt, they are typically 7m× 3m× 1mwhereas reported the use of larger nylon hapas (24 m × 5 m) suspended in fertilized ponds for tilapia spawning in Thailand.