Oreochromis niloticus ( Linnaeus, 1758 )

Çiçek, Erdoğan, Jawad, Laith, Eagderi, Soheil, Esmaeili, Hamid Reza, Mouludi-Saleh, Atta, Sungur, Sevil & Fricke, Ronald, 2023, Freshwater fishes of Iraq: a revised and updated annotated checklist- 2023, Zootaxa 5357 (1), pp. 1-49 : 29

Oreochromis niloticus ( Linnaeus, 1758) [I]—Nile tilapia

Taxonomy. Original description: Perca niloticus Linnaeus, 1758: 290 [Nile River; holotype:?NRM LP 10].— Iraq synonyms: Tilapia nilotica ( Linnaeus, 1758); Chromis niloticus ( Linnaeus, 1758) .—Revisions: None.— Illustration: Teugels & Thys van den Audenaerde in Lévêque et al. (1992: 760, fig.); Esmaeili et al. (2022b: 490, fig. 46).

Status in Iraq. First record from Iraq by Al-Faisal & Mutlak (2014); confirmed by Mohamed and Al-Wan (2020) — Iraq materials: Fish Collection of the Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources, College of Agriculture, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq; Fish collection at the Marine Science Centre, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq.

Distribution and habitat. Distribution in Iraq: Euphrates River.—General distribution: North Africa and East Africa. Widely introduced elsewhere.—Habitat: Habitat: This species inhabits a very wide range of flowing water habitats, from fast-flowing headwaters and reservoirs to polluted canals and large lowland rivers. It is the most environmentally tolerant of all tilapia species, tolerating lack of oxygen, pollution, salinity, etc. Low water temperature (below 10–13 oC) is restricted for distribution. Freshwater, brackish.

Economic importance. Commercially important.

Reasons of introduction. Aquaculture/research.

Conservation. Not relevant (introduced species).