OProduction of salinity tolerant Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus through traditional and modern breeding methods: 1- Application of interspecific hybridization with blue tilapia, Oreochromis aureus as traditional method

his study was conducted to produce a salinity tolerant Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus through interspecific hybridization with Oreochromis aureus. Growth performance, proximate body composition, feed utilization, body amino acid profile and some reproductive characteristics of the offspring produced under different salinity levels were evaluated. The results revealed that the productive performance traits of (♀ O. niloticus x ♂ O. aureus) and (♀ O. aureus x ♂ O. niloticus) had significant superiority (P≤0.05) in most of these traits at freshwater, 16 ppt and 32 ppt compared to either O. niloticus or O. aureus. Most of the productive performance traits of O. niloticus, (♀ O. niloticus x ♂ O. aureus) and (♀ O. aureus x O. niloticus ♂) had significantly decreased (P≤0.05) with increasing salinity levels. Moreover, O. aureus showed more salinity tolerance and significant superiority (P≤0.05) of feed utilization and survival rate at salinity level of 32 ppt compared with the other genotypes of fish at the same salinity level.