During the 1980s, however, some consequences of the lack of attention to tilapia genetics were beginning to emerge. In the Philippines, for example, disappointing tilapia harvests were attributed largely to inbreeding and to accidental hybridization with O. mossambicus that had become established in adjacent waters.
The period from the 1960s to the 1980s represented about 40 tilapia generations of missed opportunity for genetic improvement.