Tilapia
Ecological agent

Tilapia serve as a natural, biological control for most aquatic plant problems. They consume floating aquatic plants, such as duckweed watermeal (Lemna spp.), most "undesirable" submerged plants, and most forms of algae. In the United States and countries such as Thailand, they are becoming the plant-control method of choice, reducing or eliminating the use of toxic chemicals and heavy metal-based algaecides. However, their environmental impact as an invasive species may outweigh their ecological benefit. Their tolerance for a wide range of environmental conditions allow them to thrive in polluted or otherwise degraded aquatic habitats.

They are used for zoo ponds as a source of food for birds.

Tilapia can be farmed with shrimp in a symbiotic manner, positively enhancing the productive output of both.

Arkansas stocks many public ponds and lakes to help with vegetation control, favoring tilapia as a robust forage species and for anglers.

In Kenya, tilapia help control mosquitoes, which carry malaria parasites. They consume mosquito larvae, which reduces the numbers of adult females, the disease's vector.
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