Tilapia individuals were reared in a fish farm in Singapore. Three
hundred and sixty-nine individuals of hybrid tilapia from crossing
Mozambique tilapia and red tilapia at the age of 75 days postehatch
(dph) with an average body weight of 25.00 ± 2.68 g were
used in this study. The fishes were transferred to a 500-L large tank
located in the animal house of our institute three weeks before the
commencement of the experiment. The fishes were fed twice daily
with commercial pellet feed (Biomar, Nersac, France). All handling
of fish was conducted in accordance with the guidelines on the care
and use of animals for scientific purposes set up by the Institutional
Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of the Temasek Life Sciences
Laboratory, Singapore. The IACUC has specially approved this
study within the project “Breeding of Tilapia” (approval number
TLL (F)-12-004).