Coptodon zillii ( Gervais, 1848 )

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

Coptodon zillii ( Gervais, 1848) [I]—Redbelly tilapia

Taxonomy. Original description: Acerina zillii Gervais, 1848: 203 [Artesian well, Tuggurth, Algeria (North Africa); syntypes: MNHN (lost)].— Iraq synonyms: Tilapia zillii ( Gervais, 1848) .—Revisions: None.—Illustration: Krupp & Schneider (1989: 400, fig. 52); Esmaeili (2021: 309, fig. 17.13).

Status in Iraq. First record from Iraq by Saleh (2007) (Tigris River); Al-Saadi et al. (2012) (Euphrates River); confirmed by confirmed by Al-Faisal et al. (2014); Jawad et al. (2018) (Shatt al-Arab River).—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: Shatt al-Arab River.—General distribution: North Africa: Morocco east to Egypt, south to Nigeria and Central African Republic; Middle East: Syria south to Israel and Jordan. Introduced elsewhere.—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).