It was reported that very few stunted females
(2–3/week) spawned during the period of first 3 weeks.
This showed that onset of maturation and/or spawning in
most femaleswas delayed through stunting. Spawning was
regular only fromthe 4thweek of stocking indicating that it
regained through adequate feeding subsequently. More
importantly, egg productivity (per spawn) of stunted Nile
tilapia females can be boosted by increasing subsequent
feeding. Results of the present study; therefore, supported
the concept of stunting as a reversible (phenotypic) process
not only for growth (Björnsson et al., 1989) but also true
for reproduction. Similar to the compensatory growth
(Björnsson et al., 1989; Dan and Little, 2000a; Takagi,
2001), present study revealed that Nile tilapia also showed
compensatory reproductive performance. Therefore, in
tilapia, delayed sexual maturation together with feeding
strategy could be useful for commercial hatcheries to
synchronize seed production with the market demand for
fry.